Cupiclaw first impressions: Trinkets galore

Arcade-themed roguelikes come in all shapes and sizes, focused on everything from straight-up gambling to coin pushers and claw machines. Cupiclaw’s demo focuses on the latter, offering a vibrant, claw-machine experience that roguelike lovers will adore.

If you’ve been wondering how Cupiclaw stacks up against the best arcade roguelikes on Steam, you’ll find The Escapist’s first impressions of the demo below, looking at everything from the core gameplay to the replay value. 

The Escapist recaps

• Cupiclaw is an upcoming arcade roguelike, developed and published by Typin. It’s available in demo format on Steam, with a release window of 2026.
• The premise behind Cupiclaw is that you’re playing as Morris, who’s lost his engagement ring – somehow – and needs to win a new one by getting to the top floor of the arcade, where rings can be found as prizes. 
• The core gameplay in Cupiclaw is based around a cute claw machine, tasking players with earning a set amount of coins to pass through each round. Different prizes in the claw machine award different amounts of coins, while traps inflict losses.
• Upgrades can be purchased in between rounds and at the end of each floor, allowing players to manipulate how many prizes of a certain kind are in the claw machine and to build synergies between prize types. 
• The demo is smooth and polished, with an adorable pixel art style. It’s a generous demo, too, with multiple floors to play through and a wide variety of different prizes to experiment with and create builds with. 

Moreish gameplay with adorable artwork

In Cupiclaw, you play as Morris, who’s somehow managed to lose his engagement ring. His strategy to fix this? Win a new ring at the arcade by making his way through each floor and playing the claw machine at the very top.

The gameplay in this demo is purely centered around the claw machine itself, with each round tasking you with earning a certain amount of coins. There are multiple rounds per floor, with the target coin goal going up periodically throughout the game.

The levels get trickier as you progress, going from a static claw machine to ones with extra hazards, like a moving floor or tiny bombs inside the machine. To counteract this, you’ll get access to new perks and upgrades as you progress, allowing you to experiment with new builds and strategies. 

The items you’ll be able to pick up range from lollipops to chunks of sapphire, and each of them has special abilities that can be upgraded. The cat plush, for example, allows you to get extra bonuses from food-related prizes, like lollipops.

Despite there being a small element of luck to Cupiclaw, there’s a real strategic edge to it. To get through each floor without running out of coins, you’ll need to focus on synergy and pick the prizes that work best with each other.

If you just pick randomly – as this reviewer did on their first attempt – you’ll lose quickly and run out of cash. Think of it as being like Balatro’s Joker system; you’ll need to plan when picking your prizes and think about possible upgrades that’ll appear at the end of the floor, too. 

Surprisingly tricky in places

While Cupiclaw might not look like the trickiest game based on its cute aesthetic and light-hearted premise, there were a few challenging sections to contend with. If you’ve got a bad build, you won’t be able to make much progress.

The variety of prizes on offer meant that there was plenty of replay value to enjoy with Cupiclaw, despite it being a demo. Builds could vary from plush-centric to food-focused, each with wildly different effects.

Seeing a strong variety of items in a demo – particularly in the gambling or roguelike niches – is always a positive indicator for the full release of the game. It seems like Cupiclaw will have an even wider range of prizes to experiment with in its full iteration, based on the demo, meaning it could rival games like Slots and Daggers in terms of replay value. 

Cupiclaw performed well in its demo form, without any visual quirks, glitches, or bugs. It ran smoothly and felt easy to navigate – sometimes, games with pixelated fonts can be hard to parse, but this thankfully wasn’t the case for Cupiclaw.

Fans of arcade roguelikes and gambling games will find a lot to get excited about with the Cupiclaw demo. It’s sweet and charming, with a delightful pixel art style, but there’s a surprisingly tricky side to the game that’ll keep seasoned roguelike fans intrigued. The demo is fairly generous in terms of content as well. 

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