Mina the Hollower Reviews
Yacht Club Games' new adventure masterfully uses the limitations of 8-bit graphics to bring to life one of the most absorbing surprises in recent memory. Just as *Shovel Knight* marked a successful debut for Yacht Club Games, *Mina's Journey* has all the makings of a work that showcases the studio's maturation.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Mina the Hollower looks, sounds and plays like a retro classic while using modern touches to reduce frustration, making it a rare game full of charm, polish and depth.
Review in German | Read full review
Mina offers everything that a 2D Zelda fan could ask for. Interesting bosses, secrets galore, and goals you can tackle in any order. If it weren't for a few unintuitive mechanics, the game would be basically perfect.
Review in Czech | Read full review
The level design, visuals, music, story, and gameplay are all terrific. However, this game also has the innate ability to make me smile with its cast of characters and its surprises awaiting you around every corner. Mina the Hollower is a fricken masterpiece that more people should be playing.
I can’t wait to revisit Mina’s story to blaze a new path through it, and to try weapons and trinkets unexplored on my maiden voyage. Just like I could revisit the world of Shovel Knight through its added campaigns, so too can I look forward to pushing over the stones I left unturned when I next boot up Mina the Hollower. The once hollow part of my heart that long awaited this release is now full, and I couldn’t be happier.
Mina the Hollower proves that lightning can strike twice in the same place. Yacht Club Games’ new masterpiece pulls off the feat of simultaneously filling the massive shoes of Shovel Knight, paying a heartfelt tribute to 2D Zelda games, and establishing its own unique identity through a brilliant, confident adventure. It is confident in its superb gameplay and map design, confident in its respectful rapport with the player, and confident that no one will be able to leave Tenebrous Isle without unearthing every single one of its secrets.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Mina the Hollower is a grand, exhilarating adventure that never lets up, springing out fully formed as an absolute "mouse-terpiece." The thrill of discovering new areas, levelling Mina up to become stronger, and conquering seemingly impossible boss fights only gets more rewarding as you utilize everything the game has to offer and become the strongest Hollower you can be. The worldbuilding presents a beautiful, colorful setting that you’ll want to root for, even if the story suggests a more complex, morally grey truth to it all. Yacht Club Games has conquered its sophomore slump and delivered a truly special experience, one that, on every level, sparks joy and wonder even amidst turmoil and strife.
Mina the Hollower delivers a meticulously polished classic action-platformer experience, brilliantly blending the brutal challenge reminiscent of Souls-like games with excellent level design philosophy that grants the player complete freedom of exploration. Although it suffers from a few missteps, such as vague guidance during the early hours and poorly distributed enemies in some areas, the game makes up for it with solid gameplay backed by a charming art style and soundtrack. This makes it one of the best games in its genre and an exceptional, must-play value for its price.
Review in Arabic | Read full review
Mina the Hollower brilliantly blends retro Game Boy-inspired visuals with modern gameplay mechanics to create a memorable action-adventure. Its rewarding exploration, satisfying combat, and extensive accessibility options make the experience enjoyable for a wide range of players. Combined with its excellent soundtrack, affordable price, and polished design, it stands as one of Yacht Club Games' finest achievements.
Review in French | Read full review
Mina the Hollower is not an homage or a nostalgia exercise — it's an original work that uses its inspirations as raw material for something genuinely new. Every hour on Tenebrous Isle adds another layer of understanding. Finishing it doesn't mean you've exhausted it. For fans of soulslike and action-adventure games, it's an essential purchase.
Review in Italian | Read full review
All in all, Mina the Hollower is another fantastic retro-inspired entry from developer Yacht Club Games. The unique world combined with strange NPC’s and tons of secrets scattered throughout make for a memorable experience that nobody should miss.
Breaking away from the studio's own track record, Mina the Hollower is original in how it seeks to both pay homage to and evolve a formula once perfected on handhelds of past generations; by adding its own touch of freedom, unique game design, and even a dash of modern trends—and despite occasional missteps—it establishes itself as one of the year's great retro-style indie titles.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
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.
The game is a fun, retro-styled romp. The soundtrack is great, and the Gameboy style graphics pull its weight perfectly. If I hadn’t died so many times, I’d probably have beaten the game in under 15 hours and be less angry. But overall, I had a blast. Mina The Hollower is a really solid pickup, especially for only $20. Definitely worth picking up.
Excellent dungeon design, a versatile digging mechanic, and rewarding progression make for an outstanding adventure. While the story falls short of its potential and the difficulty can be unforgiving, this is a must-play for fans of challenging action-adventure games.
Review in German | Read full review
Mina the Hollower succeeds because it understands that nostalgia is only valuable when paired with innovation. It borrows inspiration from Zelda, Castlevania, Bloodborne, and countless retro classics, but never loses its own identity in the process. The Hollowing mechanic is brilliant, the world is endlessly rewarding to explore, the bosses are unforgettable, and the presentation perfectly balances retro authenticity with modern craftsmanship. More importantly, it captures the magical feeling of discovery that defined gaming’s earlier generations while remaining unmistakably contemporary. Yacht Club Games built its reputation with Shovel Knight, and with Mina the Hollower, the studio proves that lightning can strike twice.
Mina the Hollower is perhaps one of the best-value Switch/Switch 2 games of recent times, which has to be applauded. I personally found it a bit too frustrating at times, but if you give it the patience it deserves, then the rewards are pretty handsome. The soundtrack, pixel art, level design and sheer breadth of gameplay make Mina the Hollower another hit from Yacht Club Games.
At its heart, Mina the Hollower is a message about the health of video games. More importantly, it demonstrates that the most effective manner of storytelling is not necessarily via long cutscenes or cinematic spectacle, but within gameplay itself, through the player’s actions, discoveries, struggles and triumphs. Mina the Hollower trusts the medium, and in doing so, it proves everything that makes video games unique.
Rarely has there been a game that I’ve immediately restarted in New Game+ mode upon seeing the credits roll. Mina the Hollower made me not only want to continue playing but also check out the games it was inspired by. It accomplishes what it sets out to do with tremendous success: combining old and new design philosophies into something fun, addictive and wholly unique.
Mina the Hollower is a a robust game that is a joy to play and proves Shovel Knight wasn’t lightning in a bottle for Yacht Club Games.