Mina the Hollower Reviews

Having moved from 2D platformer to top-down adventure game, Yacht Club Games has gone from strength to strength to deliver a game that has completely taken over my spare time, and keeps dragging me back to explore more of The Tenebrous Isle. Make no mistake, Mina The Hollower is no hollow victory, it’s something truly special.

To say Mina the Hollower has been a highly anticipated title is an understatement. Yacht Club Games built their reputation with Shovel Knight, with players embracing the retro style and gameplay elements. Mina the Hollower is more of that classic 8-bit style, with gameplay to boot, and while it has some great execution as a retro Zelda-style adventure, it also comes with some questionable decisions.

Mina the Hollower is another practically perfect experience from Yacht Club Games, with retro challenge and a whole lot of creativity to show off.

Over a decade since Yacht Club Games made its mark on the indie scene with Shovel Knight, the studio is finally back with its next big nod to retro games, Mina the Hollower.

A retro-styled 8-bit action adventure, there's a lot to like about Mina the Hollower if you don't mind a challenge. But unforgiving combat, accessibility options that lock out achievements, and lack of any guidance makes this a more frustrating experience than it should be.

Explore every inch of a cursed island in an adventure that takes inspiration from the greats.

With Mina the Hollower, Yacht Club Games managed to beautifully pay homage to some of the absolute greatest classics in gaming history, all while carving out their own entirely fresh identity with an irresistible experience. It’s like a gothic Zelda with touches of Castlevania and Dark Souls that I never knew I needed. If you have a passing love for classic adventures, gothic atmospheres, or tightly-knit game design, do yourself a favor and fully dive into this world.

With Mina the Hollower, Yacht Club Games captured lightning in a bottle a second time. It’s a must play experience.

The year is 2014, often considered to be one of the weakest in the history of gaming. One of the shining beacons of hope in an otherwise dull year was the release of a little Kickstarter-backed title called Shovel Knight, by a then-unknown team called Yacht Club Games. I won’t sugarcoat it: I think that Shovel Knight is an absolute 10/10 game, one of the greatest games ever made, and arguably the best indie title in history. This led to the beginning of an immense franchise, one that spawne...

Despite Shovel Knight’s myriad spin-offs and continued ubiquity in the indie game space, it’s been more than a decade since developer Yacht Club Games delivered something wholly new. And maybe calling Mina the Hollower entirely “new” is a misnomer, as it is a reverential showcase of beloved game design and visual ideas from the past and present, all arranged into something that manages to be unique and nostalgic at the same time. Mina is not without its frustrations, but its density o...

Coming in with high expectations, Mina the Hollower's tiny mouse masterfully fills some mighty big shoes. Needless to say, Yacht Club Games has another hit on its hands.

Mina the Hollower is simply a blast to play and is another success by Yacht Club Games that will make anyone who plays it ask for more of this darker world they’ve created.

Mina is a gloriously gothic combination of ferocious combat and beautiful scenery, with enough secrets and modifiers to keep the game fresh and fun for a very long time.

Mina the Hollower is simply one of the best games you'll ever play so here's my super-detailed review to explain why it's so awesome. Yay!

The presentation is wonderful, with its chunky pixel-art and Game Boy Colour-style palette, which captures the era perfectly. Each area is brimming with personality and manages to communicate its narrative through the strong art direction. Backed by a stunning score, these elements combine to deliver a remarkable aesthetic that feels both nostalgically familiar and refreshingly distinctive.

Mina the Hollower is an amazing title from Yacht Club Games that everyone needs to try. It looks and sounds spectacular, has awesome accessibility options, and is compelling to play; add this to your library right now!

Mina the Hollower easily cements Yacht Club Games' capacity to deliver high-quality retro experiences. The game takes inspiration from several sources, both old and new, and carefully fine-tunes each into a polished experience that is both curated and customizable.

Mina the Hollower proves that time, effort, and attention to detail go a long way. Mina is a great new hero who controls incredibly well in a difficult but rewarding 2D adventure.

Mina the Hollower is a triumphant return for Yacht Club Games, creating one of the greatest retro throwbacks of all time. With its unique burrowing mechanic and challenging combat, this is nothing short of a grand adventure. Its most glaring flaw is that it ends, but at least I can continue playing with plenty of post-game content.

Mina the Hollower's visual style otherwise stays close to its portable console trappings, but it never sacrifices expressiveness or clarity. Its close-up character portraits and splash screens are lovely, but so are the scant collection of pixels on each sprite's face when they're frustrated, elated, sad, or sleepy. Despite the lower-scale resolution, you'll quickly spot where a patch of ground can be burrowed into or not, or determine what differentiates a railing from a jumpable ledge.

What happens when you blend ideas from Zelda, Castlevania, and Dark Souls into one single video game? Well, Mina the Hollower certainly pays homage to those franchises, but also burrows its way into a gaming experience that RPGamers will find enjoyable as it creates its own legacy.

What appears at first to be a return to game design from eras past evolves into something truly special.

Mina the Hollower is a brilliant 2D action-adventure game that takes clear inspiration from classic Zelda while building something that feels fresh, challenging, and uniquely its own. Its open-ended exploration, clever combat systems, strong sense of discovery, and flexible modifiers make every part of the adventure feel personal. While its difficulty can spike, Mina the Hollower stands out as an instant classic and one of the best games in its genre.

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