Cuphead

Cuphead (Red) and Mugman (Blue) appear to have some sort of illness, they probably contracted the cuprona virus.

Cuphead is an obscure 1938 cartoon that was remade as a 2017 video game created by not only the Moldenhauer brothers, but their entire family, close friends, and silverware.

Story

Two brothers called Cuphead and Mugman, with breakable cups for heads, ask their grandfather, an anthropomorphic teapot, to play with them. The grandfather told them to go chase their shadows or find someone else to play with. The grandfather proceeds to fall asleep, fall down, and break into a million pieces. The two brothers run around and chase each other in the forest until they come across a casino. A tall man with a dice for a head with snake eyes named King Dice told them to come in and have fun! The two brothers ran around the casino knocking over tables, chairs, and slot machines. An angry voice shouted expletives and told the brothers to come into his room or he would crack their cupheads. The brothers entered the room and found the angry fellow to be the devil himself. The devil told the brothers that he would take their souls because they wrecked his casino. The brothers pleaded to the devil not to take their souls. The devil reconsidered and said if the brothers can kill a list of cartoon characters that angered him, he will not only spare them but revive their dead grandfather. The brothers agreed and set off on the quest to kill the devil’s enemies.

Gameplay

In the game, the two brothers Cuphead and Mugman can jump, dash, and shoot plasma from their index fingers. They can equip two shots of their choosing, one super-art, and one charm.

Shooters

• Peashooter: Makes cuphead shoot lots of peas, just like a peashooter plant.

• Chaser: Shoots tiny stars that home-in and attack enemies. They have a bad habit of determining what your enemies are so be careful if you see a green star coming your way.

• Spread: Shoots a burst of 5 spiked bullets at a time, only good when very close to cuphead’s enemy, should be asked for a hug before shooting.

• Lobber: Shoots high-damaging lard balls at a slow rate that bounce 3 times before popping, they also taste great.

• Charge: Cuphead must charge his shots before firing. Hold down the fire key and when you hear an oven timer you know that the shot is charged and you can proceed to shoot. Deals the most damage out of any shot.

• Converge: Shoots powerful laser beams that pierce through everything, even your own computer monitor.

• Roundabout: Shoots sentient discs that will come back and attack cuphead like a boomerang.

• Crackshot: Shot makes a large cracking sound halfway through releasing a tiny bullet bill that homes in on an enemy.

• Twist-Up: Shoots acidic water droplets in an arched pathway. Those droplets are so evil, they are evaporating on purpose to form acid clouds and rain down acid.

Super-arts

• Energy Beam: Cuphead tilts his head toward the enemy and sprays his liquid onto an enemy, dealing devastating damage. That liquid in his cuphead is his soul by the way.

• Invincibility: Eat a ton of golden crackers and gain the power of invincibility temporarily.

• Ghosts: Summon the ghosts of Cuphead’s many dead ancestors to fight enemies (How do cups have offspring?)

Charms

• Heart: Cuphead becomes stronger and gains another life, but does 5% less damage, despite becoming stronger.

• Twin Heart: Cuphead takes an illegal drug, becoming weaker but at least he gains two lives, dealing 10% less damage.

• P. Sugar: Cuphead has an easier time parrying pink objects, since he now spins faster in the air. It also causes him to get more offers in the mail to become a gymnastic tutor.

• Coffee: Replaces the white liquid in cuphead’s cuphead with coffee; he becomes more awake and moves faster and jumps higher.

• Smoke Bomb: Throws a smoke bomb that covers the entire screen with smoke whenever you dash, protecting you from damage.

• Wheatstone: Replaces cuphead’s straw with a sharp axe, whenever cuphead does a summersalt, enemies beware!

• Heart Ring: For every two times cuphead successfully parries a pink object, he will gain an extra life. He will become Felix the Cat if he successfully gains nine lives.

• Astral Cookie: Replaces cuphead’s cuphead with a chalice. Cuphead can now double jump and dash to do a parry. If cuphead dashes on the ground, he will roll and be rewarded with a doggy treat.

• Cursed Relic: Reduces Cuphead’s lives to 1 so you can restart the game more easily if you die and you have more bragging rights if you're going for an S rank.

Cartoon characters that the devil wants dead

• THE ROOT PACK: An entrepreneur potato, alien onion, ninja radish, and witch carrot refused to be a part of the devil’s soup. The potato spits big dirt balls, the onion cries acid everywhere, the radish attacks you with squash shurikens, and the witch carrot summons ballistic parsnip missiles.

In the Cuphead universe, VeggieTales centers around the vegetables being blasphemous and them fighting Christian zombies.

• GOOPY LE GRANDE: A giant spanish blueberry that joked about the devil. He jumps around everywhere occasionally trying to punch cuphead. When he dies, he summons an army of gravestones of all the blueberries that were eaten.

• HILDA BERG: A pro-athlete runner who peddles on a unicycle that spins a contraption that makes her fly. A strong gust of wind pushed her in the devil's property, she knocked down trees and crashed into his shed and refused to pay for damages. She has an army of high-end military drones protecting her.

