WoG is definitely a natural evolution of that style of humor directed at a mixed-media sitcom setting. What I feel that the Animaniacs reboot stumbles with though is that it tries to emulate that modern edgy "meta" style in a way that ends up clashing with the original's whimsical tone and influences.
@@Yensid951927 Not having the original writers at all was a huge mistake, their sense of humor was totally unique. Ruegger mentioned that his original plan for the new CEO was to give Hello Nurse the position- to which every Animaniacs fan ever goes 'oh, that's SO Animaniacs!' They just got it.
@@BMask I know this sound's really stupid but as someone whom is a youtuber and make's thing's called opinion-ation's. I wrote a script of Cuphead explaining my mixed thought's and feelings and then I just scraped it but now the lost has been found because here's the script and just tell me what you think and if you think it's good or bad or just make fun of it if it's that bad. Because god I might make another script for a another cuphead opinion-ation. So game’s sometime’s like other forms of media like music and tv shows have referenced other media. Like a cuphead. Cuphead is a game made by imdb studio’s and was released in 2017. Cuphead was made to look, sound and somewhat play like a cartoon from the 1930’s and is known for being hard and a boss rush game with some run and gun and boy do I have a lot to say about the game. The story of the game is pretty cool so it follows the cuphead red cup and mug man blue mug. Betting their soul’s and losing to the devil. They have to fight the bosses and get their soul contract’s and if they do the devil might spare the two. Which he kinda does with the bad ending where cuphead and mugman team up with the devil which might i say i like the bad ending and the fact that they make the title song inverted i think if you pick the bad ending is really cool. Anyway they get the soul contracts and the king dice the devil’s right hand man start’s question if they're capable of beating them. The devil is not too worried. Then after fighting the devil and beating him. They spare everyone from the devil’s wrath and tell everyone who owned their soul to the devil. Expect wowie wobble’s. Ok maybe i just say that these character’s have character. While I do prefer the cuphead and mugman on the tv show over them in the game. I still feel like they are betrayed well in the game. Cuphead is more leaping before you look as he bet his and mugman souls to the devil without a second thought. While mugman thinks about it and releases that it’s a bad idea when cuphead goes straight into the bet. Both tease and joke while still caring about each other. Which help’s show that they have a bond. Both also help the other bosses be free from the devil which also show their good nature to me. The devil is a great antagonist. As he’s egoistical. Seeing cup and mug as a joke but when they start doing an effective job at attacking him. He starts to cry in defeat knowing that cup and mug are going to kick his ass. King dice is a great right hand man thinking that cup and mug might be a bigger threat and thinking he’s big like the devil but with some self awareness to the two boy’s. The bosses have characters think about their dialog after defeating the cup or mug or both and their animation’s. Which is always a good sign. But can I just talk about animation? BOY is it amazing it really looks like a 1930’s cartoon. Characters often look cartoony and with oftain how do i say this lily pad eye’s which help with the athletic and all of them bounce and bop and move very well. But it sometimes can get into the way of the battle. Which is a big flaw that I think the game has. But I will get that back later. It looks like it's water painted and boy does the color’s mix well like it’s like if paper and water became best friends and made art together and both are good artists. Often having the right amount of color and fit’s the area. Like the forest stage using green’s, yellow bright red’s to fit a forest. Which is kinda sick. “Like me and you are sick in the gross sense.” SHUT UP. Anyway, the color’s on the character’s often work well and have contrast with the level’s. So I can tell whether it’s in the background or not. With the background being more muted in color and in outline than the character’s. But I'm still fighting. In Fact they seem to be water colored or look that way which looks nice and fits the athletic features of old cartoons. I like how the beginning and ending screens are in a book which is cool. The music is often great, having great tracks which are bop. Using big band’s that often work well together. With bosses it makes for a great boss atmosphere and with run and gun it goes for more of a cartoon chase scene with some bopping music. But that leaves the gameplay and while everything else might be pretty great the gameplay too me is mixed to positive. Now let’s get the stuff I like out of the way. Now the run and gun is underrated if you ask me. Like i want more of this please DLC give us more good run and gun. Now these level’s will provide an obstacle course filled with bad dude’s and hazard’s like covated belt’s fly platforms and other stuff. But it’s played out so so well. The sections of the level’s all are well made like the dunk tank. On having the projectile’s effect the floor is a great idea well executed. Add a fun mechanic too this section and clear to the player what will happen and it’s fun avoiding the ball’s. The fun house has a very fun idea with the gravity changing mechanic along with all this other stuff and they all work well. Like the car’s having to switch the gravity to avoid them but deal with the duck’s great stuff. Use the two mechanic’s in harmony. The cliff one is also cool with the scall’s working well with the bad dude’s. These levels also just have fun transition into different parts which help add some more visual variety. They also have coins which are used for upgrade’s which is also fun and helpful and getting them is fun. Often being a little extra challenge or out of the way which is executed well. Getting a pathisic on the level’s is fun and think of ways to get past the hazard’s without shooting a bad dude is fun and the enemy's might gang up on cup and mugs so better watch out. Just fantastic stage’s. BUT THEN WE GET TO THE BOSSES. Ok some of the bosses are great like the phantom express with their fun attack’s coupled with the train cart and pez dude’s. Which all work well and geting into the right place is a really cool idea. The king dice fight is fun and manageable since all the bosses aren’t two crazy with only one or two attack’s which work well. King dice himself has a really fun attack which uses Parrying to the best of its ability. The devil is great and a great test of skill. Minus one flaw that plagues some of these bosses. The root pack is a fun first test with a fun hidden secret phase. With some others. But here’s the thing: not every boss is good, in fact some are flat out horrible. Calmarria is horrible, her medusa attack just ruin’s the boss. It doesn’t work well with any of the attack’s and even if you stay as far back it’s still complete stupidity if you get hit or not. Grimatch stick. Play cuphead beat every boss in area one and 2 expect grim. Get too grim , try multiple times. They just quit for 2 years, go back, do the same thing then put the game down for over 3 month’s comeback and finally beat grim and keep on going. I hate grim matchstick’s battle with a fiery passion which is funny because he’s a dragon that breath’s fire. Ok first phase i like good attack’s that work well with the platform’s. The fire attack is fun and weired eye attack is also good and work’s well with the platform gimmick and having them moving away from grim is a good choice. Then we get too phase 2 and 3. Now the platform’s move towards if it worked with the attack’s. Phase 2 is fine but can get on my neave’s with the fire dude’s. BUT PHASE 3 ok we have grim just grow 3 head’s because why not. With bothersome bubble attack’s which if you shoot they will spread fire . Which doesn’t work well and the platform’s moving grim doesn't mix well with how they're handled. Hope you on the top and platform’s are covent when he does his flamethrower attack because if you don’t have fun dieing or losing health. Then there's dr kalh which has a banging tune. But my god the foreground is just ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. This is my big issue with some bosses. The foreground cover’s some part of the screen and boy it doesn’t mix well. Like with the devil boss and here. Try avoiding these bullet heck attack’s when the foreground is covering the screen. I get that these dude’s want the game to look like the 1930's. But think what if there were just a ton of canyon’s in front of the road runner and willy would these cartoon’s be as funny and not the foreground in this aren't a joke. Also can you guys just add a health indicator. Like their not in 1930’s cartoons but you can make it fit with it aesthetically like cuphead and mug man were not in these old cartoons at least i think but they still fit. Also some other bosses have attack’s that just don’t work well together which i stated with the other boss but ya there's others. So ya the bosses are a mixed bag which is a big deal since the bosses are the big deal of the game and the main focus. Cuphead has many good aspects to it, the run and gun is amazing and it has great animation and music. Some bosses are good but others not so much. I like it but I have some big problems with it like some flat out bad bosses which is a big issue when cuphead is mostly a boss rush game.
