Cuphead looks like a lost 1930s cartoon and plays like a relentless bullet hell that has made seasoned gamers break controllers. This episode follows Chad and Jared Moldenhauer from a childhood in Regina, Saskatchewan watching VHS compilations of golden age animation, through a shelved attempt in 2000, to the 2010 revival inspired by Super Meat Boy and the founding of Studio MDHR, funded by remortgaging their own homes.

We dig into the game's slavish devotion to Fleischer Studios style rubber hose animation, with every frame hand-drawn on paper and backgrounds painted in real watercolor, and the technical trick of running gameplay logic at 60 frames per second while locking the visuals at 24. We also cover the parry system, the four-year wait for The Delicious Last Course and its new character Ms. Chalice, the sales and merchandising boom,  ...