Written by Max Kahn
When indie developer Yacht Club Games released Shovel Knight in 2014, it received universal praise for its wonderful merging of beloved classic titles like Mega Man, Castlevania, and Duck Tales. Flash forward to May 29, 2026 and after six years of development, Mina the Hollower has hit digital storefronts on all major consoles and PC, combining the aesthetics and gameplay of old-school Legend of Zelda and Castlevania with modern-day marvels like Bloodborne. If Shovel Knight is Yacht Club’s Super Mario, then Mina the Hollower is their Zelda. While Mina may seem and start as a simple 2D, Gameboy Color-style adventure, it quickly evolves into an adrenaline-fueled beast of action platforming, forming one of the best titles of the year and solidifying Yacht Club’s status as one of the best in the business.
Mina the Hollower seems and plays simple at first. Similar to old Legend of Zelda titles like Link’s Awakening or A Link to the Past, Mina is a top-down adventure set in the densely packed Tenebrous Isle. Each room is teeming with treasure to haul, secrets to uncover, and enemies to fight, where Mina only has access to a simple jump and a normal attack using one of a few different weapons. She also can find over a dozen different subweapons, which swap out one for another whenever one is picked up in the world, and use Joules, this game’s version of a magic system, to use. For healing, she has access to Plasma Vials that fill up when she attacks an enemy, allowing her to restore health. However, the vial’s health recovery lowers when Mina is hit, creating a risk vs reward system that tests the player to fight and move cautiously, and know just when and where to use a vial between long stretches of checkpoints.
From the first area of the game, the player is tasked with choosing between one of three weapons to test out which best fits their playstyle. Will it be the slight wind-up of the powerful flail, reminiscent of the Vampire Killer whip from Castlevania? Is the rapid stab of the daggers the best option? Or the slow but mighty charge of the hammer? Each weapon offers its own unique advantage to battle, and unchosen weapons can be found later on during Mina’s adventure along with a couple other weapons and upgrades. The game does not want to lock the player into one single playstyle from the get-go, so offering three different weapons allows the player to discover their playstyle of choice.
This early flexibility exemplifies one of Mina the Hollower’s strongest traits – freedom. Once Mina arrives at Ossex, the central city of Tenebrous Isle, she is free to explore any part of the isle like a modern open-world game. No matter what part of the game you are at or which upgrades you have, the main regions of Tenebrous Isle can all be accessed from the beginning. Players can venture to Thick Thicket’s murky waters first, or maybe take a trip to the windy and lightning-filled Septemburg. Each area is uniquely designed with its own set of unique enemies, environments, gimmicks, and hazards to ensure every second of the game brings in something new. The course of the adventure, Mina’s weapons, and even the difficulty are steered by the player, providing them with the freedom to enjoy Mina the Hollower in their preferred way.
However, most important of all is Mina’s burrowing ability. This move is perfect for combat and exploration, and nets Mina the title of a Hollower. The ability is activated simply by holding the jump button, which sends Mina diving into the ground, hollowing her way through before quickly popping up after a second or however long the button is held. This allows the player to avoid damage from enemies, whether that is by dodging beneath their attack or burrowing under them to pop up from the other side and lay down some attacks. It also acts as a platforming mechanic, as hopping out from the burrow allows Mina to jump forward an extra tile to cross a wider gap.
The burrow is Yacht Club’s own unique take on the typical dodging or dashing ability providing a fun new way to avoid attacks and venture throughout Mina’s world. It is the perfect blend of movement and combat, and after a slight learning curve, players will be moving Mina in and out of her burrow constantly. It is one of the most important mechanics of the game, quite literally adding a whole new layer to it. The burrow must be mastered if the player wants to get through the game’s tough boss battles, stress-inducing platforming, and the myriad of secret tunnels hidden in countless rooms.
Around the world and its shops, Mina can also find Trinkets on her journey. These Trinkets add all sorts of stat buffs, changes, or entirely new mechanics to Mina. Some are as simple as giving her extra attack or defense, an extra life, allowing her to burrow for longer, or even a new movement option. Trinkets are found through helping out NPCs, challenge rooms, shops, and through other secrets hidden throughout the world. They are a central component to the game’s fun, with all sorts of different build options. Need to optimize out your attack and defense to defeat a tough boss? Or maybe a longer jump for a tricky platforming challenge? Trinkets can cater to any sort of playstyle and add layers of replayability and freedom to a player’s run of the game. Weapons and Trinkets can only be swapped out at the game’s Underlab, which is found at every checkpoint to offer some temporary breathing room during the adventure.
