Down in Hallownest

Deep beneath the decaying town of Dirtmouth lies a kingdom that shouldn’t exist anymore—ancient, ruined, still. That’s where Hollow Knight sets you loose: a small nameless bug with a nail for a sword, picking your way through an underworld full of insects, fallen heroes, and things that have gone very wrong in ways the game refuses to fully explain.

It’s a Metroidvania in the purest sense—an interconnected map that slowly reveals its own geometry as you unlock new abilities, the familiar satisfaction of a door that’s been waiting for you. Team Cherry, a tiny studio from South Australia, made something that feels genuinely handcrafted at every level: the art is gorgeous in a gothic way, all inky blacks and cold blues, and the atmosphere never lifts. It’s out on Nintendo Switch now, and on Steam.

I had a genuinely good time with it, which is not the same as saying it was always enjoyable. Some sections pushed me into that specific kind of tunnel-vision frustration—not because the difficulty was unfair, but because I stopped thinking and started mashing, which predictably made everything worse. There’s a clumsiness that only surfaces when you’re almost through something hard, and Hollow Knight found mine more than once. But it’s too carefully made to stay angry at for long. The game holds together in a way that earns the forgiveness.