'Cuphead' is a gorgeous new game that pays homage to classic cartoons — and it's as tough as it is pretty

Video games never look as good as "Cuphead."

Just look at this:

Cuphead

That winking, sinister-looking cigar you see above is one of the game's many bosses. And that frustrated-looking guy with a cup for a head? That's actually not the eponymous "Cuphead," but instead is his trusty partner "Mugman."

The game is so gorgeous because it's hand-drawn — something few games pull off, and no games pull off as well as "Cuphead." The game launched recently on Xbox One and PC, and it's more than just a pretty face.

First things first: What you don't do in "Cuphead" is deal with the devil. Don't! Seriously. He's The Devil!

Jokes aside, that's the main premise of "Cuphead": fulfilling the terms of a deal with the actual devil.

The game starts by Cuphead and his brother Mugman making a devilish mistake: gambling at a casino owned by Lucifer himself. Full of hubris, with dollar signs in his eyes, Cuphead bets it all on a single throw of the dice — and the devil wins, of course. He always does!

For repayment, instead of taking Cuphead's soul, he's sent on a mission to retrieve the soul contracts of the devil's debtors. What does that mean for the game? It means you're facing down a ton of elaborate boss fights, as well as the occasional "run-and-gun" level — think: "Contra," or "Metal Slug."

"Cuphead" is a 2D side-scroller. Remember "Super Mario Bros."? That's a 2D side-scroller. "Cuphead" is reminiscent of games from the Super Nintendo era (early-to-mid-'90s) in terms of how it plays.

There's a lot going on in the image above, I realize, so allow me to break it down:

- Both Cuphead and Mugman are playing through this level, moving from left to right — you can see Cuphead walking along the ceiling, while Mugman is hopping around on the ground.

- Usually, both Cuphead and Mugman (or just one of them) is walking along the ground.

- Cars are moving along from right to left, both on the bottom of the screen and along the ceiling.

- A crazy duck with wheels is an enemy you can either kill or avoid.

- There's a twinkling playing card in the middle of the screen, which flips the level's gravity. You jump toward it, press jump again when you touch it, and suddenly you're walking on the ceiling (or vice versa).

This barrage of stuff is typical of "Cuphead." The image above is of one of the game's run-and-gun levels, meaning you progress from left to right until reaching an endpoint, but a similar barrage of stuff is typical of the game's complex, gorgeous boss fights.

Rather than jumping on the heads of your foes (a la "Super Mario Bros."), Cuphead and Mugman have handguns. I mean that literally — their hands shoot bullets.

You start the game with a standard pea shooter — hold down the button and Cuphead keeps firing, automatically — but can quickly upgrade your weapons. Part of what makes "Cuphead" feel fresh and modern, despite its anachronistic trappings, is stuff like the gun upgrade system.

You find gold coins scattered around the world map, as well as in the run-and-gun levels — those coins can then be traded for new weapons, power-ups (like extra health), and other stuff. At any given time, Cuphead (and Mugman) can only have two weapons equipped. Thus, you must choose carefully for whatever you're doing next; perhaps you're going to fight a boss that is often very close to you, so you should use a short-range weapon. It's more complex than that, but there's a level of tactical depth in "Cuphead" that makes it feel shockingly modern.

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