Description[]
Cuphead vs. Sans. Indie games have never had more bizarre mascots.
Introduction[]
Wiz: In order to stand out amongst the competition of mainstream gaming companies, indie games need to make they sure they have what every video game needs; a memorable character.
Boomstick: And we have two of them here. Cuphead, the running and gunning contract collector.
Wiz: And Sans, the Underground's super powered skeleton.
Boomstick: He's Wiz and I'm Boomstick.
Wiz: And its our job to analyze their weapons, armor and skills to find out who would win a Death Battle.
Cuphead[]
Wiz: Inkwell Isles, a series of islands populated by a wide number of strange and wondrous beings reminiscent of old cartoons. Sentient plants, mad sciences, alluring mermaids, and even the Devil himself.
Boomstick: Where he decided to come to set up a casino. Must have gotten board of torturing souls in Hell, casino.
Wiz: Actually, that's probably why he set up a casino in the first place, for if a person loses at one of his games, then he claims their souls for himself.
Boomstick: But the bouncer must not be good at his job, because practically everyone whose souls he laid claim to ended up getting away. So what he needed to fix this problem was a delivery boy. And one eventually came to his casino, and his name was Cuphead.
- Background
- Age: Adolescent
- Height: 3'0
- Weight: 20lbs
- Likes: Roller coasters, Hotdogs, and tilt-a-whirl, and hot dogs, and flying swings and hot dogs, and throwing up on roller coasters
- Dislikes: The Devil, Funnel cake
- Often flies in a plane
- Empowered by booze
- Can jump on projectiles
Wiz: Like everyone else who walked into the Devil's Casino, Cuphead bet too high and ended up losing both his and his brother's soul to the Devil. Desperate to get themselves out of this mess, the two agreed to do whatever the Devil asked of them.
Boomstick: Spying an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone, the Devil enlisted Cuphead and Mugman to bring to him the other soul contracts. But the ones who owed the Devil his due didn't feel like doing their due duty. Ba-bum tiss!
Wiz: Boomstick, stick to the script!
Boomstick: Point is, they couldn't rely on their luck to help them out in getting those soul contracts, considering it got them snake-eyes at the craps table. So they went to the Elder Kettle, who whipped them up a magical potion that gave the ability to shoot from shots of liquid from their fingers. So beer really DOES give you powers; like those times my beer makes me float on air.
- Arsenal
- Peashooter
- Spread
- Chaser
- Lobber
- Roundabout
- Charger
- Supers
- Energy Beam
- Invincibility
- Giant Ghost
Wiz: Boomstick, that's not a superpower; that's the beer killing your brain cells. But yes, the potion brewed up by Elder Kettle gives Cuphead a wide variety of different powers.
Popup: Cuphead also has access to a number of Charms, but the obtaining and equipping of these are based on player decision and this omitted.
Boomstick: The Peashooter is a long range simple series of shots which is Cuphead's most go-to type of shot, and it usually goes well with the Spread, which fires three streams of shots in different directions. And whilst they may be lacking in longer ranges, they make up for it with a constant stream of higher damage.
Wiz: If Cuphead is feeling the itch to use more unique shots, then the Chaser can let him shoot projectiles that home in on a fast target, despite their low damage output, and the Lobber lets him hurl pink bouncing balls.
Boomstick: With the Roundhouse, Cuphead's projectiles arc backwards from the direction they were originally shot, useful for gunning down perusing foes, and if he wants to bust out truly powerful blasts, he uses the Charge shot. And for each type of shot, he can unleash a far more powerful variation of it for extra damage.
Wiz: Cuphead does this by utilize cards that he obtains by either damage enemies or by leaping off projectiles or objects with the Parry ability. But if he saves up enough of these cards, then he can perform a truly Special attack.
Popup: The Parry ability appears limited to only Pink items.
Boomstick: I see what you did there Wiz, so lay off the puns, that's my department. Anyway, Cuphead has access to three Supers; a giant Energy Beam, short time Invincibility and summoning a muscle-bound ghost to collide with the enemy.
