Hollow Knight
Hacker ApprovedTied for most recommended of 3 metroidvanias
Praised for strong mechanics, atmosphere and rich interactions, and for reshaping metroidvanias. Critics say the backstory is messy and the genre is narrow.
Praised for strong mechanics, atmosphere and rich interactions, and for reshaping metroidvanias. Critics say the backstory is messy and the genre is narrow.
21 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 16
- criticize it
- 5
- approval share
- 76%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 16 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3.2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 8 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Respected indie game success
“Indy companies producing games like Dead Cells, Hollow Knight, and Stray are good”
Comment from 6 Feb 2026 in “I Now Assume That All Ads on Apple News Are Scams” “I helped Indie Fund Hollow Knight back in the day and look a them now!”
Comment from 5 Jan 2026 in “How Y Combinator made it smart to trust founders” “indie darlings like the Hollow Knight games”
Comment from 27 May 2026 in “The Forgotten Art of the LAN Party (2023)” Strong mechanics and rich interactions
“HK has many comparatively shallow mechanics but with a rich space of interesting interactions”
Comment from 16 Oct 2026 in “'500-hour' Order of the Sinking Star is as complex and exhausting as it sounds” “Hollow Knight has strong mechanics (I like the atmosphere but not the messy backstory)”
Comment from 29 Aug 2026 in “Grand Theft Auto VI: An Extended Look [video]” Great experience, lots of fun
“I just played through Hollow Knight for the first time and man, what a great experience.”
Comment from 14 Sep 2026 in “Blizzard Revives 'StarCraft' Franchise with Open-World Sci-Fi Shooter” “I had way more fun with that game than with any AAA.”
Comment from 18 Oct 2026 in “The game industry is broken – can we fix it?” Reshaped the metroidvania genre
“Hollow Knight is a good example. Metroidvanias were established by the SNES and PS1 era, but Hollow Knight really upped the stakes.”
Comment from 30 Jan 2026 in “PlayStation 2 Recompilation Project Is Absolutely Incredible” “not even the wildly successful ones like Hollow Knight, reshaped the genre”
Comment from 30 Jan 2026 in “PlayStation 2 Recompilation Project Is Absolutely Incredible”
Other metroidvanias people recommend
The two most recommended other metroidvanias, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hollow KnightThis page | 16 | 5 | 76% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Hollow Knight: Silksong | 16 | 1 | 94% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown | 5 | 2 | 71% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
16 of the 21 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I think it's a good game, but it's a pretty specific genre.”
“I had way more fun with that game than with any AAA.”
“HK has many comparatively shallow mechanics but with a rich space of interesting interactions”
“I just played through Hollow Knight for the first time and man, what a great experience.”
“Hollow Knight has strong mechanics (I like the atmosphere but not the messy backstory)”
“Hollow Knight for instance does not get me immersed”
“indie darlings like the Hollow Knight games”
“Indy companies producing games like Dead Cells, Hollow Knight, and Stray are good”
“the Linux native version was giving me random graphical glitches that made it impossible to see what was going on”
“not even the wildly successful ones like Hollow Knight, reshaped the genre”
“Hollow knight builds on my favorite games with a couple of decades of lessons”
“Hollow Knight is a good example. Metroidvanias were established by the SNES and PS1 era, but Hollow Knight really upped the stakes.”
“Original, phenomenal games covering damm near every genre”
“it drops FPS quite often on my laptop”
“I helped Indie Fund Hollow Knight back in the day and look a them now!”
“I really recommended hollow knight to everybody I could for days lol.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.