Jazz music gives this video game a more interesting look

If you saw screen-grabs of Cuphead, you would be forgiven for thinking it was some weird 1930s vintage cartoon that you probably never heard of. Surprisingly enough, this art style has never appeared in videogames before and despite that, it works, especially when paired with the carefully selected jazz soundtrack.

The story is simple -- Cuphead and his brother Mugman visit a casino, and at the end of a massive gambling streak are challenged by the devil on a wager for their souls. The devil, of course, wins and the brothers end up owing a debt to the devil. After bargaining and pleading with the devil, the brothers are allowed to keep their souls.

However, in return, the duo must collect souls of the devil's defaulters. Needless to say, the defaulters are boss monsters that you need to eventually defeat.

After the short intro video, you are presented with a map very similar to the style of Mario Bros, where you can move from one challenge to another.

The challenges are available in two modes. The easier one lets you open up the map, but it won't help you collect the defeated souls.

For that you have to play the harder mode. The game forces you to replay the same stage several times, till you get it right. This increases the overall satisfaction when you eventually defeat a boss.

To master each stage, you need to figure out a strategy and though it might seem a little complicated initially, you will get used to it.

So much of Cuphead just works -- the game looks unique, the music is well thought out, it is a lot of fun to play and extremely difficult, but not impossible.

The game also works on a basic PC and for the fraction of the price of a big studio game, Cuphead stands tall above all its holiday season competitors.