GamingPickz
Game vs game · side by side

Cuphead vs God of War

Cuphead is a platformer soulslike game from Studio MDHR (2017) while God of War is an action-adventure action-RPG game from Santa Monica Studio (2005).

Cuphead

2017 · Studio MDHR

8.5GamingPickz Score

$19.99

Steam: Overwhelmingly Positive

God of War

2005 · Santa Monica Studio

8.6GamingPickz Score

$49.99

Steam: Overwhelmingly Positive

What each one is

Steam files Cuphead under Platformer and Soulslike. In contrast, it files God of War under Action-Adventure and Action-RPG.

Cuphead

Cuphead is a classic run and gun action game heavily focused on boss battles. Inspired by cartoons of the 1930s, the visuals and audio are painstakingly created with the same techniques of the era, i.e. traditional hand drawn cel animation, watercolor backgrounds, and original jazz recordings.

Description from its Steam store page

God of War

His vengeance against the Gods of Olympus years behind him, Kratos now lives as a man in the realm of Norse Gods and monsters. It is in this harsh, unforgiving world that he must fight to survive… and teach his son to do the same.

Description from its Steam store page

At a glance

CupheadGod of War
GamingPickz Score8.5/108.6/10
Steam ratingOverwhelmingly Positive (96%, 220,388)Overwhelmingly Positive (96%, 184,172)
Critic aggregate88/10093/100
Price$19.99$49.99
Install size4 GB70 GB
Steam Deckverifiedverified
Released20172005
DeveloperStudio MDHRSanta Monica Studio

Prices and Steam ratings are read live and move over time.

Cuphead vs God of War, point by point

Each facet side by side. A round is marked won only where a figure settles it; feel and "which is better" carry no mark, because no number we hold decides them.

  1. Genre and premise

    CupheadPlatformer soulslike game
    God of WarAction-adventure action-RPG game

    What each is filed as. Each game describes itself in full above; we do not judge a premise.

  2. How it plays

    CupheadDifficult, Cartoon, Co-op
    God of WarAction, Story Rich, Mythology

    The tags players apply most, in order of votes. A read on feel, not a verdict.

  3. Reception

    CupheadScore 8.5 · 96% on Steam · 88 critic
    God of WarScore 8.6 · 96% on Steam · 93 critic

    The GamingPickz Score is a composite of player sentiment, critics and popularity, computed the same way for every game.

  4. Content and scale

    Cuphead220,388 reviews · 3 add-ons · 4 GB
    God of War184,172 reviews · 70 GB

    Reach and footprint, not quality: more reviews or a bigger install is not a better game.

  5. Price

    Cuphead$19.99
    God of War$49.99

    Read live from Steam and subject to change.

  6. On a Steam Deck

    CupheadVerified
    God of WarVerified

    Valve's own Deck compatibility rating.

Across the rounds a number can settle, it is level at 1 each. Which one is "better" is the part no figure decides, so we leave it to what you want from the two.

The two on the grid

Compare the whole catalogue

Cuphead and God of War on the axes the GamingPickz Score is built from, on the full 0 to 100 scale so each dot is its real position. Change either axis to compare them on any measure.

2 games have both

01000100PlayersPopularity

Players. The share of Steam reviews marked positive, pulled toward the catalogue average in proportion to how few reviews stand behind it. A game with 200 reviews moves a long way toward the average; one with 200,000 barely moves at all. Without this a title sitting at 100 percent on nine reviews outranks Half-Life 2 at 98 percent on 278,000.

Popularity. A blend of two things that are not the same. Audience is how many people wrote a Steam review, which is a floor on how many played it. Reach is how many language editions of Wikipedia document the game, which is cultural footprint rather than sales. A game can score high on one and low on the other: a huge free-to-play title has audience without reach, and a landmark console exclusive has reach without a Steam audience at all. Where both exist they are averaged; where only one does, that one carries it.

  • Multi-platform
  • PlayStation

Every point links to that game's entry. The value map and the reception map are fixed views of the same data.

See the whole grid

How positions are decided

No paid placement, no favouritism, live third-party data
  • Placed by the published method, not by us. Every coordinate is computed from the axis definitions and weights printed on this site. Nobody moves a point. See the axes.
  • Nothing here is paid for. No sponsored placements, no promoted slots, no arrangement of any kind affects a position. If that ever changes it will be labelled and sit outside the ranking.
  • No favouritism, including our own. The 16 games we have written full reviews of are scored by exactly the same formula as the other 1,510, from the same third-party inputs, and they land where it puts them. Our own opinion of a game does not enter its coordinates.
  • A position is not an endorsement. It says how a game was received and what it costs, not that we recommend it. Where we do recommend something, it carries a written review with a name on it.
  • Fetched from live third-party data. Player sentiment from Steam, critic aggregates as published on store pages, prices checked hourly, attention from Wikipedia. Each figure carries its source and the date it was read, and we do not adjust any of them.

Which to pick, by what you want

  • The cheaper right now: Cuphead ($19.99)
  • Lighter on storage: Cuphead (4 GB)

What they have in common

Both are tagged by Steam players with:

ActionSingleplayerSouls-like

Where they differ

Cuphead is also

DifficultCartoonCo-opPlatformerGreat SoundtrackLocal Co-Op

God of War is also

Story RichMythologyAdventureCombatThird PersonRPG

Tags players apply to one game and not the other.

Difficulty and who each is for

By the tags players apply, Cuphead is demanding, for players who want a challenge. God of War is demanding, for players who want a challenge.

System requirements, side by side

CupheadGod of War
Minimum GPUGeforce 9600 GTNVIDIA GTX 960 (4 GB)
Minimum CPUIntel Core2 Duo E8400, 3.0GHzIntel i5-2500k (4 core 3.3 GHz)
Minimum RAM3 GB8 GB
Install size4 GB70 GB

Can your PC run them? Check each against your own kit: Cuphead · God of War.

Accessibility features

Steam store pages declare 1 accessibility feature for Cuphead and 12 for God of War. A declaration is a floor, not a review.

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Common questions

How different are Cuphead and God of War in scope?

Cuphead has drawn 220,388 Steam reviews, ships 3 add-ons and installs in 4 GB. God of War has drawn 184,172 Steam reviews and installs in 70 GB.

Is Cuphead or God of War better?

By the GamingPickz Score, God of War rates higher (8.6 to 8.5). That is a composite of player sentiment, the critic aggregate and popularity, not our taste. "Better" also depends on price, length and platform, which the table above lays out.

Which is cheaper, Cuphead or God of War?

Cuphead is cheaper right now at $19.99, against $49.99. Prices move, so this is read live from Steam and can change.

Do you rank one above the other for a fee?

No. Neither game, nor anyone else, pays for placement or a verdict here. The order and every figure come out of the same public data the rest of the site uses.

How we compare, and what we will not do

The GamingPickz Score is a composite of player sentiment (adjusted for sample size), the critic aggregate and popularity, computed by the same code every ranked list on this site uses. The Steam rating label is Valve's own, reconstructed from the positive percentage and review count. Prices are read live. We do not write an opinion of which game is "better": we report the numbers and say which wins each measurable question above.

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