I actually didn't expect the second half of this video to be about the show, so I was extremely excited to hear all your kind words about it! I worked in Lighthouse for two years (not on Cuphead, though I know lots of people who did). I remember actually being surprised when one of my friends saw me watching one of your videos while working, and said "hey, I know that dude". So this feels like we're going full circle, now you've made a video where you've said you know some Lighthouse folks. I'll reiterate, Andy Stevens is a chad
Dude no way! It's wild to me that my vids are getting watched by the real heroes making this work happen. Thanks for everything you and the guys out there are doing, really exciting stuff happening at Lighthouse in particular. We all love based Andy
@@BMask Or in my case, the heroes who made Little Ellen and El Deafo happen... I wanna say for the record that I fought like hell to get onto Team Cuphead. Thank YOU for the great content, keep up the good work.
Thank you for, in addition to the always quality videos, managing to get down exactly the issues I had with the new Animaniacs in just a few sentences in a completely unrelated video. Also tell your friends that Sunny Side Up Summer, (and the movie as a whole) made me cry and it was so good.
Cuphead is such a beautiful thing to know to have existed for the 2010's and now early 2020's. I hope in retrospect it gets remembered as the game that started with an indie team of 2 with one dream and one goal that by any means necessary, create a game that is timeless like the cartoons that inspired it.
What I love most about Cuphead is that it makes me want to meet the crew who made this, personally, and go "Thank you for putting in this stuff for ME". I love the games and they're such a rich tapestry of animation history while utilising the same techniques. But it's the other things. The easter eggs. It's those things that 98% of the audience will miss but you notice it and it's like.... That's a gift to you. A personal love I have is with the recent Cuphead tv series because I genuinely think I'm PROBABLY one of like.... 14 people who gets where some of it comes from? Like Cuphead and Mugman, when they swear, they say "Ah, Banana oil!" Which... if you know your comics and animation history, is a loving reference to the insane work of Milt Gross and his 1920s comic strip "Banana oil". Which I think the crew got, and the writers got and I got because I'm a huge fan of all those old cartoonists. There's references to Krazy Kat, to Popeye meets Sinbad the Sailor, and they even USE modern versions of the Fleischer techniques where you see a 3D model (that the Fleischer team built in their studio) that looks EXACTLY like the Fleischer technique. There's the fact that Cuphead is a co-production with Kings Features Syndicate which is BORDERLINE insane because I didn't even know they were still around. But yeah, great video B-mask.
THANK YOU for talking about the level of quality in The Cuphead Show's puppet animation! As someone who does a similar kind of animation as my job, it absolutely baffled me that people were disparaging something so impressive. Especially since as you said, the borders between frame by frame and puppet animation are blurring more and more and have been for a while now! Excellent including the interview footage as well! Nice job B!
I THINK it's just the whole thing of people thinking they know how something works and they're suddenly experts on it even though they haven't done animation or even really understand how it actually works (try and get them to figure out if something was shot on 2's and watch their face go blank, it's a fun party game)? Because people seem to really not understand how much timing goes into these things and how much WORK goes into even a minute of animation from layouts, to BG design, to animatics and to timing, etc? They're the kind of people who go throw the term "CalArts style" around when it isn't even applicable and immediately dismiss it, even when it's REALLY amazing. Granted, it doesn't undo the AMAZING work the crew did on the game and the show.
Just trying to do my bit for the animators! Glad you guys were happy with that, and still hope the conversation around how this stuff is made changes (people don't realise this would help with criticism's as much as doing right by the people making this stuff and the realities of the medium, too.)
Something about the DLC was so delicious that it encouraged me to take that next big leap and start 100%ing the game, achievements included. I never thought I'd say this starting out, but I'm actually looking forward to Expert Mode! Definitely going to check out the animated series at some point too. And I'm surprised I'd never heard the phrase "puppet animation" before this video. I'd been noticing this type of animation for a while and just couldn't put a name to it, and now I kinda want to look into trying it myself.
I like how you don't just acknowledge flaws but also add context to show how its not necessarily wrong to enjoy. its a common misconception people have about reviewing/talking about media. its the kind of attention to detail that people usually don't do! and that you don't just make long videos because its *the algorithm* or the other reason I notice people make long videos, laziness and not wanting to trim scripts or edit down and "kill their baby" to get just whats necessary. not condeming that practice obviously you're your own boss when you're a youtuber and noone should tell you how much effort you need to put into your work if thats the case.
