Mina the Hollower Reviews
Somehow, the Dark Souls influences keep Mina from being the best Zelda-style game it could be, while the Zelda mechanics prevent it from reaching the heights of the best Soulslikes.
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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 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.
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.
The combat stays varied, especially as you discover different weapons, sidearms, and trinkets to make your preferred build. This is a special game that was well worth the long wait. Hopefully Yacht Club Games gets to take this mentality to even more new frontiers in the future.
While Mina the Hollower might not play like the games it's clearly inspired by, Yacht Club Games has instead taken bits and pieces from all of its inspiration and combined it with its years of experience on Shovel Knight to create a masterpiece. The demo may not have sold the game's full potential, but the final product surpasses expectations. Going for a full 100% run is a ton of fun, and it’s taking all sorts of strength to not go back and play another full game.
Mina the Hollower does for Zelda what Shovel Knight did for Mega Man. It's a revival of a classic franchise in spirit while having enough of its own flavor and style to avoid coming across as a simple clone or copy. It's clever, creative, and an absolute delight to play from start to finish, while having enough bonus content and modifiers to keep the game exciting even after you complete its roughly 20-hour playtime. In a year that's already filled with amazing games, Mina still shines.
Mina the Hollower shines in its building of a detailed, complex world that rewards the attentive gaze of explorers with pleasant surprises and benefits. However, its many difficulty modifiers don't help much for those who have trouble figuring out the paths, since the game's main issue is the lack of a useful map. This demanding and meticulously crafted adventure may end up dividing the audience, pleasing those who find satisfaction in exploring and progressing on their own and alienating those who prefer a more directed and convenient experience.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Yacht Club has exceeded all my expectations. You can add Mina the Hollower to this generation and this year’s list of modern classics.
Mina the Hollower is a glorious modern-meets retro affair with oodles of amazing ideas, almost all of which coming together to offer a fluid and fun experience focused on freedom. Admittedly, some of the limitations of the retro-inspired top-down 2D approach do lead to clunky, imprecise platforming and cheap deaths. But all in all, this is a glorious continuation of indie excellence from the Shovel Knight Devs.
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.
After Shovel Knight, the new game from Yacht Club applies a similar approach of modernizing the past to create one of the best action RPGs of recent years.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Many will surely compare this title to classic Zelda games or FromSoftware titles like Dark Souls or Bloodborne, but Mina the Hollower is much more than that. This fantastic game has its own unique personality and a playable charm that goes beyond its open world and difficulty. Furthermore, it understands, like few others, the satisfaction of discovering a well-hidden secret.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Yacht Club Games' highly anticipated follow-up to Shovel Knight can be a lot of fun and positively infuriating as well.
Almost a full decade on from Shovel Knight, Yacht Club Games has returned in full form. Mina the Hollower is a joyously ambitious modern take on classic action-adventure games, blending carefully executed mechanics with a world that isn’t afraid to bite back, making for an experience that continuously empowers the player and rewards curiosity at every turn.
Is Mina The Hollower better than Shovel Knight? Yacht Club Games seems to think so because In their words “Mina is the biggest and best game we’ve ever made...we squeezed every good idea we had into it." After finishing, I agree. The combination of platforming, combat and its unique burrowing mechanic create an action-adventure that doesn't play like anything else. The learning curve is steep because the game doesn’t hold your hand, which might push away some and turning on the spark generators, which is a recurring mechanic each biome lacks precision like the rest of the game but if you have any affinity for classic adventure games like Zelda, then Mina is a must because Yacht Club have done it again.
There is a timeless feel to this game, with its homage to games from yesteryear, while also pushing the boundaries of what retro enthusiasts expect from titles that look like this.
Mina the Hollower is fascinating on many levels. Its world is captivating, with details everywhere, and challenges that flourish in both movement and melee combat. Given the arsenal of weapons and gadgets, which can drastically alter how the player controls the protagonist, and the non-linear progression, the replay value is immense and should certainly make this title another gem from Yacht Club Games.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review