The time-honored demake tradition has come for *Hollow Knight: Silksong*, sending Team Cherry’s brutally difficult Metroidvania back to the N64 era.

Created by the talented game developer and artist Gustavo Barros, who goes by Botão Select on YouTube, this exceptional Silksong N64 demake reimagines the smooth, vibrant visuals from the game’s Moss Grotto location. Barros mutes down the colors, blurs the resolution, and adds roughly a hundred thousand polygons for texture, creating a look that perfectly captures the late ’90s aesthetic.

The result truly feels like *Hollow Knight: Silksong* traveled all the way back in time to around 1996 — which is pretty neat!

You can watch the full video on the creation of the demake in the YouTube video above. Note that the video is in Barros’ native Portuguese, but the visuals speak for themselves.

It’s also worth mentioning that Barros has confirmed the demake is “more of a scene than a game” at this point, meaning it isn’t available for download just yet. However, he has expressed that he might consider making a full version in the future.

As visually impressive as the demake is, I can’t help but shudder at the thought of how mind-numbingly hard *Silksong* would be with an N64 controller and the fifth-generation’s notoriously slippery, clunky controls. People who manage to beat games like *Silksong* are made of tougher stuff than me, but I’m convinced that burdened by 30-year-old controls, no one would be able to conquer it.
https://www.gamesradar.com/games/action/silksong-has-been-sent-back-in-time-to-the-n64-era-with-a-fan-made-demake-and-i-shudder-to-think-of-how-hard-it-is-with-5th-gen-controls/