Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course Review

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Fast Facts

In 2018, Studio MDHR first revealed the DLC for Cuphead, cleverly named ‘The Delicious Last Course’. Fans have waited years for new content for the much-celebrated platformer but is this expansion a treat or did it need more time in the oven? Find out in this Rapid Review.

Wanting The Wondertart

“Oh, Ms. Chalice just wants to be just as real as real can be! With the Wondertart, she can then take heart, it’s off to the bakery!”. These were the words of the Delicious Last Course’s opening overture which lyrically sets the scene for the next few hours of gameplay. The premise of the game is that Ms. Chalice wants to live again and the only way to do this is to find all the ingredients needed to make a ‘Wondertart’; a tart capable of turning spirits back into their living form… (obviously). This delightfully odd narrative makes for a wonderful return to the zany antics of the base game and so my adventure began. With a list of ingredients to collect and bosses to kill, I prepared myself for more of Cuphead’s signature challenge, oven-baked with classic Disney-style animation.

A brawl is surely brewing!

Whereas the original game featured a combination of run-and-gun side-scrollers and boss battles, The Delicious Last Course‘s signature dish is the bosses and there are no side-scrolling levels to be seen. This focus is successful with some of the most inventive boss battles I’ve ever played (which is no surprise given the imagination of the original game). With enemies made up of sausages and hand-puppets, each helping of boss battles surprised me with new mechanics and attack patterns. Even within the battles themselves, the changes in attack cycles provided huge variety, pleasantly surprising me with new moves and design changes. Without spoiling too many of the bosses, one level featured a Wizard who turned into an ice-cube hurling fridge… That should give you some idea as to what The Delicious Last Course has in store!

As seen in the original game, the progress bar continued to provide me with a reminder as to how infuriatingly close I was to beating the boss. After the obligatory desk knock, my face was left was a defeated grin as I wearily chuckled at the pun which taunted me about my failures.

Help is on the way! 

Fortunately, to aid me in my battle against the foes, The Delicious Last Course serves up a helping of help in the form of Ms. Chalice. Acting as an easier (Cuphead is never easy) mode, the double jump and parrying-dash of Ms. Chalice were great in helping me dodge attacks. With the sheer frenzy of The Delicious Last Course’s gameplay, I sometimes found it hard to take in the sheer beauty of the game. Yet, beneath the never-ending onslaught of projectiles, there are truly beautiful backdrops and enemy designs. Paired with an eclectic mix of jaunty music, the game is genuinely like playing a classic Disney cartoon – and Cuphead’s recent emergence as a Netflix TV series comes as no surprise.

Final thoughts

Cuphead’s DLC is an incredible experience from beginning to end which perfectly captures the signature zany charm of the first game. The Delicious Last Course may well be a tasting menu rather than an all-you-can-eat buffet, but the gameplay sure is delicious and certainly worth ordering!

Want to read our thoughts for the base game? You can read our PlayStation and Switch reviews respectively.

5 out of 5

5