For one thing, when you imitate–especially so closely–another work, you put yourself in direct competition and comparison with that original, which in EP’s case is such a poor choice: the art, music, design, and overall flair is not anywhere near the level of polished, cohesive, or original as Cuphead, which will be reflected in critical reception.įor another thing, it is a waste of talent that could actually be strengthened by original thought. Just because something is hard to do doesn’t mean it justifies being done, and I think this game is a great representation of why nigh-plagiaristic imitation weakens a work. I can recognise the work put in, because it takes some amount of skill and definitely a lot of time to make any game.īut–because of course that was coming–I don’t think effort alone is worthy of success or praise in the absence of independent artistic vision. (Unsurprisingly, no other games, though, to the best of my knowledge). Which frankly is itself interesting, for lack of a better word, because that’s a lot of work to make the closest thing possible to an existing IP without crossing legal lines and both creators have openly cited Cuphead as inspiration. Specifically, they wanted to make Cuphead about it: everything from the 30s cartoon-inspired art style, jazz soundtrack, level design, game-play, and several bosses are direct and undeniable imitations of Cuphead. It’s what happens when two people loved Cuphead so much they decided to make a game about it.

Okay, so since it’s been on my mind all week, I want to talk about the whole Enchanted Portals situation and you’re all going to have to suffer through that, you’re welcome.īasically, if you don’t know, it’s a Cuphead… fanwork, I think is the best way to say it.

Enchanted portals cuphead reddit