New Game : Mad King Redemption storms Steam early access

For a while, Absolum had the roguelike beat 'em up niche almost entirely to itself. That era is officially over.

Mad King Redemption, the debut title from Berlin-based studio Secret Mission Games, hit Steam Early Access on May 14, 2026.

A throne, a curse, and a king who lost it

The setup is pure dark fantasy. The kingdom has crumbled under the rule of a sovereign who reached for forbidden magic in a desperate bid to bring his dead queen back. Life and death, it turns out, aren't powers you bend without a price, and the king paid with his sanity. What's left is a corrupted realm crawling with enemies, and four heroes willing to wade into it.

It's a familiar genre wrapped in a striking presentation. Where most side-scrolling brawlers stick to flat sprites, Mad King Redemption leans into a 2.5D pixel-art world, giving the action a sense of depth that sets it apart from the usual Final Fight and Golden Axe descendants it openly draws from.

What's actually in the box

The Early Access build ships with a meaningful chunk of content rather than a bare-bones teaser:

• Four playable heroes, each with their own combat style, adjustable stats that genuinely change how they play, and individual backstories to dig into.

  

• Two distinct biomes to fight through, populated with waves of corrupted foes and several boss encounters, including, eventually, the Mad King himself.

  

• Roguelite progression layered over the classic brawler loop. Runs are randomized, and persistent upgrades and unlocks carry forward between attempts.

• Short, punchy sessionsn runs clock in around 20 minutes, built for pick-up-and-play rather than marathon grinding.

The combat keeps things old-school at its core: move horizontally, chain combos, deploy specials, repeat. The roguelite scaffolding is what keeps it from feeling repetitive, and the studio has signaled there's more coming — expanded corruption mechanics, deeper enemy variety, and a fuller progression structure tying objectives, items, skins, and powers together.

Co-op, with one big caveat

Couch co-op is alive here — the game supports local multiplayer out of the box, which is the kind of feature genre veterans actively look for. Online play, though, comes with an asterisk: it currently runs through Steam Remote Play Together, meaning two players can team up online but only one copy of the game does the heavy lifting. There's no native online multiplayer yet.

That's the main gap between Mad King Redemption and a bigger-budget rival like Absolum. But it's worth keeping perspective: this is a self-funded debut from a three-person team, and it costs roughly half of what the genre's heavyweights ask.

Price, platforms, and pedigree

Mad King Redemption sits at $14.99 on Steam, with a launch discount knocking it down to around $13.50 at release. Epic Games Store and GOG versions are on the way, and the developers have floated a Steam Next Fest spotlight and festival appearances as signs of momentum.

And the early signals are good. The studio walked away with a Very Big Indie Pitch award, was hand-picked by Valve for an official Steam Next Fest trailer, and is heading to BitSummit PUNCH 2026 in Kyoto as a featured exhibitor. Steam user reviews so far have landed firmly on the positive side.

Worth a swing?

Early Access always comes with the standard warning : the game isn't finished, and it'll change. But for fans of arcade brawlers who've been waiting for the genre's roguelike revival to expand beyond a single standout title, Mad King Redemption is an easy, low-risk recommendation. A bold art style, four distinct fighters, local co-op, and a budget price tag add up to a debut worth watching.

We'll be tracking its roadmap closely and if native online play arrives down the line, this one could climb several spots on the must-play list.