Heading into Summer Game Fest, I really had not heard much about King of Meat. Developed by Glowmade and published by Amazon Games, King of Meat is best described as a chaotic party platformer with a huge emphasis on user-created content. After spending almost an hour with the game hands-on, I think King of Meat is going to be one to watch if you’re searching for a new fun game to squad up with friends in.
King of Meat stars you and up to three friends in a TV show set in a crazy fantasy-inspired world. As contestants on this game show, you’re tasked with clearing dungeons of all shapes and sizes, and you never quite know what to expect. Customization and the power of creativity are the names of the game, with an almost overwhelming amount of tools at your disposal.
This is seen immediately in the character creator screen, where you can customize every single aspect of your character. There are loads of different outfits and accessories to choose from, and you will be able to unlock more and more of these as you play the game. The various player customization screens are reminiscent of Fall Guys, yet it seems to be much deeper (at least with the different cosmetics I was able to pick from). You can also completely tweak your weapons and playstyle to whatever fits you best. There are a variety of abilities at your disposal, including glory moves, specials, and even different types of weapons.
As soon as you step into the world of King of Meat, you’re greeted by a social hub where you can interact with both NPCs and players from around the world. Here, you can quickly access all of the game’s offerings or upgrade your character and its abilities. It’s funny how nostalgic this area can feel in a way, as these sorts of hubs are rare nowadays despite being abundant in the past. I appreciated that the environment was explorable and there were a few easter eggs to find around. Each of the NPCs was fully voiced, and you could get a fun conversation in since each has a very different personality and design.
The main gameplay of King of Meat lies with its various dungeons, which you can tackle with friends and attempt to complete without dying. These dungeons can feature hordes of enemies, puzzles to solve, and even huge bosses to defeat. I found rooms that required me to backtrack and locate a switch to progress, in addition to some that required me to platform through. Each dungeon is going to have a leaderboard, so you can attempt to speedrun and earn a spot on the leaderboard for all to see. Glowmade is set to offer dozens and dozens of handcrafted dungeons for you and your friends to conquer when the game launches.
However, those 100 levels crafted by Glowmade are just scratching the surface. The real ‘meat’ of King of Meat lies with its Create Mode. Let me be the first to tell you: I was blown away by what this mode has to offer. Not only does it have countless decorations, traps, enemies, and puzzles to offer, but the team at Glowmade actually developed every single dungeon of its own inside Create Mode. So, you can make your levels with every tool that the development team has — how cool is that? Speaking with the team at SGF, it was made clear that this mode is the heart of King of Meat, and there is already a community at work on custom levels even now.
Glowmade also shared that the team plans to highlight the most popular user-made dungeons by incorporating them into the main modes of the game. So, if you create a dungeon that turns out to be a hit, it might appear in the rotation! Similar to Super Mario Maker, you must clear your own custom dungeon before posting it to the internet, so no need to worry about impossible challenges.
If this astounding level of creativity reminds you of games like LittleBigPlanet, you wouldn’t be wrong – some developers working on King of Meat were previously at MediaMolecule. However, despite the similarities, King of Meat managed to be fun as its own thing for me. Sure, it clearly takes inspiration from many different games in the co-op and platforming genres, but it does this so well.
Overall, I found King of Meat quite fun and enjoyable. This is clearly a party game at heart, made to be played with friends, but I think you can have a good time tackling dungeons even solo. However, I think a lot of this is going to come down to whether or not King of Meat can get the player base it needs. User-created content is not made out of thin air, and Glowmade is going to need to create a base that consistently pushes the boundaries of Create Mode to provide new content frequently.
King of Meat is set to launch later this year across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam.