Wait the cuphead show is riggged? Jesus Christ that’s so impressive i could not tell at all and i think it does a great job at coming close to the game on a tv budget
I'm impressed you were able to churn this piece out so off the heels of your last project, and a proper discussion of Cuphead as a franchise too? Mwah! You've done it again, B.
Thank you! Trying to get more confident and make more content based on thoughts/feelings I have without trying to be too precious about it in-between the bigger projects. Have a platform, so I might as well put it to use.
The sheer personality your videos exude is so enamoring, yet again I feel such great enthusiasm to check something out after watching your take on it. This time being the Cuphead show, which I had neglected to watch due to being worried about how well the atmosphere and vibe of the game would be adapted. Now however I'm certain that I won't be disappointed
Keep making cool videos B-Mask. You're one of the best video essayists talking about games. The content you produce is super duper unique and I'm really grateful I stumbled upon your channel!
How has Cuphead not been awarded something like Cultural Significance or something like that? It's truly an outstanding game. Literally nothing like its exists. It's a masterpiece.
I'm still in love with Cuphead. This game is absolutely now one of my favorite indie titles ever, and I'm glad it got the accolades and such to become a powerhouse right now. I kind of wished the Netflix series was a like an adventure to fight for the soul contracts, but I'm happy with what they made regardless. It looks like the old school toons with modern sensibilities, and I don't mind that at all.
Small tip for the cursed relic, each of King Dice's mini bosses count to the number of victories required to cleanse the relic, even if you don't beat king dice, the relic still counts each boss, and unlike the normal bosses, the relic accepts repeated victories on the same bosses. It helps a lot.
With the rerelease of Darkstalkers, I've been thinking MDHR would do a fantastic job making the animations at least for a sequel to those titles. Seeing Darkstalkers mentioned in that snowman description... I'm not holding my breath, but it would be brilliant
Nobody brought out a giant clone of cuphead and then their head turned into trashbin or ghost mice came out of their face after turning into a jumbo jet with buzzsaws. Everything you described, as I said in the video, was mechanical more than surreal. Far from a criticism though. Still exciting and fun, I just responded to it less than the wild artistic decisions in the first. Might have been the intention.
I agree with your criticsms of the Parry fights, they were cool, but I found the knight so much harder than the ones that came afterwards. Although. I personally was surprised by some of the boss fights, still. You mention how the angel and demon were deleted content, the moonshine mob are actually reincorporated deleted ideas, visually snd mechanically. Also, as someone he beat the base game expert, god that was hard, but got me to see the game in new ways. Still gotta watch that show and I love your fish mafia.
Nice analysis as always, I know you always try to be objective but fear not, your personal thoughts are very relatable and solid, so I don't know, I want to tell you you make great content and I am thankful for that
The only thing I would say the Cuphead show could do to make it look more like the game is maybe having a thicker lineart, I feel like the thin lineart the show have right now is too reminiscent of HD cartoons from the 2010's like Adventure Time or Steven Universe. Old animation couldn't have such thin lineart because high definition image was still not a thing so they had to compensate the low resolution with thicker easier to read lines, this is why watching a modern show in 420p is worst than watching an older show in 420p, it was made with that in mind
It's a criticism I've had and from what I now understand this is actually a limitation of the technology. It is possible to work around this and they're getting better at finding ways to create puppets that have those thick and thin lines, but a lot of cartoons made with these tools are bound by a particular look that best serves the system and pipeline.
@@BMask Well I don't know what animation software they used in the Cuphead show but Wander Over Wander is a show with amazing puppet animation that uses Toom Boom animation and have really thicc outlines. But this is a thing that really goes from studio to studio, sometimes the people making the show are just not used to making a show like that or are using a program that makes it harder to do.
@@AAAGamesMaster Hey Ren, Cuphead was also animated in Toon Boom and we had a few ex-Wander animators on the staff so yeah you're right, it is dooable. We did dabble with thicker lines for the first few episodes but it started looking too digital, we also had a boiling effect to counter this but it ulimately was scrapped in favour of going for a cleaner look. I do think what we went with was better looking than the thicker look but I think middle ground could have been found if there had been time (there is a point you have to pull the rip cord). Some of the modernising on the show was around the thesis of "would they have if they could" and whilst I wasn't in the room when the thinner line was agreed upon I can only assume this was the logic. I actually did come up with a solution to this so if we was ever to do more and they opened the floor up a bit for some slight style changes it'd be cool to explore! Regardless you make an interesting point so thanks
God I can't believe more people aren't upset by the animaniacs reboot.The show throughout all the March brother vibes so just feel like a standard cartoon I gotta say you saying it remind you of the reboot kind of makes me think less of the cup head.
nuthin to say, good vidya, good content, keep it up, proud of you and WINGA DINGA WINGA DINGA WINGA DINGA WINGA DINGA BOOMER GAME WHERE'S MY 1920'S LABOR STRIKE SONGS MGMT YOU CAN'T FOOL ME WITH THIS DYNAMITE HEADDY REMAKE
Liked the game, but never finished it. Too difficult for me personally. I liked the gorgeous artstyle so much that I was willing to put up with its gameplay (which was not for me) to a point. Even the TV show seems pretty, tho I haven’t really given it another shot since the trailer made it seem very “yelling = funny” in a bad way.
