Obvious Beta: Upon the game's release, one of the biggest things people noticed was just how unfinished the game looked and felt - a lot of areas lacked polish, the sound design was very poor (there were literally no sound effects during boss fights except your character's magic) and some of the levels felt like they were never play tested.By comparison, Cuphead offers much more content for the same price. It's Short, So It Sucks!: The game can easily be beaten in under an hour, and there are no bonuses to go back and find or ranking systems to encourage replaying the levels or bosses for a higher score.In the trailer, when he does so, it has a visible beam of light coming off of it this is missing in the finished version, which many find baffling as it makes it look like his mirror is just randomly firing off waves. Also in the Rocky fight, he uses an attack in his first phase where he bounces light off of his hand mirror. Some players wish this version of the fight had made it into the final game, finding it more interesting and cohesive than the Fountain of Time concept that the fight ended up going with. Fan-Preferred Cut Content: The boss fight with Rocky Rooster had a different premise earlier in development, taking place at the Fountain of Youth, and each phase would have Rocky gradually get younger.Many players wish his fight could have been realized as a full-length boss battle complete with multiple phases. Ensemble Dark Horse: The Conductor is widely regarded as one of the coolest bosses in the game for having a unique concept where his attacks are in tune to the music, with sound effects to match. ![]() You just have to aim up and shoot until the boss goes down. It's a tree, which is a massive, immobile target with no hitbox, and the projectiles of which can be avoided reliably, as they only come from above as well. Breather Boss: The second phase of the final boss is considerably easier than the phases surrounding it.Once the octopus is beaten, it disappears from the fight completely and the third phase pits you against Haarmit once again, with the octopus never appearing again until the Final Boss. Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Haarmit's second phase isn't against him, but an octopus.It's no The Last Hope-tier mockbuster, so why has it always been treated like it is? Even if the game's not great, the effort and passion behind it is clearly on display. Nothing groundbreaking and often frustrating, but not on the level of an entirely bad game. ![]() So Enchanted Portals is pretty much the definition of a mid-tier indie game. Ironically, if Enchanted Portals was more like Cuphead and cut most of its run-and-gun stages (especially the matrix level), it'd be greatly improved. They could do with being just a bit more exciting, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't having fun. It's a basic game of moving away from falling tiles whilst a disco beat played, but I enjoyed the goofy animations and reprieve from a hectic first phase (not to mention how said beat is now stuck in my head). ![]() Boss 2 is particularly good with this, introducing a short non-combat snippet to the fight, as a cow DJs on a space station, while a couple of his disco-dancing pals flank him on either side. Not only do they not outstay their welcome like the run-and-gun parts, but they actually keep things fresh throughout. Sure, it's undoubtedly derivative, but is that really such a bad thing? I mean, I just reviewed a Bloodborne-derivative game, and really enjoyed it! When it's not something that could be called a mockbuster (I don't think anyone in the market for Cuphead will get the two mixed up), the rage around the title's seems overblown. In fairness, the game has a lot of rough spots-from a lack of invincibility frames after getting hit to some poor level design-but it has its better moments too. Well, after four years Xixo Games Studios has finally released Enchanted Portals, and the press has been, well, pretty bad. Not only does the game carry a more-or-less similar rubberhose cartoon style to Cuphead but this first trailer featured nothing but bosses fought in the exact same way as Cuphead's. ![]() Being such a runaway hit, there were bound to be imitators sooner or later, chief among them Enchanted Portals, an indie title that had viewers up in arms with its 2019 trailer. Cuphead is one of my favorite games of all time, paying homage to a cartoon style I love whilst being a damn good game on top of it.
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