Popup: When utilizing a plane, Cuphead can fire bullet shots, bombs, missiles with teeth, magnetic missiles and has a Super consisting of becoming an explosive. Given that some stages require a plane to complete, it's possible Cuphead can access it by himself.
- Feats
- Fought armies of plants, ghosts, bees, constellations and sweets
- Defeated Mr. Dice and the Devil
- Destroyed pieces of stone pillars
- Can react to proton blaster shots
- Travelled through five stages
- Received a standing ovation
Wiz: With his and his brother's souls on the line, Cuphead is a force to be reckoned with. He's battled through all manner of strange and deadly armies, gone up against powerful opponents, broken through stone pillars, dodged proton blasts, and even denied the Devil his soul contracts, defeated him in battle and freed Inkwell Isle from his shadowy grip.
Boomstick: No wonder everyone was so quick to forgive him for beating them all up; if someone got me out a deal with the Devil, I'd take up a job as their personal footstool.
Wiz: But the only reason Cuphead got himself into trouble with the Devil was because of his own foolishness and short-sighted nature. Plus, he only has a three hit life bar, and without someone to tap him back in, so to speak, he's finished.
Boomstick: But the citizens now know that not even the Devil himself can keep a hold of this powerful drinks holder.
Sans[]
Wiz: The Underground, the home of the monster race ever since the great war between their kind and the humans.
Boomstick: And would you believe it all started due to an overblown case of 'My kid got hurt playing with your kid'? No? Well, that's what happened.
Wiz: A description that belongs better in an abridged series Boomstick. Long story short, a human kid, taken in by the monsters, was tragically killed in an accident, and when returning their body to the surface above, the humans jumped to the wrong conclusion and attacked, initiated the brutal war that forever separated the two races.
Boomstick: Until one day another human child named Frisk fell into the Underground, and soon every monster down there wanted to get to know him, kill him, or date him. Weird, I know.
Wiz: But one monster was interested in keeping an eye on Frisk for another reason; the skeleton known as Sans.
- Background
- Height: Unknown
- Weight: Unknown
- Lives in the Underground
- Guards Snowdin Village
- Brother of Papyrus
- Professional prankster
- Makes bone related puns
- Knows of alternate timelines
Boomstick: Sans spent his days in Snowdin with his brother Papyrus, doing things like guarding the outskirts of the buildings, pranking others and making many different bone related puns.
Wiz: But Sans' interests went far beyond pranks and puns. Turns that there existed alternate timelines, and Sans possesses an inside knowledge of both this and the features the video game he lives in.
Popup: Although Sans knows of the SAVE features, he cannot use them himself.
Boomstick: And with multiple timelines of course comes the threats of those who have created the Darkest Timelines, like Flowey the Flower or the ghost of the dead child whose death set in motion the Human-Monster war. And more often than not, Sans is the one responsible for making sure his own timeline is kept on the path of a happy outcome.
- Arsenal and Abilities
- Bone Structures
- Blue Bones
- Teleportation
- KARMA
- Gasterblasters
- Doing Nothing
- Jump Cuts
- Soul Manipulation: Blue
- Manipulates a person’s gravity
Wiz: Sans is an exceptionally tricky opponent, thanks in no small part his assorted arsenal.
Boomstick: With a simple thought, Sans can command bone spikes to jut out at his opponent, perfect for setting up barriers or infuriatingly hard obstacle courses. And for extra infuriation, he has blue bones, which can only be bypassed as long as you are remaining perfectly still. But undoubtable the best of his attacks are the Gasterblasters, a series of skulls that shoot a stream of energy.
Popup: Although he can teleport between timelines, he hasn't shown this as an ability in combat.
Wiz: And all these attacks have the added benefit of causing KARMA damage, which is essentially like poisoning. Also, like most other powerful monsters, he's able to manipulate the souls of others; in his case, it enables him to change their center of gravity at his will. And most bizarre of all is his ability to alter the screen, causing temporary blackouts, actually dodging attacks and even locking a person in place by refusing to take his turn in battle. Essentially, telling Frisk he's come to bargain.
