How Cuphead's Bosses (Try to) Kill You

[@NathanScott]

I also love the voice acting in Cuphead. It's sparse, but stuff like the "Knockout!" when you defeat a boss is so satisfying.

[@Index154]

This match will get red hot! A brawl is surely brewing! You're up!

[@mandyg4144]

A good day for a swell battle! Now go!

[@dalemonshateu6948]

Nathan Scott And when you clear a level the satisfying voice clip that sounds like it says cuphead and mugman at the same time

[@jjrambles683]

The weird gibberish the bosses say sometimes is also really fun for some reason but I don't know why

[@superdoofus]

a great slam and then some! it's on!

[@Lukeormaybenath]

In animation, this is called antecipation :) and this is actually what I like the most about any boss fight in any game. It feels fair when you get a glimpse of what's coming towards you.

[@sgetti845]

No need for “try to” they were pretty successful

[@dragonispurple6075]

Yep I've died like over 600 times(i checked by interacting with the well person (or whatever they are)

[@christophergyamfi7550]

Now this is why I love this game, the bosses test you on your memory, reactions, and skills in order to overcome them, they last long enough to leave an impact on you, they keep you on your toes in different ways, and the game gives you infinite chances to come back to what to do better when restarting the level.

[@BigBossD4wg]

I just discovered your channel yesterday, had to binge them all :D You're a great KZbinr Mark, keep up the quality, keep up the good work.

[@charliefazzari6389]

Knives&Snipes I've never seen a more respectful comment section 😂

[@peppy619]

Welcome to the group of followers!

[@LyssTheCorgi]

D4wg? You're here? Hello! Love ur channel!

[@danielbuch1301]

just bought cuphead today and played it with my roommate for 4 hours straight. we noticed the same things as mark in this video (just not as elaborate of course ;) the fights are hard, but it always feels like you made the mistake and not the game screw you over. afterwards you think to yourself: that was wrong but next time i'm gonna do it better. and once you beat the level, it feels earned and deserved

[@chamwow168]

“Your current position is about to become, deadly,” great line

[@RucaDoo]

Ik I’m late, but that sounds like something GLaDOS would say before dropping a ton of turrets on top of you.

[@nonlegend]

Guessing Mark was a graphic designer before he started GMTK.

[@youreallinsane]

uh, what? What makes you guess that?

[@doom5895]

I've been waiting for you starfox

[@highestsettings]

youreallinsane The fact that this is all presented like a really well done infographic is probably why. It's very clean and well designed. All the information is presented in an extremely readable and appealing way. But I'm pretty sure Mark was a games journalist before this, I could be wrong though. I'm guessing graphic design was a hobby of his.

[@KyleHarmieson]

+youreallinsane Probably the cool effects, like singling out the bosses on a white background, "drawing" on the screen, and so on.

[@OtakuUnitedStudio]

I love how the other games at the beginning fit the music so well, especially that skeleton boss.

[@NightOfTheLiving8bit]

Another fantastic video that reminds me how much ingenuity, complexity and creatively is used when making (good) games. It also fuels my rage with these ‘copy and paste’ games out there, that have barely any coding experience, and rely solely on the game engine they’re using to make their game, while rarely going beyond the limits of the engines front facing utilities.

[@samuelstephens6904]

I actually much prefer games that are built around a consistent design space with a set of gameplay elements and rules rather than games like _Cuphead_ which are pretty much 'whatever' moment-to-moment. It's why the _Halo_ games are such good FPSs. You've got your your weapons and grenades, your Elites and Grunts, your vehicles, and all these cool dynamics and interplay between them (e.g. hijacking), and then you build interesting set-pieces just by mixing and matching these things in various ways. _Cuphead_ doesn't really have any depth like that. The bosses do their own thing, unique as they may look and act from each other, and the player just avoids their attacks. No dynamics. No interplay. No reactivity. Just hold the fire button and avoid. The bosses look great, but man, if only the actual challange on display was as expressive as their animations.

[@PaddyMcMe]

1:55 Those yellow circles that surround the boss' attacks are a brilliant way of understanding the game's attack systems. I wish that was included as a training feature or something. For a lot of us with only a low amount of skill in these kinds of games understanding even just understanding a few of the boss' attacks would be an immense help.