• RIBBY AND CROAKS: Two frog pro-boxers who escaped the devil’s zoo. Ribby will run up and try to punch cuphead in the ribs while his brother Croaks will croak up flaming suicide fireflies that attempt to crash into cuphead.

• CAGNEY CARNATION: A pesky flower weed that the devil uprooted from his garden. She can spit seeds that, as soon as they touch the ground, sprout into toothy terrors, piranha-plant wannabes that bite you. She can also summon seed rockets, boomerang seeds, and pollen that makes you sneeze.

• BARONESS VON BON BON: Once a slave cook to the devil, she concocted the perfect castle cake monster that helped her escape. She makes lots of sweet monster treats that attack cuphead, from tiny jellybean soldiers to giant gumball machines that shoot out chewed gum wads.

• BEPPI THE CLOWN: Used to be the devil’s jester, until he squeezed under a door, allowing him to escape. He summons aggressive balloon animals and flying roller coasters with evil people on it, and he rides on a bumper cart trying to bump cuphead.

• DIJIMMI THE GREAT: Granted the devil three wishes and the devil got greedy and demanded more wishes. Dijimmi left the devil in fear of what he could do to him. He can conjure up anything to hurt cuphead, including two Godzillas, making him by far the toughest boss. He is not to be confused with the genie restaurant Jimmy the Greek, which gives you three free food choices.

• WALLY WARBLES: He's a bird living inside a clock house that used to belong to the devil. He flew out an open window to escape. All this bird does is screech loudly, flap his wings so hard that sharp feathers come flying out, and tell you what time it is. He also has a tiny brother inside the clock, planning to say CoohCooh and shoot cuphead with a laser gun.

• GRIM MATCHSTICK: An asteroid-breathing dragon with laser vision. He used to be the devil’s favorite pet, but decided to leave since his cage wasn’t big enough. He freely roams the sky eating airplanes and blimps.

• RUMOR HONEYBOTTOMS: She used to run a beehive in the devil’s garden, making the devil honey. When the bees accidentally collected nectar from a poisonous flower giving the devil poisonous honey, the devil became furious and she had to fly on an airplane to escape him. She currently runs a honey shop heavily guarded by her female elite bee force as the males are subject to mate her.

• CAPTAIN BRINEYBEARD: A pirate that worked for the devil, he raided islands and stole from villages. He had a dispute with the devil when deciding which portion of the stolen goods to give to him, so he decided to take it all and escape on his ship with the help of sharks. He currently pirates alone but he made friends with a lot of sea creatures. He is also infamous for pirating disney movies, often having to escape the copyright holders chasing him down on disney cruise lines with cannons.

• SALLY STAGEPLAY: She acted out various stageplays, dancing with devils, having roses violently thrown at her, it was her life. The devil kept asking her to perform more, and more, and more, and she just couldn’t take it. She escaped the devil by doing her vanishing umbrella-eats-her trick. She now performs at a different stage play with no overtime pay and higher pay.

• WERNER WERMAN: He is a pest to the devil, always raiding his cabinets and using things like empty cans to create tanks so his rat army can advance. During the Werner Werman War 1, the rat lost to a bunch of devils riding jeeps and sheep. He now holds a family hostage, forcing them to buy junk food from the grocery store with the leverage of his army. Rat experts predict WWWII to happen when a cuphead guy will come.

• DR. KAHL’S ROBOT: Used to build many cool gadgets for the devil, from automatic nail clippers to biochemical pistols. He got fired by the devil for building an unimpressive giant robot that was deemed “too weak” without permission. He now plots for ways he can use the robot to destroy the devil, but can it beat a cuphead? Probably not, at least he tried.

• CALA MARIA: Is a mermaid singer that sang songs to the devil. Eventually, the devil got a radio and had no need for a single singer when he could listen to lots of singers, firing the mermaid. Cala Maria currently holds protests with the help of many sea creatures blocking ports that lead to the devil’s property, rapping on how bad the devil is.

Other Bosses

As Cuphead and Mugman became more powerful, they decided that they were ready to take on the devil. They headed to the train station, got on a train, and the train got possessed by mean spirits.

• PHANTOM EXPRESS: The train gets hijacked by an eyeball ghost (throws eyeballs at cuphead), Skeleton conductor (happens to be a kung-fu master), two lollipop ghosts (the only way to defeat them is by licking them), and a giant ghost train (Chases the train cuphead is on, attempting to eat it).

When the train finally arrived at the forest, the two brothers marched to the casino. A bag went over their heads, they have been kidnapped! The kidnapper was King Dice, he pushes them into a secret battle arena in the casino. The brothers must fight whatever comes.

• TIPSY TROOP: 1 cup of beer, 1 glass of wine, and 1 bottle of alcohol. All of them shoot alcoholic liquids at cuphead attempting to drown him.

• CHIPS BETTIGAN: A pile of giant poker chips that crumbles and attempts to fall down on cuphead.

• MR. WHEEZY: A giant cigar that runs at cuphead and attempts to jump into his mouth and give him a woof of nicotine.

