For those who don't know, Cuphead is a highly-anticipated upcoming platformer that's designed to look like a cartoon from the 1930s and '40s; think Steamboat Willie, only in color. It was due to be released before the end of the year, but it's now been delayed until mid-2017.

In a blog post on its website, developer Studio MDHR wrote: "we wanted to finish our game 80 years after 1936 but it will now be 81."

"Throughout this year we discussed reducing the scope to make a 2016 release, but we made the difficult decision to delay the launch in order to ship with our vision intact."

The news marks the fourth time that Cuphead's release date has been changed. After it was first unveiled back in January 2014, the developers said they had a "late 2014" launch in mind. But at E3 later that year the game was pushed back to 2015.

2015 arrived, and Cuphead was pushed back again. This time, the developers said the delay was to make "the best game possible." But the release date was put forward another year, again, once 2015 arrived.

Earlier this year, it was announced that Cuphead's gameplay had expanded to include platforming, so it was no longer just a run-and-gun, boss rush title.

There has been a slew of game delays announced in the last few months. South Park: The Fractured But Whole is now arriving in 2017; Star Citizen's single player campaign, Squadron 42, has been delayed indefinitely; and Final Fantasy XV was pushed from September 30 to November 29.

With several recent high-profile games turning out to be disappointments, such as No Man's Sky, Mighty No. 9, and Mafia 3, many developers believe it's worth delaying a product to add that extra bit of polish, even if it does annoy fans. It certainly worked for The Witcher 3, though it didn't seem to help No Man's Sky, admittedly.