Guildford-based team Glowmade, with the deepest of pockets that is Amazon Games, gleefully throw us into a chaotic and bloody game show. Platforming, traps and enemies, with puzzles to solve, treasure to grab – either alone, with friends, or strangers online. We’ve been having a blast on the Xbox Series X version – so here’s our ‘Review-in-progress’ for King of Meat!
He, King of Meat, runnin’ so fast, beatin’ the wind
In what is hardly a new concept in videogames, players get thrown into a highly violent yet somewhat comedic game show. Its presentation is half-way between the humour of a more grown-up cartoon shows mixed with the bombastic presentation of a wrestling event. We get to witness hilarious tongue-in-cheek commercials, talk shows and meet other contestants. But ultimately, what truly matters is what goes down in the arena, and that’s where King of Meat truly shines.
You could briefly sum up the game as an acrobatic platformer and brawler. Either as a solo player, inviting your friends online or matchmaking with strangers, the players get to choose a type of arena to tackle. These can be focused on combat, platforming, puzzles, traps and more. Once in the arena, the objective is usually to try and survive all the dangers that are thrown at us, as we attempt to reach the exit unscathed. This is easier said than done, of course.
The winning formula
King of Meat feels like a middle-ground between the wacky minigames of Fall Guys and more traditional 3D brawlers. Dives and double jumps allow us to navigate around moving platforms, dodge deadly fiery traps and solve various environmental puzzles. Underneath this barrage of platforming are deadly pits, so beware!
Combat encounters politely interrupt the more serene platforming elements, with the game show spawning all sorts of enemies to smash, bash and beat down. There’s a handful of combos and special abilities you can use, but you’re likely going to mash buttons like a maniac, for the most part. Combat is more about throwing a lot of enemies and traps at you, rather than offering a mechanically complex experience.
Still, there is some depth to the King of Meat‘s chaotic battles. The player can customize their loadouts with an increasing variety of weaponry. What is initially just a shield and sword, can eventually be substituted with a hammer, for example. Before long, we’ll have a bow to attack from the distance. Guns enter the discussion, too. Other special skills can also be obtained, from powerful belches that push away opposition away to healing skills. It is a chaotic game, but it’s still important to have the right builds for the task at hand.
Lara Croft on steroids
Most of the game’s official levels offer a decent amount of exploration, too. While they’re all closed-off dungeons of sorts, there are multiple difficult to reach spots, hidden corners and optional paths that can lead to power-ups and treasure. The latter can be important for your Arena ranking, as bronze, silver and gold trophies are awarded by reaching certain scores. These can be boosted further by keeping your combo alive – which can be done by continuously hitting enemies in varied ways, smashing objects, and trying not to get hit in the process.
You’ll even find puzzles that require multiple players to function, like switches that have to be hit with the correct timing among all the players, which requires a bit of coordination. Players can grab and throw items and find bombs to smash walls to smithereens. There are even dodgeball-style balls that can be thrown, either to cause damage or to solve certain puzzles.
Wedged between all these platforming and exploration segments, in comes the combat again. King of Meat‘s brawls feel a little…’spammy’. There’s a ton of explosions and items being chucked around. As a result, players and foes can be sent soaring by a powerful blow. Collision between players can turn tight places into absolute death traps. So it’s utterly chaotic, but importantly, tremendously fun.
Backstage
Curiously enough, behind the scenes of this bloody violent game show, lies a small village’s worth of activities. There’s a hub area where contestants can meet, chat, grab a beer, unlock new abilities and cosmetics, and plenty more besides. There are always quests and feats to work towards, with rewards to gain, as levelling up our hero grants us access to newer skills, extra game modes and more.
There’s tons of cosmetics to choose from, too. From your head, your body, arms and legs – even weapons can be customized with different skins. The number styles at our disposal are varied, perhaps to a fault. Indeed, the game’s already chaotic visuals are then accompanied by all sorts of characters that often thematically seem at odds with the game itself.
Interestingly, players can even apply stickers and various 3D decorations to pretty much any part of their stylish loadout. Add googly eyes or horns to any area of your helmet, 3D donuts and stars to your shirt. It can lead to some pretty unique looks, with even the players ‘calling card’, emotes and more being pretty customizable.
By far, the biggest expression of player freedom in King of Meat is the Create Mode, the game’s Forge-like dungeon editor. Players across any platform can create entirely new dungeons, customizing winning conditions, scores to achieve, enemy and trap placements, level geometry and more. Players can then find these creations easily, vote on and rate them, and even subscribe to a creator they like. It’s a surprisingly deep system that will surely see some wild community creations in the future.
I’m gonna stay a while
It should be clear by now that Glowmade‘s King of Meat is packed with tons of content to unlock and play. The editor will allow players to create an unlimited number of unique scenarios, and the massive amount of visual customization should keep our looks fresh and varied. There’s generic fantasy-themed armour, more casual street wear, futuristic sci-fi suits, teddy bear mascot vests… you name it. The many kinds of skills and weapons should also keep builds relatively fresh, although the simple brawler-style combat can get quite repetitive.
I don’t think the actual core gameplay of King of Meat is tremendously strong, per se, but the intensity of the combat and platforming, especially with friends on your side, is remarkable. Arenas range from fairly simple jaunts to incredibly hard dungeons, with the game kindly informing you just how tricky the encounter you’ve selected is going to be. There’s full cross-play to boot, and at least right now, no microtransactions (it’s a paid game after all, launching at 29.99 USD/29,99 EUR), and the performance is sound, though I did encounter a few bizarre glitches.
One time, half of the controls straight-up did not work during a match, though a reboot of the game immediately fixed this. Due to the King of Meat‘s online nature, we decided to opt for a review-in-progress, so we can keep checking it out once a player population has arrived alongside – we don’t yet know how well the game will hold up with the influx of players at launch!
As Andrew W.K. would say: never stop partying
King of Meat may not feature the tightest 3D platforming ever, nor the most engaging brawler mechanics in history. Yet, its eventful and varied dungeons offer exhilarating platforming, satisfying exploration and chaotic combat. It’s fun as a solo game, but with other players it turns into an absolute riot. Tons of items to throw around, explosions, moving platforms, wacky physics – it’s hilarious chaos. With plenty of player customization, a powerful level editor and an almost stupid number of things to unlock, King of Meat could easily stay in your multiplayer rotation for quite some time. Here’s hoping the game’s player population will be solid enough to keep it around for a long time!
King of Meat is available on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 and Steam starting October 7th, 2025. It is priced at 29.99 USD / 29,99 EUR / 23.95 GBP. The Deluxe Edition of the game comes with multiple cosmetic additions, on top of a 5-days early access. Said version of the game is available starting October 2nd, 2025, and it’ll set you back 49.99 USD / 49,99 EUR / 39.95 GBP. See you in the dungeons!
Review Code provided by the publisher.
King of Meat
Played on
Xbox Series X
PROS
- Absolutely delirious with buddies
- Impressive stage variety...
- ..and there's even a powerful dungeon editor!
- Lots of content at no extra charge
- Humor is on point
CONS
- Combat and platforming aren't outstanding
- Slightly confused visual identity
- A few technical gremlins