• PIP AND DOT: Two former dominos employees that happen to be literal dominos, they run up to cuphead and fall down on him attempting to squash him.

• HOPUS POCUS: A drunk rabbit in a dark tall hat that throws playing card shurikens at cuphead. He occasionally chants spells that do nothing.

• PHEAR LAP: A skeleton horse that rides on a spaceship, dropping down presents from above that contain explosives. He waits for cuphead to open the gifts to receive a nice bomb.

• PIROULETTA: An anthropomorphic roulette wheel that spins like a beyblade attempting to crash into cuphead.

• MANGOSTEEN: A giant floating 8-ball that relies on other enemies in the arena to push him toward cuphead and bash him.

• MR. CHIMES: A toy monkey that bangs the chimes very loudly, creating loud noises to disorient cuphead.

• KING DICE: The final boss in the arena, he summons angry loan sharks with sharp teeth, and runs like a crybaby to the devil to alert him if cuphead defeats the sharks.

Cuphead and Mugman jump atop the defeated challengers to escape the arena. They run after King Dice, eventually catching up to him and tackling him to the ground. King Dice yells for help, as the brothers clock him in the head, causing the die head to die.

The brothers tiptoe into the devil’s office, finding him asleep. The brothers proceed to beat him up, punching his hard furry skin. The brothers do no damage to him, and the devil is still sleeping. Cuphead said to Mugman, “How are we going to kill him?” The devil heard what Cuphead said, grabbed his trident, and prepared for battle.

• THE DEVIL: Summons demon minions that bite and scratch. Attacks cuphead with a sharp trident. The way to defeat him is to kick him in the pancreas.

After defeating the devil, before Cuphead and Mugman kill the devil, they agree to spare his life if he brings back all the cartoon characters that opposed the devil and their grandfather, and that the devil will never try to kill them again with any means necessary. The devil agreed, bringing all of them back to life in this very room. The two brothers hop gleefully out of the room as the cartoon characters proceed to beat the living hell out of the devil.

Downloadable Content

Includes a side-story about the delicious last course.

Story

Cuphead and Mugman go on a boat and explore an island. On that island, they find a cook named Chef Saltbaker, who was crying that no one was visiting his bakery and that he needed special ingredients to concoct the perfect savory dish that will attract many customers. He proceeds to show the brothers a list of outlaws that terrorize the town he lives in, and it just so happens that these dangerous outlaws possess the ingredients needed for his special surprise. The brothers agree to help him, in return, they get a free piece of the special surprise.

Outlaws

• GLUMSTONE THE GIANT: A giant with lots of gnomes protecting him. His ingredient is giant gnome berries, which taste like gnomes.

• MOONSHINE MOB: A criminal gang consisting of insects, arachnids, and anteaters. Their ingredient is wasp flour.

• THE HOWLING ACES: Lots of anthropomorphic dogs consisting of one buff bulldog, four puppies, and a female saluki dog riding on an airplane. Reddit moderators are famous for riding on paper airplanes to the saluki dog plane wanting to take a selfie with her. Their ingredient is gourmet dog food.

• MORTIMER FREEZE: He's a literal Ice King with Ice powers who is not to be confused with the other princess kidnapper Ice King from Adventure Time. As a matter of fact, he is a women's right activist who gives women karate lessons. His ingredient is giant sugar cubes a woman gave to him.

• ESTHER WINCHESTER: A female cow outlaw infamous for robbing banks and eating grass on other’s property. Her ingredient is her own breast milk.

• LOTS OF CHESS PIECES: Consists of an anthropomorphic chess pawn, knight, bishop, rook, queen, and king. They slowly wobble toward Cuphead wanting to knock him over. Their ingredient is chess chocolate.

Yet Other Bosses

After getting all the ingredients, Cuphead and Mugman head back to Chef Saltbaker’s bakery only to find him not there. The two brothers go down a dark basement to hear screams for help and evil laughter. They come across Chef Saltbaker whipping a girl with a chalice for a head, with the Chef demanding her soul. Cuphead and Mugman gasp, causing Chef Saltbaker to say “Actually, I think the recipe calls for three souls.” Cuphead and Mugman now have to fight the Chef.

• CHEF SALTBAKER: He’s a buff strong dude with many dangerous animal crackers backing him up. The only way to defeat him is to give him a heart attack. How do you give him a heart attack? Attack his heart.

After defeating Chef Saltbaker, the chef is arrested and put into a prison for 20 years for cupnapping and attempted murder. The special surprise he was going to make required a soul to do something unknown to the dish. Cuphead and Mugman make friends with the girl, who is named Ms. Chalice.

Cuphead and Chef Saltbaker enjoying cubic meth.

The Cuphead Show

The Cuphead Show is an animated netflix T.V. show based off the events in Cuphead. The show, instead of entertaining the viewer with a playable cartoon character called Cuphead shooting plasma from his fingers, it shows the viewer an unfunny and poorer animated comedy slapstick show with uglier redesigns of all the characters. The show ran for 3 seasons and had a canceled planned crossover with the netflix movie Cuties.

Some concept art for the crossover.