Best Games: Hollow Knight: Silksong

Best Games of the 2020’s is back with the seventh entry this year, and another retro inspired beat ’em up is off the list.

Hollow Knight: Silksong (2025) goes on at #15

This game was touch and go. Not from on a “will it make the list” perspective, but from a “where on the list should it go?” Had I thrown my controller across the room and quit it in Act 1, we might be looking at a low-40’s entry.

Thankfully that was not the case. The learning curve Team Cherry built into this game, may be some combination of intentional design mixed with it’s origins as DLC for the original game in 2017. When the expectation of the player is: “Oh you’ve been baking for a year? Please make my wedding cake” there is room for error. My short time with Hollow Knight taught me to pop a can of biscuits and that’s about it.

Investing in that curve took patience, but Silksong ends up at a mighty #15 because that patience is ultimately rewarded. After 8-ish hours of being abused, wandering around in the woods, and fighting for every drop of progress. It all starts to click. Right around the midway point of Act 1. That could sound like Stockholm syndrome, but the art, world building, and crispy controls not only get you through that early stage, but really come into their own when you are out of it.

I rolled credits on the game, aka end of Act 2, after 33 hours. There is an even more challenging Act 3 that seems like a pain to even start. So I am done for now, but may return one day in the future.

Streets of Rage 4 (2020) gets round housed out of 50th place. It was a blast to play with my youngest and introduce him to an arcade genre I spent so many quarters on as a kid..