Mina the Hollower review for PC, Nintendo Switch 2, PS5, Xbox Series X

Mina the Hollower is the newest release from developer Yacht Club Games, and it’s another 2D retro-inspired adventure in the same visual vein as their prior release, Shovel Knight. This time around, instead of an 8-bit style action platformer, Mina the Hollower is more like NES classic The Legend of Zelda, featuring a top-down view with plenty of screen-by-screen exploration, combat, and puzzle-solving throughout the 20-plus hour adventure.

You’ll take on the role of Mina, an inventor of some renown who was responsible for building Spark Generators that helped bring power to the citizens of Tenebrous Isle. Mina was assisted by Lionel, a philanthropist and friend of Mina who tasks you with helping to restore power to the Spark Generators at the onset of the game. In order to do so, Mina must explore multiple regions surrounding the capital city of Ossex, filled with challenging foes, unique puzzles, quirky NPC’s, and numerous hazards to avoid.

Mina the Hollower allows the player to pick where they’d like to go, instead of forcing you along a critical path in order to reach the end. As such, especially early on, you may find yourself wandering into areas that are decidedly tougher than others. It helps to pay attention to both signs and NPC’s that will drop little pieces of knowledge to point you in the right direction, and thanks to that I rarely felt lost on where to go next. It does suffer from the occasional moment where you feel like you’ve reached a dead-end or insurmountable barrier, only to realize much later that there was a destructible wall or other item that you could have hit, but for the most part I felt like Mina the Hollower did a good job of making those barriers stand out from their normal, unbreakable counterparts.

Combat can often be a harrowing experience in Mina the Hollower, featuring some pretty tough standard enemies that become even more difficult depending on the hazards surrounding you. I can’t count the number of times I’d get knocked into a pit, deep water, spikes and so on when trying to take on an overly nimble foe. This can lead to some initial frustration, especially when you lack many of the trinkets and accessories that can assist in combat, and I do think some of those early hours in Mina the Hollower will annoy players enough that they may want to bounce off before getting to the meat of the game. Perseverance is rewarded though, as you start to expand Mina’s items and weapons you’ll find that previously challenging areas become a bit more of a cakewalk, and your ability to find the right timing to burrow underground in order to dodge attacks and other hazards improves naturally the more you play.

The world of Mina the Hollower is deceptively large. There were often sections of the game where I felt like I was nearing the end of everything an area had to offer, only to uncover some secret that previously eluded me, which in turn would expand to whole new sections, shortcuts, and side quests offering up even more reasons to explore. Even after completing the dungeon and boss fight in one of these areas, there’s often additional reasons to explore beyond those sequences, thanks in part to some of the unique sub-weapons that can assist you in hitting far away triggers or jumping across gigantic pits.

One more thing worth mentioning is that Mina the Hollower has an expansive list of modifiers that you can enable to customize the game to your liking. While the default difficulty setting can be challenging, there’s a number of things you can turn on or off in order to make the game easier, feel snappier, or even make it harder if you choose to do so. Things like increasing Mina’s walk speed, jump height, taking no damage from pits, no damage from spikes, infinite health and so on are all available from the start. So if you find one aspect of the game frustrating you more than others, chances are you’ll be able to fix that by finding the appropriate modifier. I love seeing in-depth difficulty options like this in games, and Mina the Hollower does a great job of making the game as accessible as possible for people of all skill ranges.

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. And if you find those early hours to be too tough or not to your liking, the customizable modifiers can help a lot to alleviate most concerns, turning frustration into fun with a simple press of the switch.

Note: Yacht Club Games provided us with a Mina the Hollower PC code for review purposes.