During a Nintendo Partner Direct on February 5, 2026, Team Cherry announced that Hollow Knight, its classic indie Metroidvania side-scroller, would shadow-drop on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch 2 after the show ended.
This newer version would include higher frame rates and resolutions, along with new special effects. In addition, anybody who owned the previous versions of Hollow Knight on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch can upgrade to the next-gen versions for free.
This is a feature fans have been requesting for nearly a decade since the game was released on Steam in 2017. Before this update, players had to tamper with their video settings to get Hollow Knight to play in 16:10 and 21:9 resolutions.
Now players will no longer have to risk issues to their systems to enjoy this beloved game with the crisp resolution it deserves on handhelds.
What's more is that this update also includes some quality-of-life improvements, which include (according to Hollow Knight's Steam page):
- Added support for 21:9 & 16:10 resolutions.
- Game now pauses while in inventory menus.
- Upgraded to Unity Input System for broader controller support (original input system is still available, if preferred, via Options>Controller>Advanced Settings)
- Added dithering effect, and dithering options, to reduce colour banding.
- Fixed a softlock in City of Tears Grub room.
- Reduced Grey Prince Zote's stagger bounce height.
- Updated Sly's Great Slash collider to closer match visual.
- Salubra's Blessing now deactivates after reaching max Soul.
- Map panning is now smoother.
- Various performance improvements.
- Various smaller fixes and tweaks.
Now's the perfect time to finally clear Hollow Knight from my backlog
It's pretty cool that Team Cherry is taking time out of its busy schedule working on Hollow Knight: Silksong's post-launch expansion to give some love to the original with an update that gaming handheld fans have clamored for for years.
However, my favorite part of this update is that you can finally pause the game while you're in inventory menus.
I absolutely hate not being able to pause in Soulslikes like Dark Souls and Elden Ring because nothing's worse than not being able to pause during a tense fight when real-life issues need to be taken care of, so you have no choice but to die to deal with them, and then restart the fight.
So thank you, Team Cherry, for getting rid of this archaic, inconvenient, and pointless aspect of Soulslikes and finally letting me pause the game so I don't miss crucial phone calls, catch the mailman, and deal with other interruptions without fear of losing my progress.
This one change alone has shot up Hollow Knight to the top of my priority list of backlog Xbox and PC games I wish to play and complete in 2026, and I can't wait to finally play it now that it's reached, in my opinion, final pinnacle form on consoles, PC, and gaming handhelds.
Are you happy that Hollow Knight can finally be played in 16:10 and 21:9 resolutions on gaming handhelds? How do you feel about the rest of this update's gameplay improvements?
If you have any thoughts on the matter, let us know in the comments below.
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