➤ Cuphead, the review for Nintendo Switch 🎮

Cuphead it's a bad game. But pay attention to the meaning of the adjective: "bad" means the general level of difficulty of the work, its forcing the player to try, try again and again try certain levels before being able to finally bring them to completion. But Cuphead is "bad" also because it sells the Cup Brothers as protagonists, while in reality all the attention is very soon focused on the almost thirty bosses present (19 of which are main ones, the remaining secondary extras). So it happens to remember in a very general way that you have played Cuphead, while some of these rascals have remained well etched in your memory: how many times have you had to repeat the level of Botanical Panic before knocking out that damn overgrown carrot? And the wretched witch who could take on the form and powers of the main zodiac signs? When a video game manages to leave mixed but particularly strong feelings in the players, it usually means that it is a valid game. Cuphead undoubtedly is, and it is one of the most brilliant productions of recent years. And now it's finally available on Nintendo Switch, console that continues to sell millions of units, will be able to realize many players who have missed it on PC and Xbox One. Reading this review of Cuphead for Nintendo Switch will convince you.

Spanish translation: a comeback in style

A year and a half ago Simone Tagliaferri took care of the review of Cuphead on PC, assigning it a very high rating. Probably most of the players who have tried Cuphead over time, even without being able to complete it, will agree with that vote that we feel like re-proposing on Nintendo Switch. The reasons are the most diverse: a highly inspired and visually, technically and graphically very valid artistic direction; a memorable audio sector, with accompanying melodies in the battles that enter the head and never go away, associating them with very specific feelings; charisma, in practically every aspect; a valid gameplay, fun, which sometimes leads to apparently prohibitive levels of difficulty but (with due care) always tackle. And we add again that the conversion for Nintendo Switch is one of the best in the short history of the most recent of Nintendo consoles, however, enriched by one Spanish language translation excellent, fitting and equally inspired.

Let's spend a few words on these news related to the conversion on Nintendo Switch: too often we complain that the most beautiful titles arriving on the market are not translated into Spanish; so once a developer takes the trouble to adapt it, you have to carefully examine how the operation happened. There translation between two different languages it is never simple: it matters little that the dialogues and descriptions are many rather than few; the correspondence between two languages, at all levels, is never perfectly identical. Think for example of the Spanish proverb "it rains a lot": how do you make it in English, so that it represents exactly the same concept? You can't, unless you decide to use something very similar (but never identical): "It's raining cats and dogs". The basins got lost. Anyone who has played Cuphead in English before and returns to Spanish will notice exactly these two things: the first is that there is no direct match in the translation. This is normal, because just as shown in the example above some English expressions and puns cannot be rendered in the Spanish language in the same way.

The second thing you will notice, however, is how well the translation is able to render the meaning of the original language very well. Botanic Panic has become, for example, Botanic Panic: an excellent translation, somehow the original pun remained. The level of genius, however, featured a boss called Djimmi The Great (Djimmi the Great), where Jinn wanted to recall the oriental term that indicates the figure of the genius, a creature in antiquity considered most often malevolent. In Spanish the bad guy has become Eugenio the Genius: okay, Eugenio is a proper name that does not make Jinn, but at least he has recovered some of the initial fantasy effect with the identical termination between the terms (EuGENIO the GENIUS). This attention to translation and fidelity to the original work and language are laudable elements, which must be emphasized and which the attentive player must be aware of.

Performance on Nintendo Switch

We come to the thorny knot of the question: how Cuphead fares on Nintendo Switch, from the point of view of performance? The answer is: very well. The MDHR degree reaches i 1080p e i 60 FPS in TV (or docked) mode, practically never leaving them; there will be two slowdowns on hours and hours of play. In portable mode the graphics sector must give something to the resolution: it goes to 720p, but always accompanied by 60 FPS. An obligatory fluidity in order not to lose any of the liveliness of the situations, of the pressing speed both in the clashes against the dangerous bosses and in the more sporadic (but equally lethal) run & gun levels. Nothing is missing, of course, not even from the point of view of content: nothing has been cut due to the need for capacity on the Nintendo Switch; simply Cuphead really seems to have been born for the Nintendo console, right from the start.

On the other hand, some details show that this is not the case, especially when playing in tabletop or portable mode. First of all i Joy-Con, peripherals as far as possible from the controllers needed for a similar game, simply because they are uncomfortable. You get used to everything logically, but if you have a Pro Controller available, we strongly recommend that you opt for that from the start, and trust me: the difference is the same as between day and night. Furthermore, the smaller screen in portable mode does not help to orientate well in the game levels, especially in the run & gun ones: everything is so frenzied and fast that not distinguishing one element from the other well can lead to immediate death. This is not a problem with the game itself, but a consequence of the reduced and condensed screen in portable mode. Probably, even in this second case, it is possible to get used to: however if you have a nice TV at hand (and the Pro Controller, don't forget the Pro Controller) play with that.

As for the gameplay, as you can easily imagine Cuphead is not a game that ages easily: a year and a half later, not only its charisma it remained unchanged, but its fame has even grown. Fans who immediately spotted its potential continue to praise it; all the other crowd of onlookers that has accumulated and clamored for conversion on the other missing consoles has now been (partially) satisfied. We have no doubt that sooner or later MDHR will present Cuphead 2 to the world, but it will certainly take a long time: first, because for the sequel of such a title it takes care and time to collect ideas; second, because a full-bodied DLC is on the way that among other things will introduce a new playable character, this time female. Yes, the DLC will also arrive on Nintendo Switch. In all of this, and remembering the important and painstaking work of conversion, emphasize that the launch price it has remained the same as a year and a half ago it seems almost derisive. Buy Cuphead and play it.

Comment

Digital Delivery Nintendo eShop Price 19,99 € Resources4Gaming.com

9.2

Readers (50)

8.9

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Cuphead is one of the most fun, particular and charismatic titles of recent times: a year and a half after its first publication on PC and Xbox One, it remains an essential purchase for almost all types of gamers. More than a game in itself, it is almost an experience, which at least once in life must be lived with religious scruple. Nintendo Switch welcomes the production of Studio MDHR in a natural way, as if everything had been meticulously prepared by destiny: the conversion is excellent, the technical sector brilliant, the translation into Spanish at times exciting. All this costs just € 19,90, in a world, the videogame one, which has taught us how much less is offered at times tripled. Cuphead and Mugman await your help, to face the devil once again. Good luck.