It’s not every day that a challenging boss rush game made in the style of 1930s cartoons gets a trailer. In fact, before today, that isn’t a thing that has ever happened before. Netflix’s upcoming The Cuphead Show, which is based on the beloved game Cuphead, has gotten a two-minute official trailer, finally giving us a good look at what the show will deliver when it hits the service next month. The new show launches ahead of the game’s upcoming DLC, The Delicious Last Course, later this year. I can’t imagine it was easy to cook up an entire show based on a game about careful pattern memorization and split-second reflexes, but it’s great to finally see it come together.
The official trailer starts with Cuphead and his brother Mugman painting a fence, as the former laments his boredom. His solution is for the two of them to go to a nearby carnival known as Carn-evil. What could go wrong? The trailer rapidly cuts between a variety of sequences, showing off lots of quick action and impressive animation that includes much of the game’s cast, including King Dice and, yes, The Devil. While there’s some minor film grain, noise, and digital imperfections in the footage, The Cuphead Show looks much cleaner and less old-timey than the game does.
A dance with the devil
Cuphead, of course, took the gaming world by storm, launching in late 2017 to both critical and player acclaim. The game is a tough-but-fair collection of over-the-top boss battles and side-scrolling, run-and-gun stages that play like Contra but with the aesthetics of a cartoon from the ’30s. Naturally, it turned into an absolutely massive hit and maintains a large fanbase to this day. The Cuphead Show was announced in 2019 and isn’t the franchise’s first venture outside video gaming (or even sideways), as it received the board game treatment last year.
Check out the visually extravagant Cuphead show trailer below, and get ready for its debut on February 18.