0:15 - Not gonna lie I was hesitant to get Cuphead on the Switch since, well, it's Cuphead. Hell I was dreading having to go through King Dice's gauntlet all over again. But I ultimately caved and yeah it still had the same bite as the first time XDXDXDXD 5:43 - OH CHRIST. Pfft, yeah that would have guaranteed a dozen or so broken controllers wouldn't it? Oh you finally got used to all the other phases SURPRISE BITCH flipping priority mechanic phase! And I thought King Dice was a nightmare.... 6:32 - Yeah I love just how especially Disney like in quality the final boss was here, almost felt like the universe of Cuphead was steadily evolving. Shit if they ever do more Cuphead I'm curious how much more eras of animation they can squeeze into this setting to make even creatively insane boss fights. Hanna Barbara, 80s Saturday Morning, Tim Burton-ish stop motion, claymation, anime, early Reboot/Beast Wars CGI........Jim Henson quality hand puppets..... 12:28 - Oh man, Wayne Brady as King Dice. That was an absolute treat.....hell this whole show has been an absolute treat. And I have to be honest I think the show's version of the Devil looks slightly better XD 14:35 - Ah, perfect final note for this video XDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXD
New stuff makes Old games bad Cuphead:ima bout to end this man's whole career This is something my brother said because he doesn't like the new Mario's and should stay the Old amazing game it is
Wait, you didn't anticipate the final boss of the DLC being the final boss of the DLC? I thought it was generally assumed that it would be the case because instances like it are fairly frequent in media nowadays.
Saltbaker was positioned in all the trailers and media as the elder kettle of the DLC for ms Chalice. I'd anticipated a twist with kettle in the first and didn't get one, so didn't think anything of it for the sequel. Hence my surprise!
Hey B-Mask, I know this may seem out of left field but I had a question, I remember you from the Podcast known as "The Cheshire Cat Studios Podcast" and I just had a question about it, you could think of this as some sort of closure of sorts considering that it's been years since they last uploaded anything, was there any reason as to why you left? you and Kenny we're the ones I noticed who we're absent in the channels later life, you don't need to answer this, I was just really curious as to what happened to you guys, I hope you're doing ok!
When I was young, I was really into the idea of games looking like cartoons. And to some extent that's happened, but that's because cartoons themselves changed their tools and looks, lowering the bar for what it takes. Games like Odin Sphere or Dragon's Crown for instance are beautiful in their own way (especially once my expectations were lowered lol), but when I watched screenshots of Odin Sphere the first time, I pictured it moving like a 90s Disney feature or something, and instead it looked like Flash. Cuphead is like the one instance where top to bottom, it all looks like an old cartoon. I'm playing the Cuphead DLC knight challenges and fighting the giant mountain boss and I might as well be playing The Brave Little Tailor - The Game. It's incredible! Right there, that's the dream. So obviously an adaptation of Cuphead that looks more like a modern Disney Channel cartoon instead isn't gonna measure up. Of course, it's not like I fault the animators, they never had the option of making it look that good. And it's clear they made something very handsome compared to many contemporaries. But they're standing right besides the dream and it's impossible for that comparison to look flattering. Still, hats off for making the effort.
This is unrelated to Cuphead, but I did not want to try to contact you in other ways. I am on the fence about Sly Cooper 3+1 right now. So, I offer you thoughts from someone who liked the game at launch, still thinks it is largely great, and now thinks the game has some truly saddening problems that a sequel might not even fix. Just in case you need outside thoughts for a future video.
Me too man me too Wish this game had a proper reward for S-ranks though, I know it’s generally one of those intrinsic things but there are definitely a few bosses with attacks that create bullshit scenarios if you have bad rng and that’s not fun to grind on lol, kinda contradicts the challenge draw of the game- I did enjoy playing through the game again when I replayed it and yet I don’t want to go through that part of it, too much nasty stuff there, it’s always been a sore spot for me. I suppose the better solution would be just ironing that stuff out, but y’know I still haven’t had the chance to play the DLC because my computer has been out- sad I haven’t watched the show but they clearly put a lot of effort into it. Plus as a big gaylord I have a soft spot for fruity villains But also I had to pause Inner Mounting Flame to watch this video so unsubscribed
@@KanaevM It's incredible work! They're trying lots of new things with puppet animation I think you'll be seeing more of on many other shows coming up. Lots of exciting ideas on the table.
Real talk: The actual closest thing to an Animaniacs of the 2020s, or more accurately the 2010s: The Amazing World of Gumball.
Yeah actually
WoG is definitely a natural evolution of that style of humor directed at a mixed-media sitcom setting. What I feel that the Animaniacs reboot stumbles with though is that it tries to emulate that modern edgy "meta" style in a way that ends up clashing with the original's whimsical tone and influences.
@@Yensid951927 Not having the original writers at all was a huge mistake, their sense of humor was totally unique. Ruegger mentioned that his original plan for the new CEO was to give Hello Nurse the position- to which every Animaniacs fan ever goes 'oh, that's SO Animaniacs!'
They just got it.
@@BMask I know this sound's really stupid but as someone whom is a youtuber and make's thing's called opinion-ation's. I wrote a script of Cuphead explaining my mixed thought's and feelings and then I just scraped it but now the lost has been found because here's the script and just tell me what you think and if you think it's good or bad or just make fun of it if it's that bad. Because god I might make another script for a another cuphead opinion-ation.
