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Monster Hunter Rise was another outstanding entry for the series, continuing the quality of life improvements introduced in World and adding fun new ways to move and fight. It was missing one thing though: the ultimate challenge of g-rank hunts. The recent DLC, Sunbreak, remedies that issue while introducing new monsters, silkbind skills, and types of hunts. Now dubbed master rank, these hunts feature old and new monsters with faster attacks and tougher situations for a true test of your hunting skills. This is exactly the kind of intense action that the Monster Hunter series is known for, and longtime fans will love every minute of it. After solving the crisis in Kamura, your hunter encounters a new problem: a monster not native to the area has appeared. You learn it's from the neighboring kingdom of Elgado, so you set off to help them cull the monster population and get to the bottom of why these beasts have grown more aggressive. Storytelling is never a main selling point in a Monster Hunter game, but Sunbreak does a great job of introducing new NPCs with personality and charm. There are several new cutscenes that make the NPCs feel more directly involved in your adventure, and their dialogue skirts the line between cute and corny, as always. Most importantly though, Sunbreak introduces two new types of hunts, Follower Quests and Support Surveys. These hunts are only for solo players but they let you team up with NPCs in a sort of pseudo-multiplayer experience. This is the kind of addition to the game that I didn't even know I wanted, but loved playing through. Each NPC can equip a few different weapons, so you can sort of build out a team to hunt with, and they do provide actual help during the hunt by fighting, healing you, and sometimes even riding monsters to attack your main target. At the same time though they don't make hunts trivial; the difficulty is still there, and you're still doing the majority of the work, but having NPC buddies along for the ride is an excellent way of making the story and setting feel more involved in the actual gameplay. And yes, hunts are definitely more difficult in Sunbreak compared to the base game, though the challenge rarely feels unfair. In master rank, monsters move and attack so quickly that you have to learn a new flow of battle, which is always an exciting prospect for hunters. At the same time the gameplay still feels overall easier than past Monster Hunter games, so newer players shouldn't feel too intimidated by the increased difficulty of master rank. There'll be some painful learning moments, but every hunter has been there at one point or another. The monsters themselves are a little bit of a mixed bag. The main three additions, The Three Lords, are excellent, both from a design and combat perspective. They have all of the style and intense challenge that defines Monster Hunter. The other new additions though are a little less exciting, with monsters returning from past games or new elemental variants of monsters from Rise. In the end, having any new monsters to hunt is a fun addition, but it feels like Sunbreak could have gone a little further with more new monsters. The DLC also introduces a handy new feature that allows you to swap between two sets of silkbind skills, the movement and combat techniques introduced in Rise. The value of this new feature entirely depends on how you play the game. More variety is good, but some players likely have a set of skills that they already prefer and won't feel much pull to swap around with different sets. More frustratingly, Sunbreak doesn't give you the most interesting new silkbind skills until you've progressed through quite a bit of master rank. Getting the new skills earlier would've helped highlight the value of swapping between two silkbind sets. With two new locations to explore, over a dozen new monsters, and a whole variety of new equipment to forge, Sunbreak adds a substantial amount of content to Rise. There are also planned updates through this year and next to continue to add new monsters and locations, so it's safe to say you get plenty for your money with this DLC. All of this doesn't even factor in the allure of multiplayer hunts or grinding for specific materials. At this rate it looks like Sunbreak can easily last you as long as the base game, and most likely more than that. It also looks and sounds just as good as Rise. The new monsters (and more importantly, the new weapons and armor forged from their materials) look fantastic, the frame rate runs smoothly, and the soundtrack has some excellent tunes for death-defying and thrilling hunts. Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak delivers more of the fantastic gameplay established in the base game with more challenging hunts, stylish new monsters, and new features that range from helpful additions to fun new ways to play solo. Hunters will love having even more content to sink their teeth into, and even more challenging hunts to hone their skills and perfect their play styles. Rating: 9 out of 10 Hunts

It's a little hard to believe that it's been four years since this DLC was announced and three years since Cuphead came to the Switch at all, but players finally have a chance to dig into The Delicious Last Course. Was it worth the wait? If you're a Cuphead fan, absolutely: more bosses, more weapons, a new character and tons of opportunities to swear at the TV (in a good way). The Delicious Last Course adds a new island to Cuphead's campaign, which means a slew of new bosses to tussle with (there are no new run 'n' gun levels). Ms. Chalice, the ghostly ally from the main game, tells Cuphead and Mugman that she's discovered a way to regain a corporeal body, but she'll need their help to collect all of the necessary ingredients to make it permanent. Like the main game, this isn't a story-heavy DLC add-on, but it's still absolutely packed with personality and charm. The few cutscenes we do get are delightful and the boss designs and animation once again imbue so much life and energy into these extremely challenging fights. The boss fights themselves are just as inventive and engaging as the main game—perhaps even moreso, because it really feels like these battles are made for experienced players to fully test their skills (or maybe I'm just rusty after not having played Cuphead for a while). Once again the developers have done an amazing job of walking a fine line between challenging and frustrating. There are definitely going to be moments where you let out a curse or two, but the difficulty always feels engaging and encouraging. The new bosses are so wacky that even when you die to each new form it's just fun to see what kind of challenges the game throws at you. Aside from just having new bosses to fight, the main addition in The Delicious Last Course is Ms. Chalice herself. By equipping a new charm you're able to play as her, and she comes with a number of special abilities. For one, she has 4 hit points instead of 3, and veterans of Cuphead will know that just one more hit point is often the difference between success and failure. She can also double jump, and her parry is a dash instead of a mid-air attack, so her movement feels a little different. Finally, she also has an invincible roll that she can use by dashing along the ground, which can be a game changer against bosses that require perfectly-timed dodges. All of this adds up to a fun new way to play Cuphead (since you can also use her in the main game). Overall she's probably an easier character to use than the main two characters, but more importantly she has those unique touches that make her gameplay feel engaging and exciting even if you're already a pro at the original Cuphead. This DLC adds a couple of other bells and whistles: there are additional weapons and charms to purchase that introduce new ways to tackle both old and new bosses, and there's a sort of parry-challenge mode that takes you through five new bosses where you can only parry instead of attack. It's a fun challenge in and of itself but it's also a great reminder of how to play for returning players. As mentioned there are no new run 'n' gun levels, which is a shame, and the quantity of new content does feel a little bit light, but the quality of the DLC is undeniable, and the long years it's had in development have clearly resulted in incredibly polished gameplay, visuals, and audio. And oh boy what a visual and aural feast this is. The original Cuphead is just filled with such gorgeous attention to detail and style, and yet the developers seem to have crammed even more flair and personality into these new bosses. The animation is once again stunning and truly worth the price of admission alone. The soundtrack is also just as catchy, jazzy, and all-around delightful. It's definitely worth just listening to the music at some point, when you can focus on it and not the endless barrage of attacks you need to dodge. Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course is an outstanding continuation of one of the best games released in the last few years. It delivers more of what players loved about the original game while throwing in enough new spices that the gameplay tastes fresh. Anyone that enjoyed Cuphead simply must check out this delicious send-off of Cuphead and Mugman's adventures. Rating: 9 out of 10 Chalices