A Fallen Insect Kingdom for Hollow Knight Fans
Project Ants is a new Metroidvania game that wears its love for Hollow Knight on its carapace. You play as an ant warrior exploring a fallen insect kingdom, trying to uncover what happened to a missing queen and what catastrophe brought the realm to ruin. The pitch is classic dark fantasy Metroidvania: secret routes, hidden shortcuts, and a dense world that reveals itself as you master your abilities and revisit old areas with new tools. The trailer showcases a heavy, foreboding atmosphere filled with insect architecture and grotesque scenery, clearly designed to scratch the itch for a Hollow Knight like game without simply copying it. Rather than a whimsical bug fairytale, Project Ants leans into horror, promising intense violence, blood, gore, and unsettling themes that push its insect world into more disturbing territory than its inspirations.
Metroidvania Design with Hollow Knight-Style Exploration
Structurally, Project Ants positions itself as a new Metroidvania game that borrows the strongest aspects of Hollow Knight’s exploration. The world is built around interconnected zones, encouraging players to trace mental maps of shortcuts, hidden paths, and looping routes that eventually make traversal feel second nature. Environmental storytelling appears to be a major focus: the ruined insect kingdom itself acts as a narrative device, with crumbling structures, abandoned burrows, and eerie landmarks hinting at what befell the queen and her subjects. Precise platforming sits at the core of this design. The developers emphasize fast-paced movement, meaning players should expect tricky jumps, timing-based traversal challenges, and routes that only open up once you’ve mastered advanced mobility techniques. For Hollow Knight fans, that mix of layered map design and subtle storytelling will feel familiar, while the 3D presentation offers a fresh way to navigate an insect world.
Ninja Gaiden-Style Combat and Difficulty
Where Project Ants distinguishes itself most is in its reliance on Ninja Gaiden style combat. Instead of the slower, methodical duels typical of many Metroidvanias, this dark fantasy Metroidvania pushes players toward fast, aggressive engagements. Expect quick combos, rapid dodges, and enemy encounters that punish hesitation. The developers describe the action as intense and violent, with blood, gore, and horror elements underscoring just how lethal fights can be. This suggests a difficulty curve more in line with classic action games: enemies that hit hard, demand pattern recognition, and reward mastery of movement as much as timing. The insect foes populating the fallen kingdom look designed not just as obstacles, but as set pieces for stylish, high-pressure skirmishes. If you’ve ever wished Hollow Knight’s nail combat leaned closer to pure action game intensity, Project Ants seems determined to fill that niche.
Not a Clone: Tone, Style, and Who It’s For
Despite the obvious Hollow Knight DNA, Project Ants isn’t trying to be a one-to-one clone. Its 3D presentation and focus on visceral violence give it a harsher, more grotesque tone than Team Cherry’s ethereal bug epic. Both games share melancholic worlds, insect-themed enemies, and a sense of decay, but Project Ants amplifies the horror, leaning into blood-soaked encounters and a bleak atmosphere. The game currently has no release date, though it is already available to wishlist on Steam, suggesting PC is a confirmed platform and hinting at broader multi-platform ambitions in the future. As a dark fantasy Metroidvania with Ninja Gaiden style combat, it looks best suited for players who enjoy demanding action systems and intricate level design. Hollow Knight fans craving another insect-world adventure, especially one with faster, more brutal combat, should keep Project Ants firmly on their radar.