Enchanted Portals - The Virgin Answer to the Chad Cuphead

[Deogracias]

I didn't see anyone discussing this trainwreck, so I thought why the hell not? This is exactly the kind of game that deserves to be both discussed and made fun of. But in case you've been living under a rock...

Part One: A Troubled Beginning

So unless you've been in a coma since October of 2013 and just now woke up, then you're probably more than aware of a little indie game called Cuphead. To say that the game was a success both financially and critically would be an understatement of the decade. In fact, it was so influential that two Spanaids no one ever heard of saw the game and thought to themselves "Hey, we can do that too! What could go wrong?"

Well, how about fucking everything for starters?

The trouble first began immediately with the reveal of the teaser trailer for the project.

Did you notice a vague similarity to Cuphead? Well, your average person certainly did. This video alone has 15k dislikes to a meager 28K likes and outcries of "Cuphead Clone!" filled comment sections anywhere the game was discussed.

Even Facebook Normies took the time out of posting family and pet photos to clown on the devs!

Even so, the devs went ahead and opened a fundraiser on Kickstarter, which you can view here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/playenchanted/enchanted-portals-a-magical-coop-2d-platformer

So, how did it go? I mean, worse things have been funded there, right?

Oh. Oh my.

Add in some controversy about Native American eagles riding on a buffalo as a boss (No, really, that actually happened) and you would be forgiven if you forgot about the game entirely. Most people wrote the game off as a lost cause that would never see the light of day.

But if that was the end of the story, this thread wouldn't exist.

Part Two: An Unexpected (And Mostly Unwanted) Comeback

The devs went radio silent for about two years on all social media, only returning briefly in September of 2022 to address the Native American controversy, in which they replaced said Injuns with generic cowboys.

Even so, the few people who even gave enough of a crap to keep taps on the developers were surprised they were still trying to keep going despite overwhelmingly negative reception. They released a teaser trailer in June 2023 that didn't get much traffic but their troubles didn't really resurface until their release date trailer.

If you watched the first trailer I posted and then this one, did you notice anything... peculiar? Like the animation somehow looks choppier and less polished compared to their Kickstarter trailer? Several gamers certainly did, as well as several features that appear to have been cut completely.

Despite this, many people were still willing to give the game a fair shake when released. I mean, what could be the worst that could happen-

Yeeeeeaaaaahh... Everyone who was skeptical of the game was instantly validated. Almost no one gave this game any genuine praise.

Part Three: What Went Wrong?

Aside from trying and failing to emulate one of the biggest indie success stories in recent memory, what exactly soured people to Enchanted Portals? Well, having watched several videos by people who actually played it and watching a longplay of the game, I can narrow down the main problems to the following:

1. Lackluster Animation

It can not be stressed enough: Enchanted Portals might vaguely resemble an art style similar to Cuphead, but it is not the same animation style as Cuphead. Cuphead used painstakingly hand-drawn, frame-by-frame animation. Enchanted Portals cheated with rigs and puppets. Now, this doesn't have to be a bad thing; after all The Cuphead Show also used rigs to speed production. However, The Cuphead Show still used a lot of frame-by-frame elements to hide the use of rigs and puppets; only the most autistic of animation spergs would be able to tell the difference. Enchanted Portals, however, abused tweening like a 2003 Newgrounds animation made by your 12-year-old cousin you don't see except on holidays. You just can't draw rubber hose-style characters and not animate them like rubber hose characters. It just doesn't work.

Also a complete lack of transitions from one phase to another, a lack of death animation, and even a lack of transition from one section of the game to another. Sections will just randomly begin and end like a harsh jump cut.

2. Terrible Controls

From people who played it, the controls are said to be stiff, unresponsive, and floaty. It doesn't help that the keyboard controls (playing a platformer on a keyboard, lmao) are all squished together like you're expected to play the game entirely with your left hand instead of utilizing the entire keyboard with both hands. Even people playing on a proper controller complain of having to remap the controls to somewhat be able to play the game. But that segways nicely to the next point of contention...

3. Lack of Saving.

There is no saving whatsoever in this game. At all. Every time you boot up the game, you have to start the game from the very beginning. You got to the second to last boss of the game and had to turn the game off to go to bed? Fuck you, go back to the haunted forest level at the very start of the game. You painstakingly remapped the controls to your liking? Fuck you, the game forgot your selections, remap your controller again, moron. Even the damn checkpoints provided in the run and gun levels don't even work! Speaking of...