[@TheVacras]

The amount of high quality content you keep putting out is crazy! Keep it up Mark :)

[@TheMightySilverback_]

This may be my favourite video of yours yet, honestly Mark you're a great creator.

[@naonna1]

after your xcom discussion, I'd advise looking at Atlas Reactor's game mechanics. It's multiplayer turn-based, but all moves resolve at the same time, in stages.

[@EnerieEffex]

Brilliant video. I think it's also worth mentioning how the bosses offer pink assets for you to parry in order to charge your special. Those who can pull off such parry's in the heat of the action are rewarded with a shorter battle (so long as they effectively use specials). Especially useful if you've learnt an early phase, but find a later phase particularly difficult.

[@Artsificial]

It's hard to put into words how much I love this game.

[@myellumayog1977]

"And can't recover any hitpoints during the fight." Super II and King Dice: *That's where you're wrong, buddy.*

[@myellumayog1977]

@@Heckkin it revives you

[@pedroscoponi4905]

Oh, man, the rest of these videos on boss fights can't come soon enough. This was so good.

[@ArceusDX]

No mention of Alien Soldier? That was the game they were trying to beat in the number of boss battles in a run n gun :P

[@gir2195]

ArceusDX mentioning Gunstar is pretty much taking you there.

[@retrosoul8770]

Genesis masterpiece, arguably best game in library and Top 3 16-bit title but no US physical release because Sega= incredibly stupid during 90s

[@shards-of-glass-man]

VISUALSHOCK! SPEEDSHOCK! SOUNDSHOCK! NOW IS TIME TO THE 68000 HEART ON FIRE!

[@saynotop2w]

AS has different gameplay because of ammo management.

[@HayTatsuko]

This is a brilliant dissection of another element -- besides the artwork, humor, and great music -- that makes Cuphead an awesome game. Thanks!

[@MatthiasSchlaipfer]

Cuphead's boss fights reminded me of WoW's raid bosses a lot in the way you learn them, the phases and randomness.

[@matty6866]

Always have to have that obligatory Hollow Knight clip! ;) just a mastaapieceeee

[@cogigo]

Hollow Knight clips have to be in every video. Gosh I´m so excited for the Grim Troupe DLC next week. YES!

[@matty6866]

Me too, I can't wait!

[@Verhosander]

Great video! It actually made me realise how much I enjoyed the fight with von Bonbon (which to my shame took me a lot longer than it should have)! Thanks for the sensible ideas =)

[@MrSynesthesia]

"There's this *hateful* pattern." You said it, MB, you said it... That goddamn fishboat...

[@_zurr]

If you haven't already checked it out, a good source for the influence of music in games is Game Score Fanfare. The videos are very high quality, and I actually cried watching the one about Bravely Default's music (for the final boss) despite never having played the game.

[@zzcorrode]

I think that Little Horn in Super Meat Boy was designed intentionally to be the same every time because it fits the rest of Super Meat Boy. Every level in the game plays out exactly the same way every time, to the point where you could probably beat the whole game blindfolded. It's purely an exercise in execution, as opposed to this which requires reacting to telegraphs and randomness.

[@TheLanCave]

I love the artwork that you can't even notice while you're playing (cause if you get distracted, you die).

[@fryingpanda9103]

I get ptsd every time you show that dragon on screen

[@themoviereviewwarriors939]

I loved fighting that dragon. One of my favorite boss in the game

[@notoriouswhitemoth]

I've wanted something like this for a long time! Videos like this are why I love this series.

[@James.Stark.Ben.Edition]

"... Amazing knowledge of the game's mechanics." *shows bell gargoyles* Lol, every newbie died there quite a lot.

[@PROShineKITO]

The environment boss rush they create is really creative, you past the time repeating same action (defeat bosses) and you never get tired. Incredible game that other games should learn, from indie to most complicated sandbox. Thanks markbrow so detailed with not spoiled information. Regards

[@Sedmc4]

You know you are a successful youtuber just by seeing how friendly and nice the people in the comments section are i feel so lucky for watching the dan reccommends video by extra credits and getting introduced to your channel keep up the good work :D

[@hyper-thermal]

Excellent video! Can't wait for other videos about boss fights

[@krishnaisraney]

A nice throwback to some of my favorite childhood games - Adventures of Batman and Robin and Contra Hard Corps. I should buy Cuphead soon...