So game’s sometime’s like other forms of media like music and tv shows have referenced other media. Like a cuphead. Cuphead is a game made by imdb studio’s and was released in 2017. Cuphead was made to look, sound and somewhat play like a cartoon from the 1930’s and is known for being hard and a boss rush game with some run and gun and boy do I have a lot to say about the game. The story of the game is pretty cool so it follows the cuphead red cup and mug man blue mug. Betting their soul’s and losing to the devil. They have to fight the bosses and get their soul contract’s and if they do the devil might spare the two. Which he kinda does with the bad ending where cuphead and mugman team up with the devil which might i say i like the bad ending and the fact that they make the title song inverted i think if you pick the bad ending is really cool. Anyway they get the soul contracts and the king dice the devil’s right hand man start’s question if they're capable of beating them. The devil is not too worried. Then after fighting the devil and beating him. They spare everyone from the devil’s wrath and tell everyone who owned their soul to the devil. Expect wowie wobble’s. Ok maybe i just say that these character’s have character. While I do prefer the cuphead and mugman on the tv show over them in the game. I still feel like they are betrayed well in the game. Cuphead is more leaping before you look as he bet his and mugman souls to the devil without a second thought. While mugman thinks about it and releases that it’s a bad idea when cuphead goes straight into the bet. Both tease and joke while still caring about each other. Which help’s show that they have a bond. Both also help the other bosses be free from the devil which also show their good nature to me. The devil is a great antagonist. As he’s egoistical. Seeing cup and mug as a joke but when they start doing an effective job at attacking him. He starts to cry in defeat knowing that cup and mug are going to kick his ass. King dice is a great right hand man thinking that cup and mug might be a bigger threat and thinking he’s big like the devil but with some self awareness to the two boy’s. The bosses have characters think about their dialog after defeating the cup or mug or both and their animation’s. Which is always a good sign. But can I just talk about animation? BOY is it amazing it really looks like a 1930’s cartoon. Characters often look cartoony and with oftain how do i say this lily pad eye’s which help with the athletic and all of them bounce and bop and move very well. But it sometimes can get into the way of the battle. Which is a big flaw that I think the game has. But I will get that back later. It looks like it's water painted and boy does the color’s mix well like it’s like if paper and water became best friends and made art together and both are good artists. Often having the right amount of color and fit’s the area. Like the forest stage using green’s, yellow bright red’s to fit a forest. Which is kinda sick. “Like me and you are sick in the gross sense.” SHUT UP. Anyway, the color’s on the character’s often work well and have contrast with the level’s. So I can tell whether it’s in the background or not. With the background being more muted in color and in outline than the character’s. But I'm still fighting. In Fact they seem to be water colored or look that way which looks nice and fits the athletic features of old cartoons. I like how the beginning and ending screens are in a book which is cool. The music is often great, having great tracks which are bop. Using big band’s that often work well together. With bosses it makes for a great boss atmosphere and with run and gun it goes for more of a cartoon chase scene with some bopping music. But that leaves the gameplay and while everything else might be pretty great the gameplay too me is mixed to positive. Now let’s get the stuff I like out of the way. Now the run and gun is underrated if you ask me. Like i want more of this please DLC give us more good run and gun. Now these level’s will provide an obstacle course filled with bad dude’s and hazard’s like covated belt’s fly platforms and other stuff. But it’s played out so so well. The sections of the level’s all are well made like the dunk tank. On having the projectile’s effect the floor is a great idea well executed. Add a fun mechanic too this section and clear to the player what will happen and it’s fun avoiding the ball’s. The fun house has a very fun idea with the gravity changing mechanic along with all this other stuff and they all work well. Like the car’s having to switch the gravity to avoid them but deal with the duck’s great stuff. Use the two mechanic’s in harmony. The cliff one is also cool with the scall’s working well with the bad dude’s. These levels also just have fun transition into different parts which help add some more visual variety. They also have coins which are used for upgrade’s which is also fun and helpful and getting them is fun. Often being a little extra challenge or out of the way which is executed well. Getting a pathisic on the level’s is fun and think of ways to get past the hazard’s without shooting a bad dude is fun and the enemy's might gang up on cup and mugs so better watch out. Just fantastic stage’s. BUT THEN WE GET TO THE BOSSES. Ok some of the bosses are great like the phantom express with their fun attack’s coupled with the train cart and pez dude’s. Which all work well and geting into the right place is a really cool idea. The king dice fight is fun and manageable since all the bosses aren’t two crazy with only one or two attack’s which work well. King dice himself has a really fun attack which uses Parrying to the best of its ability. The devil is great and a great test of skill. Minus one flaw that plagues some of these bosses. The root pack is a fun first test with a fun hidden secret phase. With some others. But here’s the thing: not every boss is good, in fact some are flat out horrible. Calmarria is horrible, her medusa attack just ruin’s the boss. It doesn’t work well with any of the attack’s and even if you stay as far back it’s still complete stupidity if you get hit or not. Grimatch stick. Play cuphead beat every boss in area one and 2 expect grim. Get too grim , try multiple times. They just quit for 2 years, go back, do the same thing then put the game down for over 3 month’s comeback and finally beat grim and keep on going. I hate grim matchstick’s battle with a fiery passion which is funny because he’s a dragon that breath’s fire. Ok first phase i like good attack’s that work well with the platform’s. The fire attack is fun and weired eye attack is also good and work’s well with the platform gimmick and having them moving away from grim is a good choice. Then we get too phase 2 and 3. Now the platform’s move towards if it worked with the attack’s. Phase 2 is fine but can get on my neave’s with the fire dude’s. BUT PHASE 3 ok we have grim just grow 3 head’s because why not. With bothersome bubble attack’s which if you shoot they will spread fire . Which doesn’t work well and the platform’s moving grim doesn't mix well with how they're handled. Hope you on the top and platform’s are covent when he does his flamethrower attack because if you don’t have fun dieing or losing health. Then there's dr kalh which has a banging tune. But my god the foreground is just ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. This is my big issue with some bosses. The foreground cover’s some part of the screen and boy it doesn’t mix well. Like with the devil boss and here. Try avoiding these bullet heck attack’s when the foreground is covering the screen. I get that these dude’s want the game to look like the 1930's. But think what if there were just a ton of canyon’s in front of the road runner and willy would these cartoon’s be as funny and not the foreground in this aren't a joke. Also can you guys just add a health indicator. Like their not in 1930’s cartoons but you can make it fit with it aesthetically like cuphead and mug man were not in these old cartoons at least i think but they still fit. Also some other bosses have attack’s that just don’t work well together which i stated with the other boss but ya there's others. So ya the bosses are a mixed bag which is a big deal since the bosses are the big deal of the game and the main focus. Cuphead has many good aspects to it, the run and gun is amazing and it has great animation and music. Some bosses are good but others not so much. I like it but I have some big problems with it like some flat out bad bosses which is a big issue when cuphead is mostly a boss rush game.
My favorite part of a B-Mask video is finding where he inserts the “fish people” bit
I normally leave them out of not-so-big projects these days but I knew this one had to happen. No more rules, I use it where I want :v
It's incredible how this little video is on the same quality as that INCREDIBLE Bluth retrospective, well done on making consistently quality works!
all is work is pretty cheeked up
I actually didn't expect the second half of this video to be about the show, so I was extremely excited to hear all your kind words about it!
