King of Meat Review: A Savory Sausage Sensation
▼ Summary
– King of Meat offers extensive content and customization at a reasonable price, but has cumbersome platforming and annoying dialogue.
– The game features a robust multiplayer mode with three leagues and a strong focus on co-op play with friends.
– Combat is deep and rewarding with varied weapons and combo-based mechanics, though level design quality varies significantly.
– Character and dungeon customization tools are top-notch, allowing for creative expression and community level sharing.
– Despite strong elements, the experience is hampered by slow platforming, inconsistent difficulty, and grating parody humor.
For players seeking a vibrant multiplayer experience packed with customization and creative tools, King of Meat presents a substantial offering at an attractive price point. This party platformer delivers a huge amount of unlockable content, from a diverse arsenal of weapons to an impressive character creator, ensuring there’s always something new to earn. While exploring dungeons with friends provides genuine fun, the experience is occasionally hampered by sluggish platforming mechanics and a humor style that may not land with everyone.
The game is set in the fantasy realm of Loregok, where the universe revolves around a fictional television show. Despite its clear focus on online multiplayer, King of Meat includes a surprising amount of story content and fully voiced dialogue. Vendors in the central hub frequently share lore, and a solid single-player mode guides you through developer-designed dungeons interspersed with narrative moments. Although the parody-based comedy can feel tired, it offers a pleasant diversion while waiting for friends to join. Replaying these stages to achieve higher scores rewards you with in-game currency and cosmetic items, adding incentive to return.
Multiplayer stands out as the main attraction, structured across three distinct leagues that support up to four players cooperatively. The initial League Tryouts serve as beginner stages, populated by basic skeletons and simple puzzles, but these early matches lack excitement. Things improve significantly in the Global League and the intensely difficult Imperial League. Global League provides the most consistent enjoyment, though your fun heavily depends on the quality of the stage you’re playing. While there is a generous selection of developer-crafted levels, the game also integrates community-made creations into the rotation.
Well-designed stages make every element click perfectly. One memorable session involved coordinating with random teammates to solve intricate spike puzzles using only the in-game chat wheel and ping system. Timing movements on pressure plates to disable traps for each other created a seamless, hive-mind collaboration that felt incredibly rewarding. Combat also impresses in wave-based encounters, allowing you to chain combos to fill an audience excitement meter, more elaborate streaks trigger louder cheers and higher scores.
A Specials mode serves up limited-time challenges tailored for solo or team play. These represent some of the best level designs, blending clever traps with engaging combat scenarios. Climbing the associated leaderboards is fiercely competitive, reaching the top spot delivers a real sense of achievement. The arsenal is equally impressive, with primary weapons spanning swords, hammers, magical knuckle dusters, and electric guitars, while secondary slots include a bomb launcher and even a conventional firearm. Mastering each weapon progresses through extensive skill trees that boost stats and improve attack efficiency.
Powerful Glory Moves charge during combat like ultimate abilities, unleashing effects such as team healing or a comical burp that sends foes flying. On paper, the combat system is robust, but problems emerge on poorly designed community levels. One particularly unfair stage dumped players into a narrow corridor swarming with overpowered enemies, resulting in an instant game over. The platforming itself feels slow and imprecise, with a floaty jump and sluggish run speed that make parkour-focused sections frustrating. Combine this with occasional hit detection issues due to server latency, and navigating spike pits or moving platforms becomes more tedious than thrilling.
Creative players will find much to love, however, as King of Meat excels in customization. The character editor offers extensive control over your armored contestant, with numerous outfit pieces, decals, and accessories that can be placed freely. The art style, a quirky blend of modern and medieval, ensures that items like traffic cones and tracksuit bottoms fit right alongside classic armor. The dungeon creator, while not as freeform as tools in titles like Super Mario Maker, still provides impressive flexibility. You place pre-designed rooms but have access to abundant decor, enemy types, special effects, and a logic system for crafting inventive puzzles and contraptions. Testing your dungeon on the fly is straightforward, and sharing your creations with the community is a seamless process.
Overall, King of Meat leaves a mixed impression. All the components for a standout game are present, and the development team has clearly invested great care into most core features, it’s just a shame that the platforming and comedic elements fall flat.
Consider playing King of Meat if:
- You’re looking for a new cooperative game to enjoy with friends. Its budget-friendly price and support for up to four players make it an excellent pick for virtual game nights.
You may want to skip it if:
- The humor style isn’t for you. The game leans heavily on parody-driven dialogue and cutscenes, which may not suit all tastes.
The game offers a broad set of accessibility options. Features include speech-to-text, menu narration, and customizable subtitles with adjustable size, color, and background opacity. Controls are highly adaptable, with schemes that reduce or remove the need for rapid button presses. Players with photosensitivity can also disable screen flashes and other potentially disruptive effects.
(Source: NewsAPI Gaming Hardware & Accessories)
