Cuphead

Cuphead
Official artwork of Cuphead from Cuphead.
Universe	Cuphead
Debut	Cuphead (2017)
Smash Bros. appearances	Ultimate
Most recent non-Smash appearance	Cuphead (2017)
Console/platform of origin	Microsoft Windows, Xbox One
Species	Cup
Gender	Male
Place of origin	Inkwell Isles
Created by	Chad Moldenhauer Jared Moldenhauer
Article on Wikipedia	Cuphead

Cuphead (カップヘッド, Cuphead) is the eponymous main character of the indie-developed run-and-gun platformer, Cuphead. He is an anthropomorphic teacup whose design pays homage to vintage cartoon characters like Felix the Cat and Mickey Mouse.

Origin

Cuphead lives in the Inkwell Isles with his brother, Mugman, and their guardian, the Elder Kettle. One day, despite the Elder Kettle's many warnings, the brothers wandered far away from their home and found themselves at the Devil's Casino. Their winning streak at Craps impressed the casino's owner, the Devil, who tempted them by betting all of the casino's riches, promising to take away the brothers' souls should they lose. Blinded by greed and ignorant of his brother's warning, Cuphead rolled the dice, but ultimately lost the gamble. With the brothers pleading for their lives spared, the Devil cut a deal with them, letting them live should they retrieve the Soul Contracts of the debtors who previously gambled with him. After receiving a potion from the Elder Kettle that allows them to fire bullets by snapping their fingers, the brothers set off to collect the Soul Contracts.

Along their journey, Cuphead and Mugman are helped by friendly residents of the isles and challenged by the runaway debtors, who put up a fight to prevent their contracts from being taken. In the isles' mysterious Mausoleums, they encounter the spirit of the Legendary Chalice, who provides the brothers with powerful Super Arts but often finds herself captured by other ghosts. Once Cuphead and Mugman return all of the contracts, the Devil offers them the choice of handing the contracts to him and having them join his team. When they refuse, the Devil is enraged and challenges them himself. The brothers finally defeat the Devil and burn the Soul Contracts, releasing the debtors from his grasp and causing everyone to celebrate.

In The Delicious Last Course, a downloadable campaign, Cuphead and Mugman travel to the previously-unseen Inkwell Isle 4 at the behest of the Legendary Chalice. She gives the brothers a mysterious Astral Cookie that, when eaten, causes her to temporarily swap places with one of them — she comes back to life as Ms. Chalice, while the brother she swaps places with becomes a ghost himself. The cookie was baked by Chef Saltbaker, a beloved cook across the lands, whose treats contain mysterious powers. Saltbaker asks the three cups to retrieve ingredients for his latest recipe, the Wondertart, which will give Ms. Chalice total control over the Astral Plane, allowing her to come back to life permanently. To do so, the cups must fight the residents of Inkwell Isle 4 for the ingredients they each harbor.

When Cuphead, Mugman, and Ms. Chalice retrieve all the ingredients and return to Chef Saltbaker's bakery, the chef reveals that the recipe requires one more ingredient: a living soul, which he intends to accomplish by cooking one of the three. Now mad with power and ready to control the Astral Plane himself, he challenges the remaining duo to a battle over their souls. The cups ultimately triumph, and Saltbaker's bakery is destroyed in the ensuing scuffle. Ms. Chalice decides that coming back to life isn't worth sacrificing someone's soul, but embraces her new friendship with Cuphead and Mugman. Meanwhile, Saltbaker is arrested and sentenced to community service, eventually learning his lesson and reforming for the better.

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

As a Mii Costume

The Cuphead Mii costume in Ultimate.

Cuphead serves as the basis of the Cuphead Hat and Outfit DLC Mii Costume for the Mii Gunner. He is the second independent game character to appear as a Mii costume, following Sans. Upon downloading the costume, the song Floral Fury is unlocked as an additional music track in the "Other" category. Like Sans, Cuphead appears as a fully modeled character; his "mask" is just his head, instead of a mask with the Mii's face visible like other character-based costumes. Much like in his game, his "gun" is simply his hand in reference to the myriad of attacks that Cuphead performs by making a gun formation with his fingers. He was revealed during the Mr. Sakurai Presents "Byleth" presentation on January 14, 2020.

