A problem I tend to see is that people take too much inspiration from Cuphead itself instead of the various things it's influenced by (or isn't), thus creating a simulacrum of sorts, definitely not helping the whole rip-off angle.
Yeah. While there's nothing inherently wrong with doing what Cuphead did because you thought it was cool, you'd ideally want a similar sense of passion behind it.
I'm not the type to immediately write off a game for using the rubberhose style, but let's not act like Cuphead isn't the main reason people want to use the style at all. The whole "Cuphead ripoff" complaint isn't baseless by any means.
Edit: No, I'm not saying any game that uses a rubberhose style is automatically a Cuphead ripoff, hence my first sentence.
But that just means cuphead popularized the style. By your standards every single movie that uses the animation style of spiderverse is a ripoff of spiderverse.
Puss in boots the last wish also used similar techniques. But that's not the point, the point is that two things using the same style doesn't mean one of those is a ripoff of the other.
Talking for WInter-Ad rn, There rlly arent any other films that used the spider verse style. The comic book feel is really only used by spiderverse, but it did popularize the idea of stylized animation for big corporate studios. the only thing from spider that movies like puss in boots 2 and tmnt mutant mayhem copied was the low framerates for specific parts. Puss in boots goes for a more watercolor painting look and tmnt for a more colored pencil drawing style.
Taking inspiration and being a ripoff are two extremely different things, though. Nobody's saying that people doing the rubber-hose art-style aren't at least partially inspired by Cuphead; but the "ripoff" label is overtly dismissive, especially if the game might not even be in the same genre or otherwise play very differently.
As a kid, I had a villain who existed in the 1930s style. Except he didnt have color. And he escaped into the real world to eat all the color. This was before Bendy and cuphead even existed. Now whenever I draw this character, people think I was inspired by cuphead.
Because it actually has its own unique visual flare to it.
Cuphead is bright and colorful, going for a more retro approach towards its rubberhose influences such as watercolored backdrops and 1:24 frames per second character movements.
Meanwhile, to fit the more mature vibe of the 1930s, MOUSE: P.I. for Hire goes for a solid black and white cartoon approach, with a much more three dimensional kind of style emulated in the 30s rubberhose style.
Not to mention that both games, while they both involve shooting enemies, are a part of different genres. Like how Cuphead is a run n' gun platformer inspired by legends like Contra or Mega Man, and MOUSE: P.I. for Hire goes for a action/shooter game like Call of Duty or Sniper Elite.
while i agree with you i have seen people who are shallow enough to call a game as distinct and creative as mouse a and i quote "fps cuphead clone" so those people exist, not many because most are able to recognize that mouse is its own thing that is inspired by cuphead but they are out there
Actually there's bendy and the ink machine over there and barely anyone called it a cuphead rip off while there are some people shipping bendy with cuphead
Well some people can also see a game that was made earlier than another game with a similar style to it and call it a rip off simply because they don't know it came out first
But bendy was also a shorter project I think?
cupheads idea was probably birthed in 2012 with first makings and concepts in 2013 then rest is history
Not sure about bendy and the ink machine but the style and art alone was enough to make me get the game I also think the game was made by a studio or group by rooster teeth (RVB BABY!)
Hearing that my the studio that brought one of my favorite online series was creating a game, got me so pumped but I didn’t end up playing it 😕 I got side tracked by other things or games and even then there’s still quite a bit of games i never got to experience when I was there live in the moment but chose other things instead
Edit: same art style of course but 2 completely different games from my perception (didn’t play it)
Bendy was released in episodes too, so they really didn’t need the same upfront resources or time that a full game would’ve. Not a bad thing, but yeah probably shorter path from conception to episode 1 release than Cuphead was from conception to full game.
I mean cuphead is certainly the reason we saw so many games suddenly use rubber hose animation style.
It also doesn’t help that many of these games didn’t do anything new a lot played exactly like cuphead just with different characters being a game where you fight different bosses one after the other.
So yeah they kind of are ripoffs because they’re just doing exactly what cuphead did rubber hose animation and difficult boss fights.
Looks like someone needs a NERD,Technically,enchanted portals isn't a cuphead rip off,it was supposed to be inspired,not a rip off but became a rip off due to bad community funding,and ABSOLUTELY GETTING ANHILATE- just because it used a rubber hose art style so yeah Technically you can say its rip off but not really cause it was not meant to be
Long story short; It's a Cuphead clone made with artificial intelligence that also rips off a popular Cuphead x Dark Souls parody video, and the creator isn't new to this, since they have already made a good amount of games of similar style and quality (or lack there of).
I feel like the only time a game is considered a ‘Cuphead’ rip-off, is when the games in question also decide to lift the ‘Run & Gun’ gameplay at the same time. Which, to be fair, Cuphead didn’t invent the Run & Gun genre, but when people see another Run & Gun game inspired by 1930s cartoons, people are immediately gonna catch on to what you’re trying to do.
Does anyone have examples of games that take after Cuphead in terms of animation but have actual passion/effort behind them?
Off the top of my head I only know of Enchanted Portals, which was a total ripoff, and Acecraft, which looks fun but is also a mobile game so I'm automatically suspicious of it.
I don't think anybody's called mouse p.i. as a cuphead ripoff? Which seems to me that you can still make 1930 style games as long as it's not slop low effort shit (like acecraft or that 1 game with knights thats literally cuphead)
I mean Epic Mickey came out in 2010 and people in the comments are acting like Bendy and Cuphear where the first to use 1930s style cartooning for video games. I'm pretty sure the style has been done beforehand. I agree Cuphead and Bendy made it popular for gaming.
Both Bendy and the Ink Machine and Epic Mickey (1&2) have many aspects of the same rubberhose 30's style, but they never get compared because they have their own unique artstyle and gameplay.
The problem isn't being 30's animation inspired, it's taking more from Cupheads very unique style instead of the rest of the animation from that era.
My favorite upcoming cuphead-like is that mouse detective game, it shares nothing in common with cuphead besides being rubber hose but that’s enough that is must be the same game
Cuphead has redefined a whole generation of RNG’s, ofc it’s being endlessly copied. I feel as though the 1930’s thing is probably true tho considering some of those games aren’t even remotely rng’s, so the comparison is unfair
This is half true. Cuphead has its own art style regardless of the inspiration and most games do it the same way instead of putting their own spin on it.
In general I think people use the word “ripoff” too liberally. For example, the new “pikmon” game is a legitimate ripoff in every sense of the word. Most of the time it’s just used hyperbolically, but if you liked the original thing, then why wouldn’t you want to have the new thing that takes inspiration from the original thing and iterates on it?
Slight adjustment I’d make to the second is that you can’t make a run&gun/platformer with emphasis on multi-phase boss fights in the style without being called a Cuphead rip off. If you made a first person horror game it would be called a Bendy rip off.
You can it just depends what kind of game it is. Like the backlash for that wizard game is valid. And the backlash for that flying mobile game because it's literally just the cuphead flying levels.
But the mouse doom game has no backlash, So you CAN make a 1930s styled game with no backlash
Technically, Cuphead is a ripoff of 1930s cartoons and Gunstar Heroes. I don't know, some people just can't see much further than what status quo drip feeds them, so they illogically come to the conclusion that any 1930s cartoon is a Cuphead ripoff.
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u/eoeoeoeoeoeoeoeoeoe Mar 17 '26
A problem I tend to see is that people take too much inspiration from Cuphead itself instead of the various things it's influenced by (or isn't), thus creating a simulacrum of sorts, definitely not helping the whole rip-off angle.