Cuphead The Delicious Last Course Is a Sweet Addendum

I’ve played through all of Cuphead The Delicious Last Course, I did it, I beat it. Wiping the sweat from my brow, I’m here to tell you that the new Cuphead DLC is in fact good.

Cuphead and Mugman are back to take on an all-new isle of difficult bosses and secrets to uncover around this new and wacky area. This time, however, they are asked for help from none other than Ms. Chalice, our golden cup friend from the base game.

Cuphead The Delicious Last Course Is a Sweet Addendum

Being forever stuck in the Astral Plane, Chalice enlists the duo to free her so she can live a normal life and adventure alongside them. Naturally, you’re tasked with defeating the powerful bosses around the island to collect ingredients that, in turn, will be used by the jolly Chef Saltbaker to make a tart so powerful it can bring Chalice out of the Astral Plane forever.

Each fight in Cuphead The Delicious Last Course is more brutal than the last. From mountain yetis that transform and warp into jester sock puppets and other bizarre-looking abominations to buff dogs flying airplanes and shooting tennis balls.

The difficulty in Cuphead remains one of the key pillars of the game. Dying, learning, and eventually mastering the fight is the key to success. My biggest problem still is that completing the “simple” version of the fight won’t count towards progression. It’s a watered-down version of each boss with no third phase, but for some folks, that’s how they interact with this game and doesn’t give them meaningful progression.

This concept is furthered by the new weapons and charms found in The Delicious Last Course. Converge is a powerful screen-wide lightning strike that can be narrowed to focus fire on an enemy, while Crackshot will break into smaller projectiles when it connects with an enemy.

Adding new tools to the arsenal that can be used in the base game gives new life to some of the older content in the game. Players can use all sorts of new strategies with some of the weapons found in the DLC.

However, one of the best new additions in Cuphead The Delicious Last Course is King’s Peak. You’ll find a drop-down ladder on the new isle that brings you up to a claymation castle. Here you’ll have to prove your worth in a series of parry-based boss fights.

The character facilitating the fights will pull a level and a stop-motion style animation of the castle rotating will begin. It’s a neat new trick that Cuphead pulls off and something I never got tired of looking at.

The fights themselves are based around different chess pieces and you’ll need to complete six of them, being rewarded with coins for Porkrind’s shop for each one.

Think of these like the Mauseloum fights from the base game, but cranked up to 11. Of course, you can then spend these well-earned coins in Porkrind’s shop for some new charms. The Delicious Last Course offers a couple of new charms based around having more life but less damage. It’s a nice tradeoff, but one I never used because in order to play as Ms. Chalice you actually need to have a charm equipped.

Chalice, the new playable character operates differently from Mugman and Cuphead. Her parry is actually tied to her dash instead of the jump like our famous duo. This means you’ll need to dash into parryable objects, which changes your whole strategy. She also has an invincibility roll and a double jump. Making her easily the most versatile and mobile of the bunch.

I never found a reason to not play as Chalice through my first run of the DLC, which took roughly 2 and a half hours. Going back as Cuphead or Mugman is an entirely different game. You’ll need to implement new strategies and tactics to take down these bosses. The DLC feels designed around using Chalice but feels attainable with the others.

The final boss of The Delicious Last Course is the hardest fight I’ve experienced in Cuphead, full stop. Studio MDHR really throws the kitchen sink at you. At some points, more than a dozen projectiles were on the screen at the same time. Dodging, parrying, rolling, and dashing through the visual chaos had my palms sweating around every turn. The fight continues to evolve in ways I won’t spoil here, but fans are in for a real treat from this fight.

Overall, Cuphead The Delicious Last Course is short, sweet, and a perfect last morsel to consume.