Speedrunner dances his way to a ‘Cuphead’ victory, beats every boss

By Gabe Gurwin October 9, 2017

Cuphead is a difficult game, to say the least. It can take hours of perseverance to defeat some of the 2D shooter’s late-game bosses, and by the end of the game, you might have to break a few controllers. No one told that to Twitch streamer PeekingBoo, however, as he managed to beat the entire game using a Dance Dance Revolution cabinet.

Using two dance pads attached to each other — for two players in its intended game — PeekingBoo was able to control Cuphead in all four directions, allowing him to shoot, dash, and jump, and even use his special ability. While he does run into a few hiccups related to the game’s tiny window for parrying projectiles, the game footage is hard to distinguish from that of a player using a traditional controller.

On the platforming stages, Cuphead moves continuously to the right as he blasts enemies standing in his way, but the bosses are another story. They often require you to flip around and shoot at enemies to the left, and with the DDR setup PeekingBoo used, that meant stepping all the way across the dance pad.

Once PeekingBoo entered the game’s final area, he truly showed what a dance champion is capable of in Cuphead. Taking on the outrageously difficult King Dice, it only took him two tries to successfully parry the most difficult attack with ease. He then took on the game’s final boss and beat him on his very first try, using a few cheesy techniques in order to avoid taking damage and end the battle in its first stage — this fight took several Digital Trends writers a few hours to complete.

His final playtime for Cuphead clocked in at fewer than 90 minutes, while a typical skilled run of the game can easily take five or more hours. Check out his Twitch channel for Dance Dance Revolution speedruns of Super Mario 64, Sonic Mania, and even Splatoon 2.

Cuphead is available now for Xbox One and Windows 10. If you’re struggling, check out our tips and tricks guide, or switch from a standard controller to some Donkey Konga bongo drums.

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Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…

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