- Feats
- Able to hurt Frisk who can survive an explosion of 15kgs of TNT
- Can dodge attacks from Frisk
- Defeated Flowey numerous times
- Aware of SAVE features
- Created a trash tornado
- A skilled trombone player
Boomstick: Is other words, rage quitting, which is what he's capable of driving other people to himself. I mean, he's strong enough to hurt Frisk who survived a blast worth 15kgs of TNT, as determined by Crimson Azoth, when breaking the game's rules, he was able to dodge Frisk's slashes, who himself is able to move at over 300 times the speed of sound to dodge bolts of lightning.
Wiz: In spite of Sans' strengths, however, he carries a few weaknesses; most notably, his incredible laziness, and his low level HP.
Boomstick: It's literally only one point! Chuck a pebble at this guy and he's a goner.
Wiz: Still, there's a good reason why Sans' is one of three final bosses in the game, because anyone that goes up against and underestimates him is boned.
Interlude[]
Wiz: Alright the combatants are set, time to end this debate once and for all.
Boomstick: Its time for a Death Battle!
The Battle[]
Sans was dozing by a pillar within a large castle corridor adorned with pillars, stain glass windows and a red rug. As he slept, Cuphead sauntered past.
Cuphead: Golly, where can he be? I know that there's someone here who owes Mister Devil. Excuse me...
He spoke directly to Sans, who opened one eye to look at the cup-headed stranger.
Cuphead: I'm looking for someone around here.
He unfurled the poster of his target.
Cuphead: I've been told he might be somewhere around-
He stopped talking as he looked at the picture of the skeleton on the poster, his eyes dilating as he looked between it and Sans, realizing that they were one in the same. Sans craned his neck to look at the poster.
Sans: Oh yeah, I remember that. Couldn't be bothered to pay it back at the time.
Cuphead: You gonna pay it back now?
Sans shrugged.
Sans: No, not really.
Cuphead: Well in that case-WAH!
As he raised his finger to begin shooting, he was suddenly sent flying back as his Soul was taken hold of by Sans' soul manipulation, sending to smashing into the wall with a yell. Angry now, Cuphead got back to his feet with his finger pointing forward once more and prepared to give the skeleton the walloping of a lifetime.
FIGHT!
Cuphead unleashed his Peashooter straight at Sans, who darted back and forth without moving any part of his body to dodge the shots. Cuphead blinked in surprise even as he continued to fire at how Sans dodged his attacks, and ran forward to close the distance and hopefully enable a higher chance at hitting his opponent. To his ire, Sans continued to dart back and forth whilst also moving backwards. This occurred for a while as Cuphead chased Sans around one row of pillars and then around the other as they reached the end and changed positions, with Sans at the left instead of Cuphead. Eventually, Cuphead had Sans trapped against the wall.
Cuphead: Ah-ha! Got you now!
Cuphead switched his Peashooter out for his Spread and fired at Sans with the triple directional series of shots, only for Sans to smile smugly and also dodge these series of projectiles with the same side-to-side darting, before dashing away from his trapped position against the wall to lean against a pillar casually. Cuphead blinked as his opponent was suddenly out of his line of vision, and turned around in slack jawed shock to look at the grinning Sans.
Cuphead: Dah! Will you stay still!
Sans: Nope, don't think I will.
Cuphead slapped his hand against his forehead is annoyance, before his eyes lit up and he grinned slyly.
Cuphead: Then why don't you try dodging THIS!
From all his fingers he unleashed Chaser shots, all of which homed in on Sans. Sans' eyes widened in panic at the homing projectiles and dashed backwards, but the shots continued to home in on him, even as he zigzagged between the pillars. As he backed away from the shots closing in one him, Sans glanced over his shoulder and saw Cuphead standing behind him a good distance away, who fired a Lobber at the retreating skeleton, effectively trapping him between two projectiles at once.
