“Cuphead” is a lively, upbeat run-and-gun platformer video game made in the style of early 1930s-esque animation, with large inspiration from early cartoons such as Betty Boop, Popeye, and Mickey Mouse. The game is a breath of fresh air into the stale clones that the games industry has been pumping out in the recent years.

You play as the protagonist of Cuphead. The story is brothers Cuphead and Mugman stray too far away from home, and go to a casino where they wager their souls with the Devil, in exchange for the whole casino. Cuphead loses his gamble, and to save he and his brother’s souls, he needs to collect contracts from runaway debtors who have wagered with the Devil, and to do this, you need to engage in brawl with the debtors. The story of Cuphead owes itself to the darker tones of classic cartoons.

The gameplay is fast-paced, and fun. The brass music playing throughout is jazzy, jaunty, and truly immerses you in the aesthetic of the vintage imagery. Cuphead is also rather difficult, requiring you to constantly restart levels to strategize on how to proceed, but with the quick pace of the game, it isn’t arduous to trial and error. With the game’s bounciness, it keeps you motivated to keep playing, and not be mad about it. The enemies are charmingly comical, and visually pop with the cherubic look of the game. It can be played both single-player, and in two-player couch co-op.

You can get “Cuphead” on Xbox One and PC for $20, and that’s a great price for a new release. I wouldn’t recommend it to new gamers, because of the difficulty, or those who prefer strictly gratuitous violence for a good time being they might find this too lighthearted for their liking. Still, if you’re looking for a challenge, and a cheap, innocent time, you could do a lot worse than “Cuphead”.