[@AgentWuT]

3 years later and the bosses are still a knockout

[@sundrythis]

THEY ARE PUFFERFISH, MARK.

[@Crystal_959]

I really appreciate how every boss in Cuphead feels unique

[@IamYasha10]

I still haven't finished the game. Very creative and challenging. I keep dying in every short portions of the level but it gave me new knowledge or patterns to anticipate next time around. So yeah as long as you'll get use to the patterns and anticipate those random encounters the game gives, you'll eventually get to the finish line.

[@Judoflipp]

Great job with this video! I felt the final phase of Dr Kahl's robot was a huge letdown because of how tediously long they made a single phase. I don't recall any other boss segment like this one, I liked the pacing for this fight until the last part. Fighting the robot you had so many things to think about, fighting Kahl is just dodging his single (although difficult) attack and shooting for over half the fight. I just feel there should have been 1 more phase there.

[@remem95]

I'd argue that “Memory, reaction and skill“ is a bit misleading, wording wise. Memory and reaction are also skills (if they weren't, there wouldn't be a challenge to master these aspects of the game) I guess what would describe the last point better is “control“ or “dexterity“.

[@Jolgeable]

I didn't know the word dexterity (still learning english, I had to search for it hahaha). Thanks! =)

[@kevinfrazier1692]

Mark Brown, you explain why games are important on a scale that is beyond my current understanding. My goal is to be a game dev one day and these videos are amazing for that. Thank you😅

[@princessthyemis]

This is so cool! I can't wait to hear you talk about this topic some more--like you said, how the player kills the bosses rather than how the bosses kill you! Buildup and payoff! Can't wait!!!

[@frei2304]

i love how everything i feel when i played the first world with my older brother you could describe it with words. that's something to be praise and be jealous about.

[@toggotoggo]

It's the first time I hear about this game, and the bosses immediately reminded me of the first Rayman's (the one on PS1) bosses . I loved that game and I would maybe love this one as well

[@camusreviews6877]

Cuphead also has a lot of influence from Megaman and it has a lot of references to older fighting games (the frogs represent Ryu and Ken, and the charge attack for the peashooter is a hadoken reference for example)

[@prasonia1]

Have you tried "STEPHEN'S SAUSAGE ROLL "? That game might just blow your mind with the amount of depth it offers in it's gameplay mechanics which are rather very simplistic.

[@robinsintherain3419]

Great video my friend, i can see the effort you put in every second. cant wait to see more!

[@policesquad]

This video is terrible. Well done, you figured out the basics of side-scrolling shooters. How insightful.

[@leonhartdragomir8948]

I know, right? You just summarized my multi-paragraph rant in three sentences. I don't regret the rant, though. It was therapeutic.

[@skylasandoodles]

I love how in the end he shows his patreons and it's just three long blocks of text :)

[@spoongebubbles9380]

4:37 Pretty sure that's a dolphin

[@lens_of_truth]

You didn't mention Metal Slug! But Contra and Gunstar Heroes are good, too. I think bosses in general from the 16-bit era follow these ideas. One that jumps to mind is Dynamite Headdy. Some of those bosses are just crazy.

[@Cursingbow]

How Cuphead's bosses -try to- do kill you

[@skeletondude9053]

“..giant rock candy wheels...” 7:52 wait.. aren’t those peppermints?

[@nathanielwash940]

One of the best channels on KZbin

[@rogerfoster8020]

I am loving your series of the game makers toolkit its fun to watch and extremely creative how you look at games beyond their surface. Was wondering you would look into doing a more traditional JRPG type game in a future video. Would love to see your take on a game that really become innovative a did something new and creative in this genre.

[@cestmika6824]

It's been a time since I played Towerfall Ascension and the DLC Dark World but this video really reminded me of them. Next time I play them I want to observe if they use any of these game design aspects.

