# Hollow Knight

16 Hacker News commenters recommended Hollow Knight and 5 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 8 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Praised for strong mechanics, atmosphere and rich interactions, and for reshaping metroidvanias. Critics say the backstory is messy and the genre is narrow.

## Why people recommend it

- Respected indie game success (3 comments): "Indy companies producing games like Dead Cells, Hollow Knight, and Stray are good" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46913992)) "I helped Indie Fund Hollow Knight back in the day and look a them now!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46504317)) "indie darlings like the Hollow Knight games" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48289430))
- Strong mechanics and rich interactions (2 comments): "HK has many comparatively shallow mechanics but with a rich space of interesting interactions" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50115295)) "Hollow Knight has strong mechanics (I like the atmosphere but not the messy backstory)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49494045))
- Great experience, lots of fun (2 comments): "I just played through Hollow Knight for the first time and man, what a great experience." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49700890)) "I had way more fun with that game than with any AAA." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50138544))
- Reshaped the metroidvania genre (2 comments): "Hollow Knight is a good example. Metroidvanias were established by the SNES and PS1 era, but Hollow Knight really upped the stakes." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46819048)) "not even the wildly successful ones like Hollow Knight, reshaped the genre" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46825222))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Hollow Knight: Silksong](https://hackerapproved.com/p/hollow-knight-silksong.md): 16 recommend
- [Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown](https://hackerapproved.com/p/prince-of-persia-the-lost-crown.md): 5 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Hollow Knight", https://hackerapproved.com/p/hollow-knight/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).