We’re currently living in a co-op multiplayer renaissance. A new wave of games like Peak and Lethal Company are bringing friends together in ways that many developers dream of, but few ever achieve. The best of these games are organic success stories built from positive word of mouth, fueled in no small part thanks to content-creator buzz. You couldn’t reliably engineer their success if you tried.
King of Meat is here to test that theory. While it’s the debut game for developer Glowmade, it’s another attempt to land a big hit for publisher Amazon Games. The irreverent multiplayer romp looks and feels like a game that should be popular, offering a comedic mutation of Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout and pulling in a high-profile collaboration with Mr. Beast at launch. But early Steam data suggests that it’s going to be an uphill battle to reach a massive audience — and that’s a challenge for a game that is built entirely around user-generated content. While there’s potential in King of Meat, it’s a key example of why studios can’t assume that if they build it, players will come.
King of Meat is a four-player co-op game that’s structured like a game show. The idea is that players fight through dungeons filled with monsters and traps, almost like they’re participating in a medieval version of Wipeout. Players team up to tackle challenges, both made by Glowmade itself and user-created levels, and acquire cash that can be spent on new weapons, gear, and customization items. It’s a game of progression where each stab at a devious dungeon gives you more gold.
As a co-op game, it’s a perfectly fun idea. In the time I’ve played, I’ve come up against no shortage of creative challenges that vary in length, complexity, and difficulty. Some just have me participating in a mini-dungeon crawl, knocking out waves of skeletons with my hammer and amassing gold. Those scenarios are generally the weaker offerings, as King of Meat isn’t exactly a great action game. There’s no real impact to any of the weightless combat, whether I’m hitting enemies with a crossbow or nailing them with quick sword slashes.
Thankfully, battles usually aren’t the focus. Instead, the more intricate dungeons are platforming challenges where my teammates and I need to navigate around a maze of traps. In one, we find ourselves platforming around a room of pipes while avoiding fire-spewing canons. In another, I’m bouncing on trampolines to cross over spike pits and glide through deadly tunnels. Others are full-on puzzle dungeons, leaving my teammates and me to toss bombs at false walls, coordinate to simultaneously stand on switches, and find well-hidden side passages that take us to optional treasure chests. The best levels remind me of Super Mario Maker creations, remixing the same suite of traps to invent creative platforming challenges.
All of this is made possible through King of Meat’s central hook: a powerful dungeon creator. Any player can make their own stage that others can upvote, with the best creations getting the spotlight of a community tab. The tool is easy to use and lets players get hyperspecific about how they build a dungeon, right down to deciding the directionality of the light. Once you start digging through some of the game’s most popular early creations, it instantly becomes clear that it’s a powerful tool that paves the way for varied experiences.
The aspiration behind the tool is apparent. While there are plenty of original dungeons created by Glowmade, both multiplayer and solo, the long-term hope seems to be that a dedicated community will keep churning out fun dungeons that keep players logging in and unlocking more rewards. In a perfect scenario, that’s a sound idea — but King of Meat’s early access launch weekend doesn’t inspire confidence. (Those who pre-ordered King of Meat got access to the game on Oct. 2 ahead of an Oct. 7 release date.)
I dove in on PlayStation 5 across its maiden weekend and was very rarely able to matchmake with enough players to get a full four-player team going. I came back on launch day proper and had an even tougher time finding even one teammate. Things don’t seem too promising on Steam either, where the game currently has 58 reviews at the time of writing, pulled from the game’s five days of early access. I have found some strong dungeons despite the seemingly small user base, but the most popular community creation at present is a dungeon that has players walk in a straight line for a few seconds. As far as I can tell, it’s designed to let players farm for currency as quickly as possible.
I’m not surprised that King of Meat hasn’t become an instant sensation. It’s launching during an incredibly busy season where players have too many options. It sports a colorful visual style, but one that makes it look like a knockoff Fall Guys with a bit less personality. Its satirical sense of humor borders on hacky, even if it has some delightful splashes of game show presentation. Maybe most damning of all is that it costs $30, following the same sin that hurt promising multiplayer games like Knockout City initially. Even if it has a big publisher behind it and support from Mr. Beast, those are still hard hurdles for any game to cross.
To its credit, Amazon is pulling out some big marketing guns to make it work. Twitch, which is owned by Amazon, has a high-profile King of Meat banner on its homepage as of release day. Its viewer count on the platform has rocketed up to 48,000 thanks to that, putting it above Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and the viral Megabonk. But that number is a bit deceptive. Megabonk currently has more than 4,500 people following the game on the platform. King of Meat has under 300. You can’t force a hit just by putting it in front of people’s faces.
There’s reason to believe it could find its moment, though. King of Meat is a fun co-op experience that does something novel with Fall Guys’ slapstick charm. There’s an appeal in watching your friends, or even a stranger online, die in a well-constructed maze of spikes and swinging hammers. It might just take the right streamer taking to it and churning out intricate challenges that beg to be conquered. There’s potential for a natural viral moment in the creative tool set. If King of Meat is going to break out like smaller games that didn’t have Amazon’s backing, it’s going to have to accomplish that on its own merits.
