Cuphead
A 2017 Platform Game.
Cuphead and Mugman are two humanoid creatures which find a casino owned by Satan himself, here called The Devil, and begin to play in it. Despite having a stroke of initial luck, they soon find themselves on serious debt after losing too many times, and the owner asks for their souls. Cuphead and Mugman plead for an alternative, and the Devil gives them one: collect other debtors' souls in 24 hours. Left without options, Cuphead and Mugman begin the hunt.
Developed by StudioMDHR.
Tropes used in Cuphead include:
- Amusement Park: Inkwell Isle Two is set in a carnival.
- Bait and Switch Boss: Subverted. At first it seems Werner Herman is the boss of Murine Corps, but at the end of his second phase he is eaten by a cat and that seems to be the actual boss.After defeating the cat, his face drops off, revealing that Herman was controlling the cat the whole time.
- Big Bad: The Devil, which gets the souls of the protagonists and forces them to collect the souls of other debtors.
- Boss-Only Level: All bosses are fight in stages like these. At best, you fight multiple bosses one after another.
- Brains and Brawn: Wally Warbles and his son Willy work like that, with Wally using most physical attacks while Willy uses ray guns and eggs which are floating around. Willy references the trope by name in his death screen.
- Casino Park: King Dice is fought inside a level set in a casino, with a roulette determining what mini-boss(or not) the player will fight, with one of the mini-bosses being a pile of chips, between other casino elements.
- Deal with the Devil: Cuphead, Mugman, and the other debtors all did one, but aside of the heroes is never explained what the others asked for.
- Interface Spoiler: The lack of a KO screen always means the boss survived.
- King Mook: Rumor Honeybottoms isn't just literally a queen bee, but other bees attack the players characters as the fight goes.
- Turns Red: All bosses change their patterns for the worse as the fight goes.