Team Cherry · PC / Switch / PlayStation / Xbox · 2017 · Inspired by: Super Metroid, Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, Zelda II, Mega Man X
Two Australians who explicitly refused to call their game a "metroidvania" built the game that redefined the genre — a vast, hand-drawn, melancholy underworld that owes its bones to Super Metroid and its movement to Mega Man X.
Hollow Knight was made by Team Cherry, an Adelaide studio founded by artist Ari Gibson and web designer William Pellen. The concept emerged from a 2013 Ludum Dare game jam, and the pair set out to make something inspired by older platformers that recaptured the exploratory pleasures of the games they loved. The result, released for Windows on 24 February 2017 after a Kickstarter and an engine switch from Stencyl to Unity, became one of the most acclaimed independent games ever made. Its influences are explicit and instructive. Team Cherry has cited Zelda II, Faxanadu, Super Metroid, and Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow as the games that shaped Hollow Knight's structure — the interconnected, gated world, the sense of a vast map slowly unlocking itself, the atmosphere of a civilisation gone wrong. For movement specifically, they looked to Mega Man and Mega Man X, and the precision and weight of the Knight's jump and dash reflect that lineage directly. What is striking is that Team Cherry deliberately refused the genre label. Gibson has said they "shied away completely" from calling the game a metroidvania, not wanting to let a genre dictate their design decisions while they were making it. That refusal is arguably why the game works: rather than assembling the expected checklist of abilities and gates, they built a world first and let the structure follow, producing a game that feels discovered rather than constructed. The irony is total. By avoiding the label, Team Cherry produced the game that now defines it — Hollow Knight set a standard that essentially every subsequent game in the genre has had to reckon with, and it did so with hand-drawn art, a haunting score, and a story told almost entirely through environment and implication. It stands as the clearest modern proof that the 16-bit exploration platformer was not a dated form but an unfinished one.
Team Cherry actively resisted describing Hollow Knight as a metroidvania while building it. Ari Gibson has explained that they "shied away completely" from the term, not wanting a genre to dictate their design decisions — an unusual position for a game so obviously descended from Super Metroid and Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow. The effect of that refusal is visible in the finished game: rather than checking off the genre's expected structure of abilities and gates, they built the kingdom of Hallownest first and let its shape emerge, producing a world that feels excavated rather than engineered. The irony is that by declining the label, they made the game every subsequent metroidvania is measured against.
Hollow Knight's debts are specific and openly acknowledged. Its interconnected, slowly unlocking world descends from Super Metroid; its combat and charm system echo Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow; its sense of a decayed civilisation nods to Zelda II and Faxanadu. Even its movement was modelled on the Mega Man and Mega Man X games, which is why the Knight's jump and dash carry that particular precision and weight. Yet the game these parts assemble into is entirely its own — hand-drawn, melancholy, and narratively told almost entirely through environment and implication. It is the finest demonstration that the 16-bit exploration platformer was never an exhausted form, only an interrupted one.