Cuphead: The Root Pack Designed to Teach Game Mechanics

March 5, 2020 at 1:11am
By Jason Stettner

Cuphead is filled with many magical moments and such a truly unique design to it. According to The Art of Cuphead the first boss fight was special for a particular reason. This area featured the Root Pack which are a series of enemies to battle.

It essentially acts as a welcoming battle. For context, these are situations designed to teach players certain elements of the game while not directly being a tutorial. More info follows on that.

“This fight was designed to help players get to grips with the game’s basic mechanics; Sal Spudder the potato encouraged you to master your jump to avoid his earthworm projectiles, Ollie Bulb the onion forced you to move left and right to avoid his tears showering down from above, and Chauncey Chantenay the carrot tested your aim as you fired projectiles at him diagonally. “

Another neat element is that this battle is “one of the only bosses in the game that uses completely separate characters for each phase instead of bringing one character through a series of transformations.” The book also teases the unused character Beetrice Lutz that was considered for this group. Read our review of the game below, or check out our general hub for additional coverage of the title.

Read our Cuphead Review
View our Cuphead Hub