How Cuphead's Bosses (Try to) Kill You | Game Maker's Toolkit

If you take one look at Cuphead, it’s pretty
obvious where the game’s inspirations lie.

This game pays homage to cartoons from the
1930s, like old Disney films and Betty Boop

cartoons, stuff made by Max Fleischer and
Ub Iwerks.

But what you might not realise is that it
also pays a huge debt of influence to run

‘n’ gun video games of the 1990s, like
Contra 3, and Gunstar Heroes.

Especially, their boss fights.

These games made use of the Super FX chip
on the SNES, and all sorts of technical wizardry

on the Mega Drive, to make mind-blowing bosses
that filled every inch of the screen, and

warped and rotated and looked practically
3D at times.

I mean, check out this ridiculous boss battle
against the Mad Hatter from The Adventures

of Batman and Robin.

Or this one from Gunstar Heroes where you
switch between the floor and the ceiling to

fight a giant robot that will randomly transform
into one of seven different designs.

These old boss fights were, essentially, the
template, for Cuphead - which has massive

great villains that are, really, the stars
of the game.

Look at this guy.

Check out this moon!

That frog just turned into a slot machine. What!

But these bosses don’t just look cool.

Like their 16bit predecessors, they’re also
fiercely difficult to overcome, because of

their tricky and varied attacks.

And that’s what I want to explore in this
video.

So let’s just ignore everything else, and
look at how Cuphead’s bosses try to kill you.

So the boss’s attacks are ultimately, about
making you move.

Not just to stop you from standing in one
place and infinitely shooting at the boss,

but to test you on your ability to run, jump,
dash, and parry.

While simultaneously shooting at the enemy, of course.

And to really test you on this, the game has these attacks follow a huge number of different patterns.

Some fly in a straight line.

Others arc across the screen.

There are attacks that bend back on themselves
like a boomerang.

There’s this hateful pattern.

Other projectiles split out in different directions.

You’ve got attacks that move in a zig zag
pattern, and ones that follow an annoying

sine wave.

And others that fire directly at the player’s
current position, or slowly chase you around

for a bit.

Some of those are naturally more difficult
to avoid than others.

And of course, each of these patterns can
be made more or less challenging, by altering

the speed and size of the projectile.

But one thing you’ll come to realise is
that these attacks are - ultimately - predictable.

The dragon’s fireball, for example, can
go up, or down, or both ways at the same time.

And that’s it.

These cats always split into four mice - never
three, never five.

Always four.

And this means that a big part of a boss battle
is just learning about the boss.

Figuring out, and then memorising its patterns.

And these mini self-taught epiphanies stack
up, to the point where you can now predict

and outsmart the boss at every turn - which
feels pretty good after having taken quite

a beating.

Of course, it’s not actually that easy.

You know that the cat will split into four
mice, but you don’t know exactly when or

where it will do so.

And you don’t know if the dragon will do
a fireball next, or a psychic ray attack.

So you also have to be able to react to the
more unpredictable elements.

Luckily, the enemy will often announce what
attack it’s going to do next - either through

animation: this is the dragon gearing up to
do a psychic attack, and this is when it’s

about to do a fireball.

Or through sound.

Like, these walking flames, who yell out before
they jump at you.

Sometimes, it’s even done through text.

This is called telegraphing, and the duration
of an enemy’s telegraphing will affect the

difficulty of the fight.

You’ll generally notice that massive, difficult
to avoid attacks will have big, obvious build ups.

While easier attacks don’t need to be announced
for as long.

Unfortunately, not every attack in Cuphead
is telegraphed in such a fashion where you

can react to it on your first go.

This screen-sized laser is announced via
this animation, but pretty much every player

is gonna get hit the first time they see it.

This is one part of why Cuphead feels so difficult,
especially because you have a tiny number

of hit points and can’t recover any of them
during the fight.

So in Cuphead, death is made part of the learning
process.

Hey, at least you’ll know what that animation
means next time you play!

Anyway.

One big way that the game ramps up the difficulty
in later chapters, is to layer on multiple patterns.

When fighting this puppet, you’ll need to
avoid these bullets, and these bullets, at

the same time.

And when fighting the mermaid, you might have
to dodge an electric eel and a column of sea

urchins at once.

It’s all about taking an otherwise simple
attack pattern, and just giving you other

things to think about.

A fan that pushes Cuphead left or a water
jet that pushes Cuphead up.

Moving platforms and falling treasure chests.

So, fighting this clown is pretty easy - just
look at the colour of its horse to know what’s coming.

But you also have to deal with this rollercoaster
that moves along the screen every few seconds.