Suddenly, a wall of bones shot out of the ground, creating a ring shaped barricade around Sans, which the projectiles dispelled harmlessly against. Sans' blue eye shone out from a gap between the bones, which then retracted before a series of bones jutting from the ground and walls advanced towards Cuphead, who leapt, dodged and slid under the barricades of bones. Via this dodging, Cuphead closed the distance towards Sans, and after taking a long leap over a six-by-two set of bone pillars coming from the ground, landed cleanly on his feet and readied a fully powered Charge which he fired at Sans. In response, Sans summoned a Gasterblaster, which fired a powerful beam that struck the Charge, resulting a massive explosion that kicked up a cloud of dust. Sans coughed at the Dust, and when it cleared, looked up calmly to see Cuphead bearing down at him, his fists raised into the air in preparation of a Mega Blast.
Cuphead: Take-!
Sans raised his hand and his hold on Cuphead's soul was administered, freezing the latter in the air.
Cuphead:...this?
Sans grinned and flung his hand to the side, sending Cuphead smashing through a pillar and crashing against a wall. Cuphead got back to his feet and looked up to see a wall of blue bones heading towards him. Quickly, he tried to leap over it, only for Sans' soul manipulation to take hold of him mid jump, and as the blue bone wall came closer, it moved him downwards, and due to the properties of the blue bones, Cuphead took a hit from them, knocking him back against the wall. Cuphead dropped down to his hands and knees, breathing out in exhaustion. Sans saw his opponent open and sent another wave of blue bones at Cuphead, who looked back up just in time to cross him arms in a seemingly futile attempt to withstand the barrage.
Only for them to pass right through him harmlessly.
Cuphead opened one eye in confusion and then the other, realizing that he had gone unhurt from remaining still. He quickly put two-and-two together and grinned at Sans, getting back to his feet and cracking his knuckles. A bead of sweat ran down Sans' skull as he realized Cuphead had figured out the rules of his blue bones. Even so, he kept his cocky grin.
Sans: Feeling confident are we?
Cuphead: Yep!
The latter charged forward, readying a Charge.
Sans: Then let's see you handle this!
As Cuphead fired the Charge, everything suddenly went dark before it hit Sans. When the lights came back on, Cuphead found himself barreling towards the ceiling; he slammed straight into it, the wind being knocked out of his body. What's more, he was unable to recover fast enough before a line of bones erupted from the ceiling, dealing Cuphead a second blow and launching him to the ground where he landed, producing a crack across the ground. Cuphead groaned as he also felt something weaken him; KARMA damage.
In the next second, everything went dark again, and when it retracted, revealed a Gasterblaster directly in front of Cuphead, who shrieked and leapt upwards as the beam seared the carpet. As he was in the air, however, Sans' soul control took a hold of him and flung him into the wall. This time, however, Cuphead righted himself in mid-air and landed with his feet against the wall, and leapt off a split second later as a line of bones erupted from it, avoiding getting hit a third-and fatal-time.
The blackness came again, and Cuphead found two Gasterblasters on either side of him. He dashed backwards as they fired, only to find two more on either side of him in the area he'd stepped back to. He dashed back again as they fired, and did so three more times at the tripled repeat of the Gasterblasters. As Cuphead reached the back of the hallway, he sensed the danger and dodged back forwards as a bone line stabbed out from the wall. Blackness, and then Cuphead was back in the middle of the hallway, and a second later dozens started shooting out from every direction, forcing to duck, dodge and weave around them, even pulling his waistline upwards to avoid being skewered by a stabbing bone. Blackness once more, and Cuphead was being slammed into the ceiling, walls and floor repeatedly via Sans' soul manipulation, before he was finally slammed into the ground, throwing up a dust cloud.
Cuphead got back to his feet, all wobbly from being thrown around and Sans appeared a good distance away in front of him, looking incredibly winded and tired, but clearly not ready to give up, especially as he summoned a trio of Gasterblasters and had them all fire a beam each which combined into a single powerful steam of burning energy. In response, Cuphead stood his ground and activated one of his supers, unleashing a powerful stream of powerful water from the top of his head; the two beams met each other head on, producing a cloud of steam as the water pressed against the energy, before the beams where dispelled via a powerful explosion created from their collision. The blast pushed Sans and Cuphead back a good deal of steps, and once they grinded to a halt, their respective levels of fatigue were clear.
Sans: Huff...huff...give up?
Cuphead: Huff...puff...no way, no how!
Sans: In that case, I'm forced to resort to my ultimate technique-doing nothing.
