Gameplay Journal Entry #9

Cuphead is a game where two brothers must work together to pay off their debt to the devil. The game’s mechanics are simple as it follows a traditional platformer game. The game’s main driving points come from the art. Flanagan mentions, “Critical Play primarily focuses on individual artists or collectives of artists making work because they have something to say” (3). Based on the art style and text within the game, the game is set in the 1930s. This is confirmed by the pause menu that has the 1930s on the bottom left. The artists are trying to speak on the great depression and how many people would turn to gamble to see if they would get lucky and win lots of money. As in real life, this would backfire and, many people found themselves in debt.

Flanagan states, “Critical play means to create or occupy play environments and activities that represent one or more questions about aspects of human life” (6). I believe the artists of Cuphead were able to captivate this perfectly as they did their research on what 1930s art looked like. Even though this is based back in the day, it is still relevant in today’s time. There are still many people in debt, playing the lottery as a hope to get out of it. Using the devil as the literal depiction as the debt collector was also interesting because when referring to companies’ terms, such as evil come up often. Overall they were able to create a strong game using their art.

Flanagan, Mary. Critical Play: Radical Game Design. The MIT Press, 2013.