Thankfully, that’s also telegraphed.

Finally, the boss battles go through different
phases.

So, when fighting the frog brothers, Ribby
and Croak, you start by shooting flies and

dodging punches.

After you deal enough damage, the set-up changes
and now it’s all about bouncing balls and

a desk fan.

And after that, the frogs transform into a
slot machine with three different dodging

mini games.

This keeps the boss going longer, without
it just being tedious or repetitive.

Just giving the boss a million health points
is rarely that fun.

It also means that you can learn which phases
use which patterns.

And that you feel small moments of satisfaction
throughout the battle, and not just at the end.

It also adds an element of surprise that keeps
you guessing.

And it dramatically ups the stakes - you don’t
want to lose, because you’ll have to start

right back from the very first phase.

So, let’s see all of this put together in
one boss battle.

This is Baroness Von Bon Bon, and she’s
the boss of the stage Sugarland Shimmy.

Now, you don’t actually fight her until
the very end because the first three phases

see you going up against three different sub
bosses.

These are randomly picked from a pool of five
baddies each time you attempt this battle

- so, that means there’s more to learn,
and you have to react each time a new sub

boss appears.

Now each of these guys has their own patterns.

Candy Corn moves around in straight lines,
and heads up and down at the edges or in the

middle.

Gobstopper follows you around the screen.

Cupcake jumps up diagonally and then slams
down.

Chocolate moves around and then splits out
in eight directions.

And Gumball Machine moves back and forth in
a small area, while spilling sweets on you.

They all cover the screen in a different way,
and require different types of dodging.

Gumball Machine has you moving left and right
to avoid the sweets, while Gobstopper keeps

you on the move because your current position
is about to become deadly.

So there’s lots for the player to learn,
but you also need to react.

Because even after you figure out that chocolate
will always split in eight directions - you

don’t know when and where it will split.

A little telegraphing helps you out, though.

The battle also adds extra layers in each
phase.

The first fight is a straight up battle against
the sub boss, but the second fight will add

these tiny jelly bean soldiers who walk across
the bottom of the screen.

And the third fight has a sub boss, and those
soldiers, and Von Bon Bon will pop out and

shoot a shotgun full of candy floss.

What you learned was a safe zone is now right
in the firing line, so you’ll have to make

new plans quickly, and skilfully dodge through
this combination of patterns.

If you beat all three phases, you’ll then
go up against Bon Bon herself, who chases

you in a giant walking castle, meaning that
the ground is no longer that safe.

She also throws out her head, which moves
in a really tricky chasing pattern, while

giant rock candy wheels bounce along the ground
with a steady rhythm.

ANNOUNCER: Knockout!

So, this boss is a delicate balance of memory,
reaction, and skill.

There are lots of different things that you
can learn, like patterns, phases, and weakspots.

But unpredictable elements, like the random
sub bosses, mean that you’ll also have to

be able to react to what’s coming next.

And tricky patterns - like this chasing gobstobber
- and layered on elements - like the shotgun

blast - mean you’ll also just need to be
very skilful with the controls to keep out

of danger.

Most of the boss battles in Cuphead get this
balance right.

But it’s easy to screw it up.

I mean, take the much maligned boss Little
Horn, from Super Meat Boy, which completely

tips the scales in favour of memory.

This guy does the exact same thing every single
time, so fighting the boss is just about learning

the pattern of attacks and then executing
the right commands.

The attacks are too fast to naturally react
to on your first go, but they don’t require

a huge amount of skill to overcome once you’ve
learned what to do.

Now, this video has been all about how the
bosses kill you - not, how you kill the bosses.

And that’s because dodging attacks is - ultimately
- the focus of the game.

It’s not that hard to actually kill a lot
of these guys, because you infinitely shoot

bullets as long as you hold down the button,
the targets are absolutely enormous, and you

don’t need to know any special moves to
win.

Things like parrying and using your EX attacks
are optional.

That means that it’s often more about outlasting
the boss, than defeating it.

And that’s why you sometimes feel like you
survived, rather than beat the boss.

And that’s okay, but some of the best boss
battles are those where you know that the

boss just won’t die unless you get in there
and kill it, with your amazing knowledge of

the game’s mechanics.

So this won’t be the last word on boss fights.

We’ll be back in the future, to talk about
actually defeating these guys.

Plus, other things like the build up, the
music, the pay off, innovative boss fights,

and more.

For now, though, Cuphead is packed full of examples of good boss attacks.

Just don’t be surprised if you die a few
times when you’re looking at them.

Hey thanks for watching.

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