[@josiahvock5675]

Now I’ve been loving cuphead so far but I’ve been playing it through on my first run going for A ranks and above and Pacifist runs in the run and gun levels. While most of the bosses as you said telegraph their attacks well and they’re predictable patterns, others have a lot of RNG behind their attacks. For example on the Queen Bee boss, the attacks themselves are all quite fair and easy to dodge if you spot the attack quickly enough, the issue is the platforms you need to stand on are random and I ran into quite a lot of times where I simply had no platform to jump to on the side of the screen I was on and simply had to take the hit. The dragon boss was fine up until those little fires which don’t have a regular timing to their jumps, don’t have a pre set jump arc, or jump height and may or may not jump at you or away from you depending on how the boss is feeling at that moment in time. The Baroness you talked about is mostly extremely solid but the jelly bean soldiers appear at random without any particular timing leading to you dodging an attack from one side and then getting hit by a jelly bean which wasn’t telegraphed and you had no way of knowing was about to appear. And finally the bird boss, if you want to kill it under the 2 minutes it’s pure luck whether or not you’ll be able to do so because of how he moves at random in his final form sometimes leading to you literally being unable to dodge whatsoever because of how small a space you have. TL:DR The flaws in the boss patterns show when you’re a masochist like me and attempt to get all A ranks and RNG has no place in a boss battle.

[@randomguy6679]

Josiah Vock tell that to dark souls

[@knighteix]

ITS A BARREL NOT A CHEST

[@AwesumBear]

I've never played this game, but it does make me wonder how game developers ramp up the difficulty in 2D sidescrollers without making the game a bullet hell game. It's definitely difficult to balance a game that doesn't rely on having an essentially soft-timer (the minimum being locked by how much damage you can do per second) without also feeling easy enough to cheese. I can't really think of any games where the final boss can be defeated in one hit (without the player somehow farming to increase their damage) due to skill. I guess that probably wouldn't be fun, but the video did remind me that bosses these days are formulaic and that there are usually multiple stages where the attack patterns change. That isn't to say that those kinds of games aren't fun, but I'd definitely like to see something that also strays from the formula. Innovation is important to the game industry!

[@ElectroGun163]

We can confirm that one of Bon Bon's Mini-bosses, the waffle, is a waffle because it has butter on its head. Butter on chocolate is strange.

[@thedemonunderyourbed3587]

Every boss has little difference with health. They all have almost the exact same. It’s just their strength/attack patterns that differ. Hence the reason why all grades with every boss in time range between at least a 5 second difference in times

[@JaceCavacini]

This is the coolest-looking, most brilliantly-designed game that I DON’T EVER want to play. I don’t know how people can handle this stuff. Even when I was a kid/teen, I couldn’t play twitch reflex games. This one in particular, is so visually busy AND interesting to look at that I can’t keep my eyes on the player character even when I’m comfortably sitting here watching this video.

[@uddhavsrivilasan8460]

"That's all there is, there isn't any more."

[@PCNebula]

I don't know about the trying part, but they did that very successfully

[@CorvusnTel]

Can’t wait for the music episode!

[@ruffles414]

Loving the more frequent uploads!

[@MamutaPWIP]

The only exception for insane high quality run and gun bosses is Mega Man. Not saying they are bad, just simple.

[@zyourzgrandzmaz]

the fact hey made cuphead so disgustingly hard killed their company. good job.

[@HE360]

I think playing this game might be something like Megaman. I beat Megaman's 1-6 and I'd to try this out.

[@bugjams]

If you’re gonna talk boss fights again, it’d be really cool if you could mention the Mario RPG bosses. I mean from all the Mario RPG games. They’re a lot like Cuphead’s bosses in the sense you really just have to focus on dodging, but they often incorporate a new way you have to attack them. For instance, in Bowser’s Inside Story, there’s a virus boss who’s made up of red and green cells. Green cells can only be hit by Luigi, and the red by Mario. You can beat the boss by just attacking the right cells, but the best way to do it is to make all the cells the same color - as they switch color when you deal damage. I believe matching them all up makes the boss vulnerable to both bros’ attacks. Honestly, Bowser’s Inside Story had some of the best bosses in any Mario RPG if you ask me.

[@justahare8612]

Cup head is fun the first time you play through, learning the patterns and beating the bosses make you feel good. But when you get good at it you don’t feel accomplishment.

