King of Meat
Review
American Ninja Warrior - medieval style
by William Thompson
reviewed on PC
The Dungeon Arena and the Road to Stardom
The core loop of King of Meat focuses on navigating the dungeon courses, each one a treacherous gauntlet of traps, enemies, and puzzles. With a gameshow style theme, it feels like a medieval version of American Ninja Warrior. Levels are designed with a commendable blend of combat scenarios, 3D platforming challenges, and required puzzle-solving, ensuring that no single skill set dominates the run. Players must contend with unforgiving environmental dangers, including sudden spikes and dizzying moving platforms, all while fending off an assortment of foes.
Success in these deadly courses is key to the meta-game, or what the developers term the "Road to Stardom." Performing well—which includes completing the run quickly, finding hidden secret treasures, and, crucially, avoiding the need for resurrection—provides the final score. This score translates into a bronze, silver, or gold trophy, and the accompanying bonus customisations. This trophy system adds a significant layer of replayability, constantly encouraging players to return to old levels to chase that coveted gold and the powerful new equipment and skills that come with it.
A Meaty Combat System with Depth
At the heart of the dungeon runs is the combat, which is both demanding and rewarding. Players equip themselves with a trusty sword and shield, complemented by a crossbow for ranged engagements. Enemy design requires dynamic engagement, featuring melee opponents, enemies relying on predictable front-on attacks, and—most frustratingly in single-player—ranged adversaries. These ranged enemies, especially when traversing complex dungeons singlehandedly, can be a major pain point.
Fortunately, the combat depth extends beyond simple hacking and slashing. Players can move "backstage" between runs to interact with various NPCs, including trainers and vendors, where they can upgrade weapons and magic spells. Each weapon class is given its own identity through unique perks and pitfalls, offering potent upgrades the longer they are used and challenges are completed. Critical to survival are 'Glory Moves', powerful special attacks that can instantly turn the tide of battle when overwhelmed. The game smartly balances the necessity of both melee and ranged attacks, forcing players to master shooting on the fly for distant foes while closing the gap for close-quarters brutality.
Humour, Co-op, and Creation
While the traps and enemies are deadly, the atmosphere is lightened by pervasive humour, found both in the action itself and the amusing in-game dialogue. The game is fully playable solo, but the experience truly shines in its online co-op mode, which supports up to three other players. The co-op structure alleviates the difficulty spikes found in single-player, particularly with ranged enemies; players can easily coordinate, allowing one to focus on taking out back-line archers while the others concentrate on close combat threats.
Beyond the structured levels, King of Meat also includes an impressive level creation tool. While one might not "dabble too much" in creating custom dungeons, the ability to play through levels crafted by other players proved to be quite an enjoyable diversion during the review process, suggesting a healthy user-generated content community could extend the game's longevity far past its initial release.
King of Meat is more than just a novelty concept. It successfully marries a vibrant, gameshow-inspired aesthetic with a satisfying, dynamic combat. Its blend of fast-paced action, rewarding replay loop, and robust co-op play makes it an entertaining entry that deserves attention from fans of medieval action and platforming alike.
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6.4
fun score
Pros
Fun, humorous theme, bright visuals
Cons
Combat can feel monotonous, low player count can make co-op difficult
