Cuphead ▶ Trailer
Cuphead screenshot 1Cuphead screenshot 2
ActionIndieDifficultCartoonCo-opPlatformerLocal Co-Op

1,065 playing

Peak in the last 24 hours: 2,152

Peak in the last 7 days: 2,738

Cuphead Steam store

Game description

Cuphead is a classic run and gun action game heavily focused on boss battles. Inspired by cartoons of the 1930s, the visuals and audio are painstakingly created with the same techniques of the era, i.e. traditional hand drawn cel animation, watercolor backgrounds, and original jazz recordings.

Basic info

DeveloperStudio MDHR Entertainment Inc.
PublisherStudio MDHR Entertainment Inc.
PlatformsWindows · macOS
Steam DeckVerified
Release dateSep 29, 2017
Price

Prices by IsThereAnyDeal

Minimum specs

OSWindows 7
ProcessorIntel Core2 Duo E8400, 3.0GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+, 3.0GHz or higher
Memory3 GB
GraphicsGeforce 9600 GT or AMD HD 3870 512MB or higher
Storage4 GB
steamyze

Review Analysis Score

Based on 414 reviews from the past 1 year

90.6/ 100
Top 20%

Steam rating: Overwhelmingly Positive (96%)

Metacritic: 88 /100

Review analysis summary (Reviewed Oct 12, 2026)

Hand drawn comic art leads 169 reviews of Cuphead, which ranks 154th of 1447 among the games we analyzed at 90.6. This summary draws on 414 Steam reviews that we analyzed in detail.

👍 Strengths

Visuals & Sound ranks 10th of 1249, and comes up in 56% of analyzed reviews. 104 reviews call it simple, fun retro bullet hell to share with friends, and 62 say beating its bosses feels challenging and rewarding. Content Volume ranks 147th of 1351, Multiplayer 230th of 642 and Tech & Support 288th of 1399. Players also describe co-op as a bonding experience and rate the soundtrack ten out of ten.

👎 Where it falls short

Difficulty divides players. 108 reviews find the difficulty unfair, the most upvoted citing excessive screen clutter and sadistic design. 11 want more accessibility options, saying the visuals are not clear enough for players with impairments. 9 feel a DLC charm throws off the balance of the base game. Others say clutter hides projectiles, and some note that remote co-op requires a gamepad.

Representative reviews Original reviews ↗

“beautiful graphics with comic art style” · 169 reviews
“simple fun retro bullet-hell game, great for newcomers and friends” · 104 reviews
“Beating bosses feels rewarding and challenging” · 62 reviews

How it holds up

−50+5

Controls, difficulty, progression and depth
Mentioned in 79% of reviews · Top 20% of the games we've analyzed

Difficulty +2.02 · How hard it is, how the challenge ramps, and whether it feels fair
Positive “Beating bosses feels rewarding and challenging” · 62 reviews
Negative “unfair difficulty with excessive screen clutter and sadistic design” · 108 reviews

Progression 5% · Onboarding 7% · Freedom 1% · Strategy 10% · Controls & feel 16%

Plot, characters and the world
Mentioned in 17% of reviews · Top 50% of the games we've analyzed

World +3.38 · Lore, atmosphere, and how immersive the setting is
Negative “game is not cute despite appearing cute” · 1 review

Story 7% · Characters 4%

How much there is to do, variety and replay value
Mentioned in 22% of reviews · Top 20% of the games we've analyzed

Volume +2.20 · How much there is to play, including endgame, for the price
Positive “completed in 20 hours, reasonable content length” · 3 reviews
Negative “only complaint is not enough playtime” · 4 reviews

Variety 7% · Replayability 7%

Graphics, art style, music and sound
Mentioned in 56% of reviews · Top 1% of the games we've analyzed

Visuals +4.57 · Graphics, art style, and animation
Positive “beautiful graphics with comic art style” · 169 reviews
Negative “arte visual confusa, personagens e inimigos sem camadas visuais claras” · 3 reviews

Audio 26%

Playing with others, the community and servers
Mentioned in 20% of reviews · Top 40% of the games we've analyzed

Playing together +2.34 · Fun of playing with friends, teammates, or rivals
Positive “co-op bonding experience with wife through challenging bosses” · 22 reviews
Negative “co-op requires gamepad for remote play, severely limiting accessibility” · 8 reviews

Community 0% · Servers & Connection 0%

Pricing, cheaters, balance and matchmaking
Mentioned in 6% of reviews · Top 30% of the games we've analyzed

Pricing +0.06 · Whether the price, DLC and microtransactions are reasonable, and how much paying gives you an edge
Positive “very cheap for the amount of content” · 1 review
Negative “DLC half price but only one map and character feels not worth” · 1 review

Anti-cheat 0% · Balance 4% · Matchmaking 0%

Bugs, performance and developer support
Mentioned in 5% of reviews · Top 30% of the games we've analyzed

Performance +0.08 · Frame rate, optimization, and loading times
Positive “runs smoothly on any PC without problems” · 1 review
Negative “strange frame drops during dragon boss fight” · 1 review

Stability 2% · Developer support 1%

Grey means too few reviews mention it to trust. — means almost no reviews mention it.

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