Cuphead blinked in surprise as Sans took a few steps back before going still as a statue. Cuphead looked on in confusion for a moment before marching forward, only to be suddenly back in his former place numerous times before he realized what was going on. He even tried shooting, but Sans dodged the projectiles as he had done numerous times before.
Sans: Told ya, now you're going to be trapped here forever.
Cuphead: Rats.
He plonked down onto his backside as his predicament and glared at the cheekily-grinning Sans.
A while passed in the wrecked hallway, and the boredom was getting to the two of them; Cuphead breathed out in annoyance as he scratched at the ground, and Sans' lids were growing heavy. Eventually, they snapped shut and Sans started snoring in his still standing position. Cuphead peeked up and saw Sans' slumber. His eyes widened slowly at this opportunity and slowly back up. He pulled his arms back, and fired out a Jumbo Rebound.
Sans' eyes snapped open and he dodged to the side from the attack-
Sans: Ha, did you really think-?
-which turned back around and sliced straight through Sans', from his left shoulder to right hip. The skeleton's eyes widened at the realization he'd been sliced in half.
Sans: Oh...looks like...I'm boned.
Sans' two halves disintegrated, leaving behind his soul contract. Cuphead breathed out in relief and picked it off before sauntering off.
KO!
Cuphead leaves the castle in his plane as Papyrus enters the hallway and balks at the damage.
Outcome[]
Boomstick: Hey, check it out Wiz, Sans stole your pun!
Wiz: Aw man. Well, in any case, Sans' was certainly an unorthodox opponent, but Cuphead's vast array of projectiles gave him a much larger variety of options than Sans had ever encountered in a one-on-one battle.
Boomstick: Whilst on the other hand, Cuphead has experienced the same kind of techniques that Sans often uses, such as gravity manipulation and specifically colored projectiles. Plus, Cuphead just held too many physical advantages against him.
Popup: Even is Sans could freeze Cuphead in place, it was shown his laziness meant that Frisk could still get in one hit, so it’s likely Cuphead could too, and even then he still had his long ranged attacks.
Wiz: Sans could dodge numerous attacks from Frisk, who was able to dodge lightning which usually moves at 300 times the speed of sound, but Cuphead could react to and dodge blasts from a proton blaster, which in common fiction and hypothetical science, are weapons that can fire shots at the speed of light, over 2750 times faster than Sans.
Boomstick: Both had a set limit of hits they could individually take, meaning attack potency wouldn't technically be what would ultimately kill the other, but their own power would certainly help them overpower their opponent, and once more, this was an area in which Cuphead held the edge.
Popup: Although Sans' KARMA could poison Cuphead, it wouldn't be able to completely lower his life bar alone due to gameplay restrictions.
Wiz: Recall how Sans' power was great enough to harm Frisk, who survived 15kgs worth of TNT from a house explosion, but Cuphead is capable of busting through piece of stone pillars. Antoniofer on the VS wiki calculated that in order to do this, Cuphead's attack power would need to equal 37kgs of TNT.
Popup: Although this was done with the plane Peashooter, it and the ordinary Peashooter have the same official damage output.
Boomstick: Just over twice as powerful as Sans.
Wiz: With Cuphead's insane speed, higher hit box and greater power, not to mention his multitude of different shot techniques, it was only a matter of time before Sans was hit with a fatal blow.
Boomstick: Well, time to bury Sans ten feet Under.
Wiz: The winner is Cuphead.
Next Time[]
Evil powers
Evil siblings
Trivia[]
- Connections: Both are Indie-game combatants of strange species who battle on behalf on horned kings. In addition, they use long range attack methods, are protective brothers and have connections to souls; Cuphead is tasked with collecting soul contracts and Sans can manipulate a person's gravity with their soul. In terms of opposites, whilst Cuphead battles against incredibly difficult bosses, Sans is himself an incredibly difficult boss. Coincidentally, both are also skins for the Mii Gunner in Super Smash Bros Ultimate.
- Animation Style: 2D.
- OST Idea: 'Karma in a Cup', which refers to Cuphead's name and Sans' ability to inflict Karma damage.