King of Meat Preview: Impressions on Glowmade's chaotic co-op game 10 months later

Almost a year ago, I had the opportunity to go hands-on with King of Meat, an all-new multiplayer 3D platformer that basically asks the question of what would happen if you combined Little Big Planet with Total Wipeout. That original preview was based on a bunch of time spent playing some of the various levels in a group of four, blasting through platforming challenges, overcoming environmental puzzles, and defeating enemies along the way. It was a fun experience but also quite a tailored glimpse at the game, offering what is undoubtedly the ideal and perfect way to play. The real question for the majority of fans and future players is how King of Meat will perform for those unable to gather three friends and to embrace the cooperative chaos. The latest preview build has given me a very good idea of what this looks like.

Before I get into the specifics of this, let me once again provide a short description of how King of Meat operates. Essentially, this is a big and violent game show where competitors hop into intense, varied, and thrilling obstacle-course-like levels in an attempt to notch up score and reach the end in one piece. The actual theme, presentation, and idea is genuinely top of the line, offering a caricature of game shows more akin to Takeshi's Castle and the absurdity it offers, all while being set in a fantasy realm where anything and everything goes and rules are mostly laughed at. Again, think Little Big Planet and the way its levels were constructed except with a theme that's less cosy and more chaotic. That's King of Meat in a nutshell.

Actually playing the game is the same as most 3D platformers in that you can run, jump, grab and pull items, interact with switches and other logic tools, swing and smash enemies with weapons, and even block attacks, use powerful abilities, and chain combos too. Mechanically, it's quite straightforward, but that's fine because it works and because the majority of the gameplay emphasis is directed at the cooperative mania.

When actually hopping into a match, you leave a hub area packed with vendors and kooky characters and begin either matchmaking into courses created by developer Glowmade or the community, or take on solo endeavours that attempt to provide more of a structured single-player narrative thread to follow. Whatever the case, levels are quite similar in structure and formula, as you must navigate hazards, traps, threats, verticality, and puzzles, all while the game makes hectic noise and commentators shout at you as though you're actually performing in a game show, something that is further enhanced by the excellent HUD that resembles a collection of broadcast graphics and lower thirds. The point is, the concept and presentation direction is excellent and feels unique and special, albeit with a very familiar LBP undertone that is combined with more mature and satirical humour. The catch then is the execution and whether King of Meat is as fun to play as it is to talk about.

This is where I find myself at a bit of an impasse with King of Meat. I won't deny that multiplayer, when in full swing, is an absolute blast, but the problem with that - and this is a co-op game issue as a whole - is that you don't always have the right people on hand to be able to enjoy it as it's intended. When matchmaking with strangers (you can't play many of the core modes without at least two players...), the charm just isn't quite as electric, and when playing the single-player options, it's equally clear that the gameplay structure is simply not deep enough nor engaging enough to withhold the attention of one person. King of Meat screams out as one of those games that you will see content creators having an absolute blast playing together, but unless you can convince a bunch of your friends to splash out on the more affordable yet still paid price tag, it will never quite be as entertaining for you on your own.

Now that might seem like a strange thing to bring up in a preview, but King of Meat is a game that will live and die on its community. Yes, Glowmade has built the foundation and refined the core gameplay, and the developer will continue to crank out official levels and courses too, but this is also a game where encouraging the community to build their own levels and lift up the talented creators within will be absolutely paramount to ensuring it excels and remains relevant. In fact, it'd be closer in comparison to Behaviour Interactive's Meet Your Maker than it would be to LBP because of this, which is actually quite a risky idea to commit to. Another point of comparison would be Mario Maker, except without having an established and rabid fanbase of 40 years to lift the project up and support it.

I will give Glowmade their flowers for designing an excellent level creation system, which considering this studio is made up of several Media Molecule veterans, you would expect their UGC features to be top quality. And they are. Making levels is frictionless, fun, and intuitive, and you can see that a huge emphasis has been placed on getting this part of the game up to scratch. I do commend that but I worry at the same time that this focus has come at the cost of the wider world and creating an experience that fans want to play for hours and then return to in the future as well. Sure, many will connect with the UGC elements and the daft 3D platforming fun, but I can say with almost certainty that the progression will rub more than a few the wrong way.

King of Meat is a game that is all about playing and simply amassing the equivalent of experience points, all while ticking off challenges along the way to progress battle pass-like glory paths that unlock new costumes and cosmetics, weapon options, emotes, stickers, you name it. In an LBP fashion, this does pave the way to great character customisation opportunities, but at the same time, it's not a very engaging way to entice players and deliver progression. In fact I'd go as far as saying that when you first set your eyes on the various levelling systems you will release an audible sigh.

I know it may sound like I'm bashing King of Meat at times, but it's because I'm so familiar with these types of experiences and see so many stumble out the gates and then fail that I have perhaps developed a cynical perception of them. And that's also perhaps unfair in regards to King of Meat because Glowmade's theme and idea is a lot of fun when it's working as intended. The action can be chaotic but hilarious, the UGC systems are intuitive yet complex, the player agency and customisation is broad, and there are even additional minor elements that when you notice them you can't help but be impressed by them, including the amusing cartoon cutscenes that poke fun at real advertising. King of Meat deserves to come out the gates swinging and to become one of the next big multiplayer and cooperative obsessions, but whether it can or will actually do that is a very different situation, one that I find myself doubting judging by the immense and growing list of equally fun projects that have since faded into memory. I'd love to be proven wrong, but somewhat similar and entertaining multiplayer games like MultiVersus, XDefiant, Knockout City, Rocket Arena, the list goes on, and some of which started as paid games too, all say differently. Make of that what you will.