It gets to the point where I’m a little tired of the “this video game you’re playing is actually a TV show in the universe” gag, so I’ll admit I wasn’t overly excited about marching over to the Amazon Games booth at Gamescom 2024 to play King of the Fleshwhich was recently revealed on Opening Night Live.
Given the silliness and humor of Glowmade’s title, however, my bitter skepticism didn’t last long – “King of Meat” has its charm.
King of Meat is essentially a 3D dungeon crawler with some simple combat, platforming, and puzzle mechanics that let you and up to three friends tackle deadly dungeons. Together, you must fend off enemies and navigate the map, collecting as much loot as possible to earn a good rating—and therefore better rewards.
That’s the core of the gameplay anyway. Simple, right?
While there are fewer players – especially players out to kill you – than in a typical Fall Guys match, the energy and chaos that can ensue is comparable. You’re trying to dodge giant morning stars and avoid getting fried by flamethrowers and getting in each other’s way. One of you falls into the lava below, and it’s an absolute riot.
This is thanks to the second aspect of King of Meat: all of the levels in the game are designed and hand-crafted by someone at Glowmade or from the community. The title is like Meet Your Maker in that anyone can create and submit dungeons for others to tackle. So even if you’re not necessarily good at dodging and fighting, you can still build some sneaky death traps for your friends and watch them despair as they try to solve the level.
Since characters each have a melee and a ranged weapon, as well as movement abilities like a double jump and a body slam, there are countless ways to interact with objects in the dungeon. I obviously didn’t try out the level editor myself at the event, but from what I can tell, Glowmade provides a very robust toolset for creators – and that’s crucial. The developers are banking on an active community of map creators, and one way to increase the likelihood of that is to give them a fun, powerful, yet simple editor to work with.
This simplicity extends to the gameplay itself – you can pick up the controller and you’ll know pretty instinctively what to do in this game. That’s not to say the game isn’t challenging at all, though: while you’ll be attacked by enemies, bombs will drop on the stage at regular intervals, and hot lava will threaten to engulf anyone who makes a wrong move, you’ll generally make mistakes and die – and that’s OK: your team can revive you, and there are several checkpoints in each dungeon where the party can also bring someone back from the dead. But yeah: it can get hectic and a bit sweaty, and there will be some pressure if you’re the last skeleton standing.
There are currently two different weapons for close combat: a sword for quick attacks and a hammer for slower attacks. Everyone also gets a crossbow to complement their loadout – plus, each player can bring an ultimate ability that can be activated in particularly dire situations. This is where coordination between party members is especially useful, as you’ll likely want to bring a diverse set of these into a dungeon. Whether it’s an ultimate summoning a giant foot that stomps on enemies or one that provides healing, these abilities can turn the tide in the heat of battle.
Once you’ve finished a dungeon and claimed your well-earned rewards, you’ll return to a central area with plenty of NPCs to talk to. Here you can unlock additional ultimates or buy perks for your next run. This area also has shops where you can buy cosmetic items – and that’s another important aspect of King of Meat: customization. You can make yourself super spiky with horns, recolor your armor, or stick a few stickers on yourself.
Like the level editor, character customization is fairly simple to use, but still quite powerful – any player who enjoys spending hours tinkering with their RPG characters will have a lot of fun with this.
Combining these casual, friendly elements with a lighthearted tone, a vibrant color palette, and the power of friendship just works: My skepticism disappeared when I dove into King of Meat with a group of complete strangers, and I think with the right group of people, King of Meat would be a blast.
King of Meat will be released for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch with cross-play and cross-progression on a yet to be announced release date.
