Hollow Knight
Team Cherry
Metroidvania reference text. released 24 February 2017, 557,219 reviews at 96.9% on 17 August 2026. No demo, no Next Fest — the format barely existed.
An authored map still outranks a live-ops calendar
Hollow Knight is what happens when the map is the save. Ability gates, sparse NPC text, bosses that teach through contact. The Steam page does not need a battle pass to stay in the metroidvania aisle.
The 2026 high-review corpus keeps it as a control: a 2017 2D game with a huge review pile and no fest tactic. New metroidvanias that ship six screenshots (see Summit) are not competing with this page; they are competing with silence.
Coverage still works because routes are filmable. A creator can draw a path. A roguelite run is also filmable, but it does not accumulate a world the viewer can return to.
The lesson for a 2026 launch is not 'be Team Cherry'. It is: if your tag is metroidvania, the trailer must show a place, not only a combo.