Raf Grassetti was the Art Director on 2018’s stunning God of War remake and, hopefully, is returning to work on the inevitable sequel. He’s also an avid gamer, and spends much of his free time re-imagining famous video game characters in his own distinctive style.
You’ve probably already seen his work floating around the internet. Over the past few months, Grassetti has been on a mission to redesign every character from Super Smash Bros Ultimate in stunning detail, and the results have been an absolute joy to behold.
Grassetti has now turned his attention away from Nintendo and towards Studio MDHR’s indie-darling Cuphead, the punishingly difficult run n’ gun shooter with a delicious 1930’s cartoon aesthetic. The artist has yet to have a crack at the titular Cuphead himself, but recently shared some gorgeous recreations of the game’s two major villains: King Dice and the Devil.
In a post to Twitter sharing his version of King Dice, Grassetti wrote:
I’ve been a fan of Cuphead since it came out and now that I’m experiencing the game with my son I’m adding a few characters to my sketchbook to hopefully create a final piece at the end. Can’t wait for the dlc and Netflix series.
Take a look at both King Dice and the Devil below. I love how Grassetti has retained the essence of the period that inspired their designs, while still managing to put his own “realistic” twist on them both. As Grassetti said on Twitter, he’s hoping to do a final piece with more Cuphead characters at some point, so I can’t wait to see who he takes on next.
If it’s not Cuphead and Mugman, I’d love to see his version of the dragon Grim Matchstick – I can already imagine it now, and it’s gorgeous.
I would very much like to get that picture of the Devil framed and up on my wall, if I’m being honest with you. Until Grassetti blows my mind with further works of Cuphead related art, why not check out the rest of his Instagram? It’s packed with some really impressive work.
In other Cuphead news, Netflix recently announced that it turning the franchise into an animated comedy series called The Cuphead Show!, which will be framed as a run of animated shorts.
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Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.