4. Too Many Run and Guns... That Suck Ass.

Pop Quiz: What's the worst part of Cuphead? If you answered "The Run and Gun" levels, you are correct. Even the biggest fans of Cuphead will admit they don't care for those sections and it's no wonder not a single one was implemented in the DLC. You would think someone trying to make a clone of Cuphead would take out the worst part of Cuphead. Well, not only did they not do that, they doubled down. In fact, not only did they double down, but the run and gun sections were procedurally generated. Say what you will about the run and gun sections in Cuphead, at least they were handcrafted with care. In Enchanted Portals, not only are enemy placements completely randomized, with enemies sometimes both appearing and disappearing into thin air at random, but so are the traps.

Also, way too long. Like, several minutes too long. And don't think you can just rush through; that's just inviting twenty of the same enemy type to gangbang your stupid ass.

5. Sound Effects... or Rather, the Lack of.

The big one. You might be thinking "So what? They just used a bunch of stock sound effects?" And yes, that is true, but this is a rare situation where they didn't use enough. Watch a compilation of the boss battles and you'll notice that they are shockingly quiet. As if the world was partially put on mute. Enemies attack and fire with not so much as a peep. It's strange and unnerving in a way that you can't understand until you see it for yourself. Sound design is something that's easy to take for granted until you watch something that's missing so much of it.

Part Four: So What Now?

It's barely been two weeks and the negative reviews, negative videos, and negative comments are still pouring in. Enchanted Portals cost a whopping $19.99, the same price as Cuphead, minus the DLC and soundtrack. There are rumors that the devs have been blocking anyone giving even the most fair criticism of the game but I can't verify that.

So I want to open the floor to my fellow Kiwis. Have you watched any footage, seen someone play it, or heaven forbid, played it yourself? And if so, did you or your friend at least get to refund the game?

Dev's Facebook Account: https://www.facebook.com/PlayEnchanted/

Dev's YouTube Account: https://www.youtube.com/@xixogamesstudio1440

Dev's Twiiter: https://twitter.com/PlayEnchanted?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^author

Here's a video that discusses that whole "Native American" controversy I mentioned earlier:

I'm spoiling this next part for length, but here are some pretty good videos explaining the many, many problems of the game if you want to see more of what everyone has been talking about.

Spoiler: Three vids of increasing length

But hey, it's not all bad!

...the soundtrack is okay. About the only thing people don't hate about it.

You know, if you ignore that it's mostly just the same song remixed again and again with different instruments and genres.

(Damn, everything about this game is cursed...)

 

[Ogre Magi]

I still haven't played Cuphead and don't really plan on it. I guess sidescroller shoot 'em ups just aren't really my thing.

That being said, this was a great read to catch me up to speed with game dev drama I had no idea about. It being in Kickstarter development hell reminds me of a bunch of other projects that had similar fates. Why did these devs think they could outdo Cuphead? Beyond stupid to attempt. Maybe if they added their own take to it in some way? It didn't seem much different from the footage that you posted.

Very well written OP!

 

[Breadbassket]

I remember seeing discussion about this game but thought it died in the development stage. I'm amazed they got it released at all honestly.

The big issue with making things that are heavily inspired by other great objects of attention in the same field is that it makes your creation very easy to tear down and criticize its problems. In this case though, the experience just seems bad in general despite the visual artistic merit in it. Hopefully the developers can turn things around if they choose to do so at all.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

They wanted $128k for a shittier Cuphead? Lol

 

[Deogracias]

I still haven't played Cuphead and don't really plan on it. I guess sidescroller shoot 'em ups just aren't really my thing.

That being said, this was a great read to catch me up to speed with game dev drama I had no idea about. It being in Kickstarter development hell reminds me of a bunch of other projects that had similar fates. Why did these devs think they could outdo Cuphead? Beyond stupid to attempt. Maybe if they added their own take to it in some way? It didn't seem much different from the footage that you posted.

Very well written OP!

Thank you! First time I did something that required even a modicum of research.