During the reveal trailer, the Mii Gunner representing Cuphead is first seen in the opening with an imitation of the storybook-style opening of Cuphead, with the screenshot closely matching to its first "page". The screenshot features a Villager using a bug net on the Tortimer Island stage with Grams in the background, with Villager representing Mugman, the stage referencing Cuphead and Mugman's home on Inkwell Isle One, and Grams representing their caretaker, Elder Kettle. The Mii Gunner is next seen shooting his finger gun on the Dream Land stage, with the stage referencing the forest levels on Inkwell Isle One. The Mii Gunner is next seen battling Piranha Plant, a blue Kirby, a green Charizard, and Falco on the Mushroomy Kingdom stage, with the first three fighters each representing Cagney Carnation (whose theme song, "Floral Fury", is the track included with the costume), Goopy Le Grande, Grim Matchstick, and Wally Warbles, while the stage references the sepia colour palette and grained filter of Cuphead. The ending image features the Mii Gunner on the New Pork City stage, referencing the Devil's Casino, which is used in his spirit battle.

The Mii Gunner's moveset in the reveal trailer is similar to the weapons from the game: Bomb Drop mirrors the Lobber, and forward smash and forward aerial both mirror the Peashooter. Additionally, the screen's scrolling, the Mii Gunner's usage of projectiles, and the usage of Stamina mode all reference the "Run-and-Gun" minigames that appear in the game.

Cuphead was released alongside the other Round 5 Mii Fighter costumes on January 16th, 2020.

Spirit

Cuphead appears as an Ace-class primary spirit, released via the Spirit Board event Ready? Wallop! on February 14, 2020.

Cuphead uses a Mega Man puppet fighter if the player has not purchased the Cuphead DLC costume; if the player has already purchased said costume, Cuphead will use a Mii Gunner puppet fighter in the costume instead. Cuphead is fought on the New Pork City stage's Ω form. He is fought alongside a Giant Peach Team, representing the Root Pack trio, the first boss(es) in Cuphead. During the battle, the player's fighter must defeat the puppet fighter in order to win. Also, the Giant Peach Team uses the same attacks, referencing how the Root Pack uses the same attacks during their boss battle.

No.	Image	Name	Type	Class	Slots	Base	Max	Base	Max	Base	Max	Ability	Series
1,398		Cuphead		★★★	1	3222	9715	1641	4948	1343	4048	Shooting Items Power ↑	Cuphead

Names in other languages

Language	Name
Japanese	カップヘッド, Cuphead
English	Cuphead
French	Cuphead
German	Tassilo
Spanish	Cuphead
Italian	Cuphead
Chinese (Simplified)	茶杯头
Chinese (Traditional)	Cuphead
Korean	컵헤드, Cuphead
Dutch	Cuphead
Russian	Чашек

Trivia

A comparison of Cuphead's intro (top) with its reference in his reveal trailer (bottom).

• Cuphead is the first Mii Costume to have a pre-rendered segment in his trailer.
  • Cuphead is also the first Mii costume implied to have received an invitation.
• Cuphead is also the first DLC Mii Costume to appear in a Spirit Battle: specifically, those of Cuphead himself and his brother Mugman. If the costume is not purchased, the Mii Gunner is replaced with a red Mega Man.
• Sans and Cuphead, as Mii Costumes, share several distinctions between them:
  • Like Sans, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate marks Cuphead's first video game appearance in 3D.
  • As both of their games' logos are white, their reveal trailers contrast them against a black background, with the black color of Ultimate's logo being inverted accordingly.
  • Cuphead is the second Mii costume to come with a song. Unlike Sans, however, Floral Fury is directly ripped from an existing source, rather than being a remix.
• As a reference to inconsistencies seen in posters for cartoons from the 1930s and 1940s, Cuphead has different colorations seen across his home game, with the in-game appearance using white gloves and brown shoes, the results screen appearance using yellow gloves and brown shoes, and the overworld map appearance using white gloves and yellow shoes. However, Cuphead's spirit in Ultimate is edited from its basis (being that of the results screen), changing his yellow gloves to white. This was likely done to have it match with the in-game appearance of Cuphead (both in his home game and Ultimate), which uses the white gloves. Mugman's spirit received a similar change as well.
• Cuphead's gun hand is noticeably larger than his other hand, most likely due to the size of Mii Gunner's gun by comparision.

External links

Articles on Wikia and Gamepedia.