Mina the Hollower Reviews
Mina the Hollower is a genuine success, a retro game that doesn’t pander to retro nostalgia.
Review in French | Read full review
Mina the Hollower has been on many gamers lists for a long time coming and I'm happy to say, it's not bad. It lets you experience "old school hard" gameplay or new age accessible gameplay in hopes of reaching all players. It lets you experience the game in so many ways that fit you which is something I think most games don't allow. Easy recommendation for gamers looking for action adventure through an old school lens.
Mina the Hollower stands out for offering an adventure that successfully blends the nostalgia of classic action-adventure games with modern mechanics that bring dynamism and a unique personality to the experience.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Mina the Hollower is the whole Game Boy Color experience, perfected, modernized, and elevated.
Mina the Hollower is a splendid tribute not only to a specific era of the past, but also to an approach to video games that is becoming increasingly rare these days. Ossex and its surroundings exude character from every pore thanks to a mix of absurd personalities, bizarre dialogue and unexpected situations, presented to the player through a truly remarkable layering of quests, activities and events. The gameplay follows this same formula, offering a combat system that is mechanically simple yet effective, and a platforming element that evolves over time with an endless array of ideas and movement mechanics that are varied and increasingly unique.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Mina the Hollower is a sharp, stylish adventure that blends retro charm with modern precision, delivering a journey that feels both familiar and fresh. Its tight combat, clever progression and gothic atmosphere kept me hooked from start to finish, and even with a few navigation frustrations, the overall experience shines far brighter than its 8‑bit roots suggest.
Mina the Hollower blends gothic atmosphere, expressive movement, clever customisation, and meaningful player freedom into one of the most rewarding indie adventures in years. Its minor frictions are easily outweighed by its charm, craft, and replayable design, ingredients that make for a modern masterpiece.
Mina the Hollower delivers a standout indie experience, blending classic Zelda-style exploration with challenging Souls-inspired combat. Packed with secrets and striking retro-inspired visuals, it marks another strong release from Yacht Club Games and a serious contender in this year's awards.
Review in Arabic | Read full review
Mina the Hollower brings together a comprehensive collection of mechanical influences and visual styles to craft an engrossing, singular 8-bit adventure that delights as much as it innovates.
Don’t let frustration throw you off. Mina the Hollower delivers everything it sets out to in spades. The combat is basic enough, but mix in quick traversal and a world that never stays stagnant, and it is equally frustrating and addictive.
Mina the Hollower is an absolute triumph, with the brilliant world design, exciting combat, and fun burrowing mechanic ensuring it stands out as a distinct, old-school treat. It can be tough (and the lack of a map and a restrictive fast-travel can be a pain), but it really is as another astounding success for the team at Yacht Club Games. It might have taken a while to launch, but Mina the Hollower was absolutely worth the wait.
If modern-day AAAs have left a hole in your life that’s longing to be filled by a retro-revival, Mina The Hollower is for you. It’s also for those who are craving their next gruelling gaming challenge.
Mina the Hollower always does an amazing job where it matters. The game is fun to explore, hard to fight, features interesting enemies, and the whole adventure is made special by the burrowing concept. Gorgeous retro graphics, wonderful soundtrack, a ton of material, and a ton of ways to play it again and again; this is one of the best independent action adventures in years.
Mina the Hollower will make you reconsider your old methods of traversing the game world. In the end, this cursed island trek is a carefully crafted mixture of old and new design philosophies. It's a classic Zelda-style adventure structure, with the risk systems of Soulslike games, wrapped in a Castlevania-inspired atmosphere that never feels like a simple collage.
I feel slightly conflicted writing this review because there is so much about Mina the Hollower that I absolutely adore. The world design is excellent. The atmosphere is superb. Combat is satisfying. The soundtrack is phenomenal. The burrowing mechanic is genuinely clever. And the sheer passion behind the project shines constantly. At the same time, the heavy emphasis on Soulslike difficulty stopped me from loving it quite as much as I expected to. I personally would have preferred something a little closer to classic Zelda adventure design and slightly less punishing overall. Still, even with those frustrations, this is a fantastic game. Yacht Club Games once again proves they are masters of modern retro design. Mina the Hollower may not fully dethrone Shovel Knight for me personally, but it absolutely deserves to stand proudly beside it.
Mina the Hollower beautifully merges classic Game Boy Color aesthetics with punishing, Soulsborne-inspired action. While a steep difficulty curve, deliberate pacing, and vague Metroidvania progression may alienate casual players, its brilliant burrowing mechanics, rich build customization, and nostalgic atmosphere deliver a deeply rewarding top-down adventure.
Mina the Hollower is another practically perfect experience from Yacht Club Games, with retro challenge and a whole lot of creativity to show off.
Mina the Hollower is a testament to the importance and beauty of iterative game design. While it wouldn’t exist in its current form without each of its individual inspirations, it’s able to use those familiar reference points as a launching pad into something far greater and more dense than any game that it’s inherited DNA from. Between a world stuffed to the absolute brim with discoveries to make, the absurd level of player expression, and the ways in which the game surprises (and how it’s constantly able to do so), this is a new gold standard for not just overhead Zelda-likes but action-adventure games in general.
Mina the Hollower is one of those rare games that I didn’t expect much and ended up falling in love with. It’s funny, charming, challenging and incredible to play. It is Yacht Club’s masterpiece and by far one of the best games I played in 2026.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Mina the Hollower is one of those titles that warms the heart, especially for showing that, in such a crazy and unpredictable industry, there are still people working to deliver an experience crafted with so much love and care.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review