Cuphead

defeated the bird tonight. that was a fun fight once i figured out that the feathers were easily avoidable. the first time i saw them it was overwhelming! but it wasn't long before i realized i could stay horizontally aligned and only have to dodge a row or two by focusing on the plane and using peripheral vision. right now at the last boss of the 2nd isle, Grim Matchstick. i love the design of this character and the fight.

i am enjoying these multi-phase boss fights a lot. this was a great way to do this game. you feel a sense of progression every time you retry a fight, and it keeps it interesting to keep switching up and improving the different tactics for the different phases. it also gives the makers an excuse to keep switching up the animations and designs, which is a real treat with sprites this large and detailed (and hand drawn, this game is fucking gorgeous - this cannot be said enough).

i got halfway through my first attempt but now i'm overthinking it so i like to step away and come back another day. i usually spend ~1hr per boss learning the moves and getting the skills to defeat them. each boss has a pretty good chill learning curve, no sudden leaps in difficulty. everything is nicely balanced. like the best moments in Castlevania NES it becomes a matter of calculating trajectories of multiple things travelling across the screen at once in varying curves and loops, solving for x through the audio-visual medium of live performance. you find yourself becoming a Math Acrobat.

after getting distracted by Mario/Zelda for a few months i finally beat the train at the end of island 3 and entered the final battle area of Hell. the end area is a really cool take on the Gunstar Heroes dice rolling level. just a bunch of mini bosses in a row and you can roll the dice to try and get as far as possible (or hit bonuses on the gameboard). right now it seems crazy to make it through all these different bosses with one life. but it's only matter of problem solving. figuring out when/how to dodge and when its safe to just go on the offense.

the train boss was very cool here cos the moving platform added another layer to it, figuring out now also when and where to position the platform, keeping an eye out in the sky for the pumpkins dropping pink bombs that may slam you right into a giant skeleton arm if you aren't paying attention. the final part took me a few tries to figure out how to actually injure the boss but again it's as simple as the color scheme. pink/red = parry/jump and there is a big red blinking light. it can't get any clearer than that!

i have played 3 different bosses in the Hell gameboard so far. i beat the killer cigarettes/cigar boss once but used almost all my health. the martini glasses were sort of confusing and may take some puzzle solving. the stack of poker chips? very cool! very Mega Man boss fight here, it sort of reminds me of the giant yellow robot guy that shifted over bit by bit. of course the art and character design in all the bosses is amazing (and the watercolor backgrounds! that train bg in the op rules)

This game is incredible but man, the casino boss is giving me nightmares (fuck you, rabbit magician).

rabbit magician was a huge pain for me cos i could never reliably dodge his attack where the line of playing cards materializes at the top of the screen and sweeps down. he does this attack also occurs from bottom up but that is easier to dodge as you can jump and parry to pink cards as usual. you can parry the top down ones but it is v difficult.

Yeah, the parrying bit is hit or miss for me, but I'm terrible with the skulls as well since I never had much use for the jumping-downwards-from-a-platform move, so I keep messing it up!

I just try my best to avoid him and that damn monkey.

for the skulls i always use the warp dash. you can stand on the platform until they almost get you and then dash out of the way.

Thanks, but I managed to beat King Dice at last this morning! Luck definitely played a part in that (in other words, don't ask me to do it again)

I was relieved The Devil is more like a normal boss fight

FUCK YOU, IRON GIANT ASS BITCH