To be fair to the devs, they have said multiple times that they weren't trying to outdo Cuphead (and no way they could with no budget and only two people, ha), but they were simply inspired by Cuphead and wanted to make a tribute to the game they enjoyed.

They very obviously failed.

 

[ShitLurker]

I remember seeing discussion about this game but thought it died in the development stage. I'm amazed they got it released at all honestly.

The big issue with making things that are heavily inspired by other great objects of attention in the same field is that it makes your creation very easy to tear down and criticize its problems. In this case though, the experience just seems bad in general despite the visual artistic merit in it. Hopefully the developers can turn things around if they choose to do so at all.

Pretty much, I'm a Mega Man fan, I'm perfectly fine playing more of the same if it's properly executed. But if you are going to swing on the "HEAVILLY inspired" ball, you better not miss or this happens, your game doesn't just get panned for being bad, it gets double panned for being unable to follow a blueprint properly or add any flair to it.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

Pretty much, I'm a Mega Man fan, I'm perfectly fine playing more of the same if it's properly executed. But if you are going to swing on the "HEAVILLY inspired" ball, you better not miss or this happens, your game doesn't just get panned for being bad, it gets double panned for being unable to follow a blueprint properly or add any flair to it.

Yeah, I like game clones if done right. The best ones either recapture what made the originals great or put their own twist on them. This looks soulless, like the "we have x at home" meme.

 

[Deogracias]

Yeah, I like game clones if done right. The best ones either recapture what made the originals great or put their own twist on them. This looks soulless, like the "we have x at home" meme.

Yeah, I'm very much a "Holy shit, two cakes!" guy myself. But the catch is that the second cake has to taste good.

 

[Anonitolia]

I thought this game was dead the moment its Kickstarter failed, and now I wish it was.

Terrible premise from the start only bolstered by bad PR, bad game design, an enormous price tag (relative to its quality- or lack thereof) and pretty shitty everything makes me so confused as to why they released it anyways.

If it was supposed to be a loving tribute, why price it identically to the original game (which they’ve outright admitted is better)?
If it was supposed to be a straightforward knock-off/clone, why didn’t they understand the most basic aspects of the game they were copying?
I find it very hard to believe anything the devs say about this being some kind of passion project or tribute to a game they enjoyed when it only accentuates Cuphead’s worst aspects while adding loads of brand new issues on its own. Either they’re aliens that liked every part of the game anyone else who played it didn't or they barely played Cuphead in the first place and just made a knock-off based on the trailers and first hour or two of gameplay.
-
On the topic of clones in general: they’re extremely hard to do right, imo, and are only justified when
A) they’re essentially reviving a dead franchise for a platform said franchise is unavailable on (Bombrush Cyberfunk, Melatonin, Yooka-Laylee),
B) the original franchise has fucked up to such an irreparable degree that people are practically begging for [franchise but better] games (City Skylines, Life By You/Paralives, Bug Fables)- worth noting that I think this one is very rarely justified as people tend to jump on the bandwagon far too early for it to make sense and almost always miss the appeal of the originals in doing so, especially if the fucked-up franchise in question hasn’t simultaneously been dead (either to the audience or in general) for multiple years before production of clones began,
or C) they genuinely have a good idea for improving a franchise’s formula without changing the vast majority of its gameplay (Stardew Valley, Wargroove, etc).

I’m not sure I’ve seen any good games based on others that I could outright call “clones”. Maybe Stardew Valley of Harvest Moon (or Rune Factory if you want to be anal about it having combat) and Bombrush of JetSet, but that’s it. Every single other decent game heavily derived from another puts a spin on their inspiration and execution of it that makes them stand out.
Bug Fables changes the setting and makes every character a different species + adds new gameplay mechanics, Yooka-Laylee adds those weird transformations and makes things more open-ended, Paralives adds a bunch of formerly DLC-exclusive content to the base game and uses a (much worse) new art style.
Not all of these changes are good, mind you, but they’re enough to make a game stand on its own for the most part. Meanwhile Enchanted Portals has absolutely nothing save for a really tepid controversy and being notably worse at everything it tries to do than its inspiration.

Maybe I’ll understand that “two cakes” mentality better when someone finally makes a decent Pokémon clone in a decade or two lol.

 

[I'm Retarded?]