Even beyond the difficult and pattern-heavy enemies, Mina’s other main challenge is its platforming. Despite being inspired by the combat and dungeon-crawling aspects of Zelda and Bloodborne, Mina’s world is riddled with tricky platforming and puzzles that require quick and smart thinking of the player. Mina the Hollower may seem innocent due to its cute cast of anthropomorphic animal people and charming 8-bit style, it very much reflects the challenge demanded of the player like its inspirations. Whenever the player dies in-game, Mina loses a ‘Spark’ to whichever enemy or pit that claimed her life. The player must then retrieve this Spark, and failure to do so results in the loss of all of Mina’s Bones, this game’s version of currency. This system creates another level of tension and difficulty to Mina’s world, upping the stakes with every death. While Mina starts with only one Spark, she can accumulate more over the course of the game, just like she can find more health and magic upgrades.
If the quest ever becomes too difficult, players have a long list of modifiers and assist features to ease enemy damage or power up Mina to make the game as accessible as possible to even the most casual of gamers. Likewise, some modifiers can make the game harder for those looking for an extra challenge or become too strong from upgrades. The modifiers also have fittingly labeled ‘weird’ ones, causing strange effects like rotating the screen, changing the color pallette, and much more. They can also be combined with the new game plus mode after beating the game, with each subsequent run adding new modifiers for a whopping 12 new game plus playthroughs with their own unique traits. The modifiers and new game plus modes add an incredible amount of replay value, echoing the hundreds of cheat codes included in Shovel Knight. These vast difficulty settings further enhance the freedom of Mina the Hollower, allowing the player to craft their own experience without losing out on the core fun and charm of the game.
The story is also simple, but is bolstered by Yacht Club’s clever and quirky writing and dialogue that never borders too much between serious and silly. The titular Mina the Hollower receives a letter from the Marshal of Ossex, who is requesting her aid to repair the six generators across Tenebrous Isle, which were damaged after being rumored to be damaging the island. These generators power up the land using the energy source known as Spark, and their invention allowed for Baron Lionel, the beloved leader of Ossex, to rise to fame. It’s up to Mina to repair these generators, stop these rebels and their traitorous leader, and uncover the mysteries that lurk in Ossex’s shadows.
Mina’s stalwart and honorable personality lands her in humorous situations with the silly inhabitants of the Isle, with its varying cast of characters adding to the game’s charm and atmosphere. Despite its goofiness, the game is still filled with small and subtle dark moments, and the overall story follows the surprisingly tragic and bitter-sweet story notes that can be found in Shovel Knight’s four adventures. This provides a glimpse to the true horror of Mina’s world that is shown at merely a surface level to adhere to Yacht Club’s overall writing style and targeted tone (and age rating).
While pixel art may seem rudimentary to some modern gamers, Mina the Hollower’s pixel art is bright, crispy, and full of expression. The game is filled with fully-emotable characters and uniquely detailed towns, forests, fields, and other environments to fit the gothic tone of the game without sacrificing color or personality. Each room’s spritework is done in the same style and looks to ensure the player always knows how each wall or floor can be jumped over, crawled through, or interacted with at first glance or with some brief experimentation. It accomplishes a significant amount with its 8-bit spritework, incorporating color, style, and efficiency to result in some of the finest graphics in its targeted artistic style.
On top of Mina’s gameplay and perfectly crafted pixel aesthetic, it is all backed by Jake Kaufman’s immaculate soundtrack. Each track is expertly crafted to incorporate the gothic and spooky nature of Mina with the high-energy songs to create an entire soundtrack of chiptune masterpieces only rivaled by Kaufman’s previous work in Shovel Knight. While video game soundtracks may not mean much to everybody, one’s like Mina’s make the game all the more memorable. Whether it’s the bombastic and bouncy beat of “Bone Beach” or the tender tempo of “Thick Thicket,” each song is the perfect blend of a spooky atmosphere with the vigorous tempo of ‘80s and ‘90s video game soundtracks. Even when the player loses and must return to the last checkpoint, they at least get the chance to keep listening to Kaufman’s divine musical talent. Case in point: Mina the Hollower has one of the best soundtracks of all time.
By the end, thanks to the player’s growing skill and accumulated items, Mina will be rapidly moving in and out of her burrows and smacking enemies with a fully-upgraded weapon, transforming the game from a dungeon crawler to a full-on action platformer. Down to the final item required for a 100% save file, Mina continued to add more layers of fun and excitement, creating an experience that constantly offered new ideas and ways to play.
Daresay, Mina the Hollower is one of the best indie games available, bolstered by its addicting and ever-evolving gameplay, combat, and exploration and backed by a rich and colorful pixel world and stunning soundtrack (and $19.99 price tag). As they did with Shovel Knight and its numerous expansions, Yacht Club Games are some of the finest indie developers who prove that with time, dedication, vision, and a strive for excitement, even the most simple-appearing games can be some of the most fun.
