Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. News

‘Dark Souls’ and ‘Cuphead’ mash-up is a masochist’s dream game

Gabe Gurwin
By

64 Bits - Cupsouls (Dark Souls animated like Cuphead)
Praise the sun and curse your controller. The Dark Souls series — and its first game in particular — are considered to be among the hardest games of the last decade, with brutal boss fights, an unforgiving checkpoint system, and a complex animation-driven combat system. But StudioMDHR’s run-and-gun shooter Cuphead gives Dark Souls a run for its money, and the immensely talented team at 64 Bits imagined what the two games would look like combined together.

Specifically, 64 Bits showed what the Dark Souls games would look like if they were animated in the classic style of Cuphead, and the result has us hoping the game becomes a reality in the future. We see the player attempting to take down Ornstein and Smough using lightning bolt attacks from his fingertips, and Sif, the Great Grey Wolf, transforms from an adorable woodland creature into a vicious beast carrying a sword in its mouth.

Perhaps our favorite boss fight included in the video is High Lord Wolnir from Dark Souls III. The massive creature’s wristbands can be seen on each arm, and it vomits toxic gas.

64 Bits even created the game’s bonfires and environments using a top-down perspective similar to Cuphead‘s overworld, as well as chase sequences which utilize an isometric view. Naturally, the two adventures are eventually squashed, resulting in the classic “you died’ message displaying on the screen. Anyone who has ever played the Dark Souls series or Bloodborne is quite familiar with these two words, and likely cursed at their television when they saw them appear.

This actually isn’t the first time we’ve seen Dark Souls make the jump to 2D. To promote 2016’s Dark Souls III, Bandai Namco released a mobile endless-runner game called Slashy Souls. Unlike the game on which it is based, it received horrendous reviews. Still, we’d love to see a proper side-scrolling game in the series at some point. The closest thing we have right now is Ska Studios’ Salt and Sanctuary, which uses a similar combined currency and experience system, as well as open-ended environments and brutal bosses.

Cuphead is available now for Xbox One and PC. Dark Souls III is available now for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Soul Hackers 2 could have been the perfect Game Pass RPG
Soul Hackers 2 cast

Atlus created quite a bit of fanfare earlier this year when it announced that the Persona series would arrive on Xbox in October. But that isn’t the only JRPG the publisher had in store for Xbox owners this year. Soul Hackers 2 was a big get for Microsoft, bringing the Shin Megami Tensei style of gameplay to its systems with a fresh release. It launched at the end of August without nearly as much excitement as Persona — Persona 5’s Xbox release date announcement seemed to overshadow Soul Hackers 2’s entire existence.

According to Famitsu, Soul Hackers 2 sold an estimated 51,861 physical copies in Japan during its launch week across both PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4. While this doesn’t include digital download numbers, this is still well below Shin Megami Tensei V’s launch week numbers of 143,247 physical copies sold in Japan.

Read more
Alone in the Dark: release date speculation, trailers, gameplay, and more
A man shoots a zombie in Alone in the Dark.

Horror games have an interesting lineage. Most gamers' first real exposure to what we consider the template for "modern" horror was the original Resident Evil or perhaps Silent Hill. However, even those games had clear influences. One was a somewhat obscure Japanese game called Sweet Home, but in terms of 3D horror, Alone in the Dark was an experience like nothing else. Based on the unique cosmic horror writing of H.P. Lovecraft, this series, unfortunately, saw a fast fall from grace in its sequels.

Despite a few leaks, most were still caught off guard by the announcement that Alone in the Dark would not only be coming back but be an apparent reboot of the series that aims to take it back to its survival-horror roots. There are nearly as many mysteries surrounding this revival of this historic IP as there are in its narrative, but we've braved the dark corners of the internet to bring you everything we know about Alone in the Dark.

Read more
NetEase Games acquires Heavy Rain developer Quantic Dream
Heavy Rain

NetEase Games has acquired Quantic Dream, making it the Chinese company's first European games studio.

William Ding, CEO and director of NetEase, says in a statement that "by combining the wild creativity and exceptional narrative focus of Quantic Dream with NetEase's powerful facilities, resources, and execution capabilities, we believe there are infinite possibilities that could redefine the interactive entertainment experience we provide for players worldwide."

Read more