Cuphead itself is an artistic tribute, nothing wrong with aping the old Fleischer style, but did they really have to make it a fucking 2D action platformer too? IMO that's one of Cuphead's weakest aspects, once you peel back the visual layer it's very formulaic and unimaginitive, like all that bombastic style went into creating a fairly well-made but unfortunately paint-by-numbers genre title. deciding to copy Cuphead's game play and then fucking up the art, and then also fucking up the game play, lol, what's left to even appreciate?

 

[Coolio55]

Did they make good on the promise of the portals differentiating the gameplay from Cuphead? I suspect not...

 

[Calandrino]

IMO that's one of Cuphead's weakest aspects, once you peel back the visual layer it's very formulaic and unimaginitive, like all that bombastic style went into creating a fairly well-made but unfortunately paint-by-numbers genre title.

You'd prefer another roguelike soulslike metroidvanialike speedrunformer w/crafting and survival elements? I'm thankful it bucked some modern trends.

Two things I did feel were lacking in Cuphead were 1) interesting non-boss levels and 2) racism. I appreciate that the Enchanted Portals devs have at least attempted to address these issues, even if the results are wanting. I can't blame them for making what is probably a lousy game, because here in the Meme Age being "lol bad Cuphead ripoff" will get them more publicity than a halfway decent run-and-gun would.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

I don't see the logic to people hating on this thing. Somebody made a unique game. Somebody else made a knockoff, turning it into a little microgenre. What is there to bitch about? What are they doing that's wrong? It either looks good enough to play or it doesn't.

Personally, I think the art style is authentic for what they're going for, but authentic in this case also means faggy, I don't like it. The only thing I saw in the trailer I watched that I liked was rooster Elvis. It's just a different kind of animation they're aping. I'd also prefer for people to apply Cuphead's concepts to other genres, instead of trying to mimic that exact game.

Long before Cuphead even existed Deadly Tower of Monsters did the same thing by creating a very authentic B-movie look and even having "director's commentary" over the entire thing like it was a movie, it was fantastic. Squad something-or-other vs the Flying Saucers did a similar deal with B-movies. Mouse, coming up, tries to do classic cartoons as an FPS; it looks shitty, but it's trying. I want to see LA Noire: Roger Rabbit, or an RPG in classic Disney fairy tale land, or really goofy cartoon violence Metroidvanias, stuff like that. Or, you know, go 1980s action cartoon schlock with it, just don't make another fucking Cuphead.

I think when people change the era of animation they also miss that the wild jazz music suited Cuphead because it fit the animation, it was playing off a brief moment when animation was experimental adult fare. That kind of thing can work really well if you go for, say, a Ren and Stimpy look, but it doesn't work with EVERYTHING.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

Cuphead itself is an artistic tribute, nothing wrong with aping the old Fleischer style, but did they really have to make it a fucking 2D action platformer too? IMO that's one of Cuphead's weakest aspects, once you peel back the visual layer it's very formulaic and unimaginitive, like all that bombastic style went into creating a fairly well-made but unfortunately paint-by-numbers genre title. deciding to copy Cuphead's game play and then fucking up the art, and then also fucking up the game play, lol, what's left to even appreciate?

I'd argue that Cuphead's gameplay is important to its identity. They intentionally played into some of the wildest scenes from early cartoons by having frantic action with the frantic score and the frantic cartoon silliness. That doesn't require being a 2D bullet hell game, but that's certainly one way to do it. The experience of playing Cuphead feels unique.

You'd prefer another roguelike soulslike metroidvanialike speedrunformer w/crafting and survival elements? I'm thankful it bucked some modern trends.

Two things I did feel were lacking in Cuphead were 1) interesting non-boss levels and 2) racism. I appreciate that the Enchanted Portals devs have at least attempted to address these issues, even if the results are wanting. I can't blame them for making what is probably a lousy game, because here in the Meme Age being "lol bad Cuphead ripoff" will get them more publicity than a halfway decent run-and-gun would.

Because that's the only option? It could have been an action-adventure game with a world to explore, cartoony moves that aren't "I do a finger gun and then a hadouken," and so on. Like setting up piano drop traps, or throwing dynamite that makes things go black and then disintegrate into ash, that kind of gags.

And I don't fault them for that, but like I said, I want something other than Cuphead for the next game that intentionally mimics an art style.