I worked in Lighthouse for two years (not on Cuphead, though I know lots of people who did). I remember actually being surprised when one of my friends saw me watching one of your videos while working, and said "hey, I know that dude". So this feels like we're going full circle, now you've made a video where you've said you know some Lighthouse folks.
I'll reiterate, Andy Stevens is a chad
Dude no way! It's wild to me that my vids are getting watched by the real heroes making this work happen. Thanks for everything you and the guys out there are doing, really exciting stuff happening at Lighthouse in particular.
We all love based Andy
@@BMask Or in my case, the heroes who made Little Ellen and El Deafo happen... I wanna say for the record that I fought like hell to get onto Team Cuphead.
Thank YOU for the great content, keep up the good work.
@@dampowl Adam you're a legend!
@@andystevens6014 who the hell are you
I always enjoy these smaller ‘Notes On’ videos cuz they’re like a little extra treat to tide one over from your last big video, and the next!
13:16 the animation of grim matchstick in this show is so good, i love how they managed to perfectly recreate him there
Andy saved Animation
Thank you for, in addition to the always quality videos, managing to get down exactly the issues I had with the new Animaniacs in just a few sentences in a completely unrelated video.
Also tell your friends that Sunny Side Up Summer, (and the movie as a whole) made me cry and it was so good.
Cuphead is such a beautiful thing to know to have existed for the 2010's and now early 2020's. I hope in retrospect it gets remembered as the game that started with an indie team of 2 with one dream and one goal that by any means necessary, create a game that is timeless like the cartoons that inspired it.
What I love most about Cuphead is that it makes me want to meet the crew who made this, personally, and go "Thank you for putting in this stuff for ME". I love the games and they're such a rich tapestry of animation history while utilising the same techniques.
But it's the other things. The easter eggs. It's those things that 98% of the audience will miss but you notice it and it's like.... That's a gift to you. A personal love I have is with the recent Cuphead tv series because I genuinely think I'm PROBABLY one of like.... 14 people who gets where some of it comes from? Like Cuphead and Mugman, when they swear, they say "Ah, Banana oil!"
Which... if you know your comics and animation history, is a loving reference to the insane work of Milt Gross and his 1920s comic strip "Banana oil". Which I think the crew got, and the writers got and I got because I'm a huge fan of all those old cartoonists. There's references to Krazy Kat, to Popeye meets Sinbad the Sailor, and they even USE modern versions of the Fleischer techniques where you see a 3D model (that the Fleischer team built in their studio) that looks EXACTLY like the Fleischer technique. There's the fact that Cuphead is a co-production with Kings Features Syndicate which is BORDERLINE insane because I didn't even know they were still around.
But yeah, great video B-mask.
THANK YOU for talking about the level of quality in The Cuphead Show's puppet animation! As someone who does a similar kind of animation as my job, it absolutely baffled me that people were disparaging something so impressive. Especially since as you said, the borders between frame by frame and puppet animation are blurring more and more and have been for a while now! Excellent including the interview footage as well! Nice job B!
I THINK it's just the whole thing of people thinking they know how something works and they're suddenly experts on it even though they haven't done animation or even really understand how it actually works (try and get them to figure out if something was shot on 2's and watch their face go blank, it's a fun party game)? Because people seem to really not understand how much timing goes into these things and how much WORK goes into even a minute of animation from layouts, to BG design, to animatics and to timing, etc? They're the kind of people who go throw the term "CalArts style" around when it isn't even applicable and immediately dismiss it, even when it's REALLY amazing.
Granted, it doesn't undo the AMAZING work the crew did on the game and the show.
Just trying to do my bit for the animators! Glad you guys were happy with that, and still hope the conversation around how this stuff is made changes (people don't realise this would help with criticism's as much as doing right by the people making this stuff and the realities of the medium, too.)
Arguably still one of my top 3 games of all time
"Hubris simulator," oh mi oh my, that's a money line right there!
Something about the DLC was so delicious that it encouraged me to take that next big leap and start 100%ing the game, achievements included. I never thought I'd say this starting out, but I'm actually looking forward to Expert Mode!
Definitely going to check out the animated series at some point too. And I'm surprised I'd never heard the phrase "puppet animation" before this video. I'd been noticing this type of animation for a while and just couldn't put a name to it, and now I kinda want to look into trying it myself.
I like how you don't just acknowledge flaws but also add context to show how its not necessarily wrong to enjoy. its a common misconception people have about reviewing/talking about media.
its the kind of attention to detail that people usually don't do! and that you don't just make long videos because its *the algorithm* or the other reason I notice people make long videos, laziness and not wanting to trim scripts or edit down and "kill their baby" to get just whats necessary. not condeming that practice obviously you're your own boss when you're a youtuber and noone should tell you how much effort you need to put into your work if thats the case.
THE CUPHEAD SHOW IS ALL MADE WITH PUPPET ANIMATION?!?!
The B must stand for Bazinga, because all of your videos are hilarious. Thanks B-Mask!
I'm glad Cuphead blew up. Not my kind of game, but I do appreciate it. You'll be able to play this in 50 years and it won't look dated.
Wait the cuphead show is riggged? Jesus Christ that’s so impressive i could not tell at all and i think it does a great job at coming close to the game on a tv budget
Nice to see classic animation appreciated.
I'm impressed you were able to churn this piece out so off the heels of your last project, and a proper discussion of Cuphead as a franchise too? Mwah! You've done it again, B.
Thank you! Trying to get more confident and make more content based on thoughts/feelings I have without trying to be too precious about it in-between the bigger projects. Have a platform, so I might as well put it to use.
The sheer personality your videos exude is so enamoring, yet again I feel such great enthusiasm to check something out after watching your take on it. This time being the Cuphead show, which I had neglected to watch due to being worried about how well the atmosphere and vibe of the game would be adapted. Now however I'm certain that I won't be disappointed
Since the food analogy was the most unsexy b-mask moment, does that mean we will have future sexy moments to counter it? 😏
cheeky
Keep making cool videos B-Mask. You're one of the best video essayists talking about games. The content you produce is super duper unique and I'm really grateful I stumbled upon your channel!