[@fivemeomedia]

why do i feel like your the only person who understands the video game medium

[@darthvader2994]

you forgot about how that meduca boss's petrifying attack is bs since you can't dodge it and it sticks you in place for about 5 seconds

[@rafaelcomonfort6524]

Sadly not all attacks get telegraphed, so Cuphead has some unfair damage once in a while. I'm talking about the moon Boss lady that will fire a spinning orb of light or something, which then starts firing in one direction. However, this is completely random and there is no indication of what it will be, you get hit if you happen to be at the position where it starts firing

[@Luxai]

Bosses have a bit of RNG to them, meaning that is you're unlucky, the patterns of the attacks may align to create a near impossible scenario to escape from. This even sacks speedrunners sometimes. That's the one bit I feel could be ironed out.

[@mrpenguin4350]

4:38 you might need to avoid these sea urchins Pufferfish: *am I a joke to you?*

[@AbbreviatedReviews]

I guess I never noticed the that Balloon boss's horse color change since I'm colorblind... I had a hell of a time with that one.

[@Oyikell]

Hello Mr. Mark. I've been watching your channel some time ago and I love it. Some of your videos gave me the right push to chase my dream, which is to create my own videogame. Interesting... This video gave me the excuse to try Cuphead and analyze it so I can learn a lot more about designing Videogames(Thank you for that). Btw, I don't know if it's possible, but in the future can you make a video about the Hack'n Slash genre?. Here is my reason why, a lot us know that Ninja Gaiden Black(for Xbox) was a huge success in that category. By that time, it was considered the best action game (for the Xbox). Now, when the third installment came out, from my perspective(and from the perspective of others around the world), it was disappointing. My question would be: What can Ninja Gaiden 3 learn from titles like Devil May Cry 3 and Bayonetta?(Both examples considered legends of the Action/Hack'n Slash Genre). Thank you, and please keep it up with these videos.

[@BoHorror]

Thank you Mark Brown for the video, beggars can't be choosers but wish there was a correlation with far cry 2s difficulty

[@gwenxel4434]

Thanks so much for making this!

[@SignasLupus]

Good video but you missed the main factor that makes Cuphead hard, the random speed of the patterns, so you need to adapt on the fly. That's something interesting that I don't remember any game that use this. For me, this made the experience very unique.

[@FaustoFonseca]

Great videos!! I'm impressed! Good work!

[@efremzero7]

Great! Want more of these about bosses :D

[@Manarinni]

Nice narration and text. Congrats

[@raymondv.m4230]

I feel titan souls needs a video regarding this if you have not played it yet, or perhaps enter the gungeon. I wouldn't consider these amazing bosses but some of them just get it right I feel.

[@MR3DDev]

I see the problem now. If there is a game when you have to actively learn something, is instantly marked as hard. Darksouls, Cuphead, Crash Bandicoot, they are all about learning the pattern, so there is no inherent difficulty because is not artifically inflated like most games today, which hard boss means +1M hp

[@rebelutionarygaming8875]

Your channel is like my detox, when I've seen too much bad content elsewhere.

[@0K.Y0H]

I love the fact that Cala Maria eat pirates and throw their souls into your face.

[@s4ka3_]

Wow... I played this game last year at the age of 12 and I don't even know if I can play it again... (I died +800 times)

[@Doctor_Straing_Strange]

GMT: "How cuphead bosses try to kill you" Videogame bosses: "that's... why I'm here"

[@TheEkillo]

Goog work, as always. Keep it up :)

[@DCice13]

The cats explode into smaller cats, the chocolate is suppose to be a waffle. But amazing video!

[@RegularChimp]

you should definitely do a GMT on fighting games

[@sawrig]

Another awesome vid Mark! I'd love to see you cover Divinity Original Sin 2 because I've found while playing it to be a really innovative RPG. Keep up the good work :)

[@thememeking4847]

2:16 this attack may look slow but it’s one of the most obnoxious attacks in the game

[@sskenth]

Great video! Did you ever do a follow up on Boss battles? I cant seem to find one.... If you haven't I'd love to see it :)

[@GMTK]

Not yet!

[@alqaadi9858]

a series on boss fight !, exactly what i wanted before my next game

[@artset3052]

4:39 Sea urchins Edit 4:52 Falling treasure chest

[@shadowgarra360]

when someone asks "how are you so good at cuphead?" and all you can do is point to contra and Metal Slug (good times, good times)

[@TheAverageGamingNerd]

I completed this game before few months but now when I think to make a tutorial I'm afraid I lost my muscle memory and will lose every time😭😂(my current emotions cant be explained)