Dr. Kahl (Cuphead)

From Atrocious Gameplay Wiki

Dr. Kahl (or Kahl's Robot/Dr. Kahl's Robot) is a boss in Cuphead. It's a robot piloted by a mad scientist, and he appears in Junkyard Jive!, in the third island of Inkwell.

Trust us... You will waste enough attempts trying to defeat him, before you manage to defeat him.

Why He Sucks

  1. Dr. Kahl's robot has three parts that have their own attack. However, should you destroy one of them, the robot will change the attack.
    1. The antenna fires a beam of energy, but if destroyed, the robot will switch to his Head Cannon, which is more difficult to avoid, due to the shots being fired in a spread.
    2. The chest releases pink robots that must be parried, in order to negate their attack. However, if destroyed, the robot will attack with his arms instead, either with a magnet or twisting them to fire vertically.
    3. The Abdomen fires boomerang-like robots that move in a zig-zag pattern, but if destroyed, it will change to homing bombs.
  2. If you think that destroying all the parts would result going in the second phase, THINK AGAIN, because the parts don't count.
    1. In fact, many players that was defeated in the first phase thought that they didn't progress.
  3. The only way to go in the second phase is to destroy all three parts, then hit the heart that will appear.
  4. The second phase is really difficult: You have to shoot the robot's head that goes right and left while avoiding homing bombs at the same time.
  5. The last phase is extremely difficult.
    1. For starters, Dr.Kahl has 1120 health on regular and 1440 on expert, which is incredibily tough, considering the two last bosses, King Dice and The Devil, either have low health due to the wave of bosses that you fight before reaching him in his fight, or split health between phases.
    2. You have to avoid his main attack: A red/blue gem that fires radial bursts in a clockwise/counterclockwise rotation.
    3. It doesn't help that other than attacking Kahl, you have to avoid electrified walls that will move down or up.
  6. The Expert mode cranks up the difficulty by making his bullets go faster, his red gem fire in a more irregular pattern, and making the electrified walls appear more often.

Redeeming Qualities

  1. The boss' designs, other than looking awesome, are also inspired from other media:
    1. The Robot is greatly inspired by The Iron Giant, Bender from Futurama, the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz, and phase 3 is a reference from Bowser's Koopa Clown Car, Dr. Eggman's Egg Mobile and Dr. Wily's Wily Capsule.
    2. Dr. Kahl himself is also neatly inspired by other mad scientists, such as Dr. Wily from Mega Man, Dr. Eggman from Sonic and Dr. Neo Cortex from Crash Bandicoot, as well as the Professor from Felix the Cat and the Mad Doctor from Mickey Mouse.
  2. Fantastic soundtrack.
  3. The background is pretty good.
  4. The knockout animation is very funny to watch as you can see Dr. Kahl with all of his clothes blow up.