11:25 everyone say "Good job Andy"
Good job Andy :)
How has Cuphead not been awarded something like Cultural Significance or something like that? It's truly an outstanding game. Literally nothing like its exists. It's a masterpiece.
Lovely video, the quality and work put behind it is so visible!
Amazing video, B-mask! I'm always exciting when I see you upload since that hiatus.
what is it with the insect mafia anyway
very nice to see animation critique that isn't just "EWWW PUPPETS!!! plot holes!!"
I'm still in love with Cuphead. This game is absolutely now one of my favorite indie titles ever, and I'm glad it got the accolades and such to become a powerhouse right now. I kind of wished the Netflix series was a like an adventure to fight for the soul contracts, but I'm happy with what they made regardless. It looks like the old school toons with modern sensibilities, and I don't mind that at all.
The artwork on this game is beautiful!
Small tip for the cursed relic, each of King Dice's mini bosses count to the number of victories required to cleanse the relic, even if you don't beat king dice, the relic still counts each boss, and unlike the normal bosses, the relic accepts repeated victories on the same bosses. It helps a lot.
One thing is for sure, I cannot get rid of the delicious last course song out of my head. 🎶🙂
With the rerelease of Darkstalkers, I've been thinking MDHR would do a fantastic job making the animations at least for a sequel to those titles. Seeing Darkstalkers mentioned in that snowman description... I'm not holding my breath, but it would be brilliant
B Mask brings that A Class content
Okay but your fish mafia looks sick
Quality's been fixed now cheers
Yeah just had a glitch on the last upload, sorry bout that. Should be good now!
@@BMask oh, that makes sense
What I liked in the show was how the animation reminded me of the first Spongebob movie, and I still love that movie!
Honestly I thought the dlc bosses had way more surprises than I fist thought with weird transformations, flipping the screen, and a fake knockout.
Nobody brought out a giant clone of cuphead and then their head turned into trashbin or ghost mice came out of their face after turning into a jumbo jet with buzzsaws. Everything you described, as I said in the video, was mechanical more than surreal.
Far from a criticism though. Still exciting and fun, I just responded to it less than the wild artistic decisions in the first. Might have been the intention.
Ok yeah good point thought i'm surprised you didn't mention Wally Warbles being seasoned .(also if you want to hear this)
Good video
I’m glad you’re back
I love the series because even if you didn't play the game (me), it still feels like something fun to watch.
Those extra animations in cutscenes were added in an update in 2019 when the Switch version released. Also great video.
How are you reading my mind literally replaying it right now
7:42 I did not know Cuphead had toys based on it until now.
I agree with your criticsms of the Parry fights, they were cool, but I found the knight so much harder than the ones that came afterwards. Although. I personally was surprised by some of the boss fights, still. You mention how the angel and demon were deleted content, the moonshine mob are actually reincorporated deleted ideas, visually snd mechanically. Also, as someone he beat the base game expert, god that was hard, but got me to see the game in new ways. Still gotta watch that show and I love your fish mafia.
Nice analysis as always, I know you always try to be objective but fear not, your personal thoughts are very relatable and solid, so I don't know, I want to tell you you make great content and I am thankful for that
Thank you! Means a lot to see people reach out like this.
One of these secret nieche ( sort of ) channels that you find once and start becoming a fan, very cool 🤩👍
Hear me out… cuphead fighting game
dude no come on don't go crazy plz i beg you
aw hell yea!
Ok the video keeps saying “no stream tap to retry” ffs youtube get it togethor
11:51
I SEE YOU YOU CHEEKY PETE
You better do a video on RISE now that the movie's out
there’s not a lot of rottmnt analysis out there (as far as ive seen), so i would LOVE to see one from here
The only thing I would say the Cuphead show could do to make it look more like the game is maybe having a thicker lineart, I feel like the thin lineart the show have right now is too reminiscent of HD cartoons from the 2010's like Adventure Time or Steven Universe.
Old animation couldn't have such thin lineart because high definition image was still not a thing so they had to compensate the low resolution with thicker easier to read lines, this is why watching a modern show in 420p is worst than watching an older show in 420p, it was made with that in mind
It's a criticism I've had and from what I now understand this is actually a limitation of the technology. It is possible to work around this and they're getting better at finding ways to create puppets that have those thick and thin lines, but a lot of cartoons made with these tools are bound by a particular look that best serves the system and pipeline.
@@BMask Well I don't know what animation software they used in the Cuphead show but Wander Over Wander is a show with amazing puppet animation that uses Toom Boom animation and have really thicc outlines.
But this is a thing that really goes from studio to studio, sometimes the people making the show are just not used to making a show like that or are using a program that makes it harder to do.
@@AAAGamesMaster Hey Ren, Cuphead was also animated in Toon Boom and we had a few ex-Wander animators on the staff so yeah you're right, it is dooable. We did dabble with thicker lines for the first few episodes but it started looking too digital, we also had a boiling effect to counter this but it ulimately was scrapped in favour of going for a cleaner look. I do think what we went with was better looking than the thicker look but I think middle ground could have been found if there had been time (there is a point you have to pull the rip cord). Some of the modernising on the show was around the thesis of "would they have if they could" and whilst I wasn't in the room when the thinner line was agreed upon I can only assume this was the logic. I actually did come up with a solution to this so if we was ever to do more and they opened the floor up a bit for some slight style changes it'd be cool to explore! Regardless you make an interesting point so thanks
God I can't believe more people aren't upset by the animaniacs reboot.The show throughout all the March brother vibes so just feel like a standard cartoon I gotta say you saying it remind you of the reboot kind of makes me think less of the cup head.
