Studio MDHR Announces Two New Cuphead Games, Including a Real Sega Master System Title

The Foreshadowing Nobody Caught

In hindsight, the studio had been dropping hints. A holiday card posted December 23, 2025 showed Cuphead, Mugman, and Ms. Chalice sitting around a retro television with what looks very much like a game playing on screen. At the time it read as seasonal decoration. With Mighty Cuphead Adventure now announced as an actual Sega Master System cartridge, that little TV reads very differently. If the game on screen is what it looks like, Studio MDHR had already been at this for quite a while before anyone knew to look.

That card, quiet at the time, was setting the tone for everything that followed. The full “Special Bulletin” reveal video, produced with Toronto’s Stop Motion Department and Continue Agency, leaned fully into the late-80s broadcast aesthetic. When the title Mighty Cuphead Adventure appeared onscreen, with a copyright stamp reading “1988 STUDIO MDHR,” it became clear this was not just a visual style choice. The only other explanation is that Studio MDHR owns a time machine and simply forgot to mention it.

Mighty Cuphead Adventure: A Real Master System Game

This is the part that needs a second read.

Mighty Cuphead Adventure is not a demake. It is not a retro-styled indie game with pixel art that evokes the era. It is an actual, authentic Sega Master System game, programmed in Assembly Language, built to the exact hardware specifications of Sega’s 1985 console, and running in 32 colors. Studio MDHR is releasing it on a physical cartridge that plays on original hardware.

Gameplay-wise, it is an 8-bit action platformer with run-and-gun mechanics. From the screenshots already circulating, the game features Cuphead traversing tiled platforming stages and facing off against oversized vegetable bosses, all rendered in that unmistakable chunky Master System palette. It looks like something you would have found at the bottom of a rental store bin in 1989, in the best possible way.

The studio described it as “a brand-new, riveting Cuphead video game that will bring the most advanced 8-bit action platforming to life on your television set in 32 dazzling colors.” Co-founder Chad Moldenhauer put it plainly: “They just don’t make them like they used to… until we decided to!”

Modern console and PC versions are also coming. No release window has been given yet, with the studio promising “more details in the coming months.”

A New Hand-Animated Cuphead Sequel Is in Development

Alongside Mighty Cuphead Adventure, Studio MDHR confirmed that work has begun on “a brand new, hand-animated Cuphead video game.” That is the full extent of what has been shared. No title, no platforms, no release window, no screenshots.

The studio said the team is “pushing themselves to continue improving on their craft in all areas,” which suggests the sequel is still early enough that showing anything would be premature. Whether this ends up being Cuphead 2 in name or something else entirely is unknown for now.

Made in Canada

Studio MDHR was founded by brothers Chad and Jared Moldenhauer and is based in Oakville, Ontario. The Cuphead series has long been a point of Canadian pride in the games industry, and the fact that a small studio from Ontario is now shipping actual cartridges for a 1985 Sega console is, frankly, one of the more unexpected gaming stories of 2026.

Chad Moldenhauer described both announcements as “a true love letter to the era that inspired us to make video games in the first place.”

More details on both games are expected in the coming months. When a physical cartridge for a 40-year-old console is the least surprising part of your announcement, you have had a good day at Summer Game Fest.