{"id":126836,"date":"2022-07-30T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-30T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/#article-135251"},"modified":"2022-07-30T17:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-07-30T17:00:00","slug":"feature-backlog-club-hollow-knight-does-things-that-other-games-wouldnt-thats-why-its-so-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2022\/07\/30\/feature-backlog-club-hollow-knight-does-things-that-other-games-wouldnt-thats-why-its-so-good\/","title":{"rendered":"Feature: Backlog Club: Hollow Knight Does Things That Other Games Wouldn’t. That’s Why It’s So Good"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/div>\n
\"2022<\/a><\/figure>\n

This article is part of our new experimental series, Backlog Club<\/a>, where we (Nintendo Life!) pick a game that’s likely to be on our list of “games we should get around to playing”, and then we (NL + you!) spend the next month playing that game. Read part one of our Hollow Knight playthrough here<\/a>!<\/em><\/p>\n

This is the finale of our Hollow Knight<\/a> playthrough, and Kate is really enjoying the peace and quiet (when she’s not fighting tough bug-bosses)…<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\"2022<\/a><\/figure>\n

I have never particularly enjoyed platformers, but I can appreciate the art of a good jump.<\/p>\n

Much like a really good burger, the perfect jump is about the art of simplicity: The height, the pitch, the velocity and a little technique known as “coyote time”, which gives players a little bit of leeway on what counts as the edge of a ledge, are all the lettuce, tomato, and onion of your video game burger. When people start messing with that formula, their burgers may look<\/em> good, but they always end up being too wet, too big, or too overwhelming.<\/p>\n

But a jump is almost always just a jump: It’s a discrete unit, in which one button press = one jump. There are wall jumps, there are double and triple jumps, but the single, one-button jump (without external factors like the player’s forward momentum, or the presence of obstacles) is usually the same height, same pitch, same velocity. Developers need a solid base to build everything else on, like the positioning of platforms; players need to know that the world can change, but their abilities are always reliable.<\/p>\n

Hollow Knight<\/a>‘s jump is not that. Instead of being a discrete unit, a “Press A To Jump”, the game gives you a “Hold A To Jump Higher” jump. Suddenly, you are put in charge of your own positioning, and at first \u2014 especially as a disliker of platformers \u2014 I hated it. It felt too floaty, too imprecise, too unpredictable.<\/p>\n

\"Hollow<\/a><\/figure>\n

But much like any game, once you’ve given it some time, it becomes second nature. I don’t even notice myself making minute adjustments to my jumps, because it’s just muscle memory. I can’t imagine how much confidence it must take for a developer to go against the grain on a decision as fundamental as a jump, and while Hollow Knight certainly isn’t the first-ever game to do it, it’s far and away the most pronounced usage of the mechanic.<\/p>\n

The floaty jump is just the first of many things that Hollow Knight does differently. But it’s not my favourite thing. My favourite thing is that Hollow Knight loves silence.<\/em><\/p>\n

If you watch just about any audio designer showreel these days, or watch a single Marvel movie, you’ll know that a soundscape is massively important to the atmosphere of any piece of media. Ambient noise, much like audio design in general, is something most people only notice if it’s done poorly.<\/em> Take a look<\/del> listen to the various ambient sounds in Minecraft, most of which are layered on top of one another to create an overall soundscape:<\/p>\n