It baffles me how 3 guys from South Australia were able to make such an incredible game. Hollow Knight might be the biggest step in Metroidvania’s since Super Metroid or Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. It’s spectacular.

Hollow Knight takes all of the lessons from the best titles in the genre and builds upon them with a deep and engaging world to explore. You’ll not only be exploring unique environments that feature new enemies and aesthetics, you’ll be encountering a wide range of unique characters and bosses that build upon the lore of Hollownest. The jump from Metroid / Metroid II to Super Metroid was incredible, as Super Metroid brought with it a much tighter design that made exploration more natural. This feels like the next step in world design for metroidvania’s, taking things a step further by not only making the exploration and navigation more fluid but filling the world itself with history and lore to uncover through gameplay. By the end of Hollow Knight, I immediately wanted to go back to find all of the items I missed in order to learn more about Hollownest.

From a gameplay perspective Hollow Knight is virtually flawless. It’s always clear where you should be exploring, something I can’t say is always 100% clear in the majority of metroidvania’s. The boss battles are varied and interesting, each one feeling wholly unique in their attack patterns and strategy. The secrets are well hidden, but don’t fall into the trap of hiding them in areas that would require pure luck to come across. The controls are tight and responsive.

The bar for metroidvania’s has been raised since the release of Hollow Knight. Level design has to push players forward in their explanation without hitting a brick wall, combat and boss design needs to feel fluid and varied, and the world needs to be captivating to uncover.

The bar has been raised, will anyone attempt to reach for it?