Review: Mina the Hollower
By Jove, they've done it again! Shovel Knight is one of my favourite 2D platforming games of recent memory, so my excitement for the second major Yacht Club Games title, Mina the Hollower, was high from the get-go. Link's Awakening on the Nintendo Game Boy is another favourite of mine, so an adjacent title from the Shovel Knight people? Sign me up. I backed it when the Kickstarter was live, so was all set for when this released in May.
As I washed ashore the Tenebrous Isle and took my first few steps on route to the town of Ossex, I felt things did not go as smoothly as I first hoped they would. Mina is tough to get into, proving difficult with its low starting health, and steep learning curve with its controls. The four-way attack system, coupled with its intense difficulty in the early hours of gameplay, led to a lot of frustrating deaths. After sticking with it, beating the "first" boss (I went the swamp / bayou route immediately after getting out into the open world, by the way), it began to sink its hooks in. I think it could ease players in a lot more, and sadly, reading various comments online, the fact it doesn’t seems to be putting a lot of people off. Once you're a boss or two in, the difficulty eases off a bit, as you gain more experience and start unlocking the heap of upgrades for Mina and her weapons. The more I played, the more enjoyable it became. There remain a few tough boss fights throughout, and I still had deaths aplenty, but it never felt as frustrating as it did in the first couple of hours.
Thankfully, for those struggling and still wanting to persevere, the developers have added in a bunch of optional game modifiers. These allow you to customise the game to your liking, allowing Mina addition hits, attack points, preventing damage from falling down pits, and much more. The sheer amount of these is impressive, allowing those willing to get involved with them an entirely different game playing experience. As a keen fan of older style games, which oft came with higher difficulty, I enjoyed playing Mina without these modifiers - although I appreciate that they are there. I do think Yacht Club could have offered these up in a more elegant way than just a debug style screen of text with toggles, hidden away in the options menu. I like the way Square Enix’s blockbuster Final Fantasy 16 allows you to start with extra trinkets, and I feel they could have done something more along those lines in Mina, with the modifiers as an extra, more closely tied into the story and main gameplay.
After exploring every nook and cranny the world of Mina had to offer, I felt its visual authenticity to Game Boy Color games of old worked in its favour. The colour palettes and artwork here are gorgeous, with bold reds that remind me of the aforementioned Link’s Awakening, with its DX port on the Game Boy Color. One area in particular, pictured below, boasted impressive visuals, as Mina travelled through light up platforms across a space nebula below. The artists at Yacht Club set an industry standard when it comes to evoking games of the past, just as they did previously with Shovel Knight. Mina has some nice modern touches, with its deep combat and upgrade systems still offering something new. It could be that I am bias - as I adore these types of games - but for me, everything came together, feeling like an authentic, new take of a classic adventure.
Mina the Hollower is not perfect, but that does not mean that I didn’t love it. I fell for Shovel Knight, its punchy retro inspired soundtrack, and its characterful world back in the day. I feel the same way for Mina, Ossex, and all the weirdos that live there. There is so much character and attention to detail here - it truly did feel like a Zelda-like experience, and that is a high bar to hit.
Yacht Club are masters at what they do, and I am happy to see them exceed with new intellectual property. I hope the 3D game they are working on next is an entirely new thing in itself. Their ability to switch to something completely new, throw everything at it, and come out of the other side feeling like masters of their craft is something worth celebrating.
Whatever they do, I will certainly back it and be there day one to play it.
Mina the Hollower is currently available digitally across PC, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S | X. This review was based on the Nintendo Switch 2 version.
Jigen says: “This game was friggin’ HARD until I picked up the blaster. Pummelling enemies to build
ammo and firing it back at them got me hooked. Still, ‘sgot nothing on the real thing.”