Crash Bandicoot cartoon like Microsoft that is easy money
You gotta look up the cancelled Crash cartoon
GOTCHA! DIS GUN B GUD
That damn snail 👹
nuthin to say, good vidya, good content, keep it up, proud of you and WINGA DINGA WINGA DINGA WINGA DINGA WINGA DINGA BOOMER GAME
WHERE'S MY 1920'S LABOR STRIKE SONGS MGMT
YOU CAN'T FOOL ME WITH THIS DYNAMITE HEADDY REMAKE
Two zesty cups goated with sauce absolutely fuck shit up, what’s not to love!!
This game made me realize how great I was in bullet hells.
Big Ups
Liked the game, but never finished it. Too difficult for me personally. I liked the gorgeous artstyle so much that I was willing to put up with its gameplay (which was not for me) to a point. Even the TV show seems pretty, tho I haven’t really given it another shot since the trailer made it seem very “yelling = funny” in a bad way.
I love your videos, waiting for your Marvel video has become my life’s purpose.
I so, so, so, so, so badly want to make it. Sorry for making you wait but hopefully this will all pay off!
Don't you say 🗿
0:15 - Not gonna lie I was hesitant to get Cuphead on the Switch since, well, it's Cuphead. Hell I was dreading having to go through King Dice's gauntlet all over again. But I ultimately caved and yeah it still had the same bite as the first time XDXDXDXD
5:43 - OH CHRIST. Pfft, yeah that would have guaranteed a dozen or so broken controllers wouldn't it? Oh you finally got used to all the other phases SURPRISE BITCH flipping priority mechanic phase! And I thought King Dice was a nightmare....
6:32 - Yeah I love just how especially Disney like in quality the final boss was here, almost felt like the universe of Cuphead was steadily evolving. Shit if they ever do more Cuphead I'm curious how much more eras of animation they can squeeze into this setting to make even creatively insane boss fights. Hanna Barbara, 80s Saturday Morning, Tim Burton-ish stop motion, claymation, anime, early Reboot/Beast Wars CGI........Jim Henson quality hand puppets.....
12:28 - Oh man, Wayne Brady as King Dice. That was an absolute treat.....hell this whole show has been an absolute treat. And I have to be honest I think the show's version of the Devil looks slightly better XD
14:35 - Ah, perfect final note for this video XDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXD
What is the animation at 10:40 from?
The Tangled animated series
Personally it surpasses the entire base game. Especially the music.
Nice to see B Mask being positive for once!
Hey I'm plenty positive YOU ASSH no but seriously thanks haha
New stuff makes Old games bad
Cuphead:ima bout to end this man's whole career
This is something my brother said because he doesn't like the new Mario's and should stay the Old amazing game it is
Algorithm engagement
Wait, you didn't anticipate the final boss of the DLC being the final boss of the DLC? I thought it was generally assumed that it would be the case because instances like it are fairly frequent in media nowadays.
Saltbaker was positioned in all the trailers and media as the elder kettle of the DLC for ms Chalice. I'd anticipated a twist with kettle in the first and didn't get one, so didn't think anything of it for the sequel. Hence my surprise!
A very fair point!
Hey B-Mask, I know this may seem out of left field but I had a question, I remember you from the Podcast known as "The Cheshire Cat Studios Podcast" and I just had a question about it, you could think of this as some sort of closure of sorts considering that it's been years since they last uploaded anything, was there any reason as to why you left? you and Kenny we're the ones I noticed who we're absent in the channels later life, you don't need to answer this, I was just really curious as to what happened to you guys, I hope you're doing ok!
Aw jeez now I need a Riverdale video 😂
i thint you gonna like carcará asas da justiça
When I was young, I was really into the idea of games looking like cartoons. And to some extent that's happened, but that's because cartoons themselves changed their tools and looks, lowering the bar for what it takes. Games like Odin Sphere or Dragon's Crown for instance are beautiful in their own way (especially once my expectations were lowered lol), but when I watched screenshots of Odin Sphere the first time, I pictured it moving like a 90s Disney feature or something, and instead it looked like Flash. Cuphead is like the one instance where top to bottom, it all looks like an old cartoon. I'm playing the Cuphead DLC knight challenges and fighting the giant mountain boss and I might as well be playing The Brave Little Tailor - The Game. It's incredible! Right there, that's the dream.
So obviously an adaptation of Cuphead that looks more like a modern Disney Channel cartoon instead isn't gonna measure up. Of course, it's not like I fault the animators, they never had the option of making it look that good. And it's clear they made something very handsome compared to many contemporaries. But they're standing right besides the dream and it's impossible for that comparison to look flattering. Still, hats off for making the effort.
This is unrelated to Cuphead, but I did not want to try to contact you in other ways.
I am on the fence about Sly Cooper 3+1 right now. So, I offer you thoughts from someone who liked the game at launch, still thinks it is largely great, and now thinks the game has some truly saddening problems that a sequel might not even fix. Just in case you need outside thoughts for a future video.
Hey are feeling better you ok I'm a little worried about you
Don't worry mr mouse I'm good!
Cool and based
4:51-6:54
SKIP SPOILERS HERE
Me too man me too
Wish this game had a proper reward for S-ranks though, I know it’s generally one of those intrinsic things but there are definitely a few bosses with attacks that create bullshit scenarios if you have bad rng and that’s not fun to grind on lol, kinda contradicts the challenge draw of the game- I did enjoy playing through the game again when I replayed it and yet I don’t want to go through that part of it, too much nasty stuff there, it’s always been a sore spot for me. I suppose the better solution would be just ironing that stuff out, but y’know
I still haven’t had the chance to play the DLC because my computer has been out- sad
I haven’t watched the show but they clearly put a lot of effort into it. Plus as a big gaylord I have a soft spot for fruity villains
But also I had to pause Inner Mounting Flame to watch this video so unsubscribed
What's the show at 10:39? And 11:50.
Tangled the series and then Rise of the TMNT (unless you meant the clip before which was Wonderful world of mickey mouse)
@@BMask thank you! Surprised how good 3D animation in Tangled for a tv spin off.
@@KanaevM It's incredible work! They're trying lots of new things with puppet animation I think you'll be seeing more of on many other shows coming up. Lots of exciting ideas on the table.
☕️🎲😈