Mina the Hollower Review

Mina the Hollower is the long-awaited return of Yacht Club Games, developer of Shovel Knight. A game that began as a one-man side-project before securing a successful Kickstarter in 2022 has become one of the most anticipated indies of the year, especially after its sudden six-month delay. Thankfully, it was all worth it. Mina the Hollower shows that Yacht Club Games is still able to provide exciting, satisfying games full of action, secrets and fun characters, all within a different genre that still captures the amazing game feel of Shovel Knight – and in many ways surpasses it.

Mina the Hollower is about Mina, a Hollower, who arrives in the town of Ossex, invited by her old friend Lionel the mayor. The Spark Reactors that she helped build with Lionel back in the day, these big towers that provide Ossex with electricity and an easy life, are in need of repairs. They were damaged by a local terrorist group who will get in Mina’s way over the course of the game. The residents of each area also have their own issues, which Mina will help solve as she travels from area to area in order to fix the reactors.

From reading developer interviews, it’s confirmed that the main inspirations behind Mina the Hollower were Konami’s Castlevania series, FromSoftware’s Bloodborne, and Nintendo and Capcom’s The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages. That last one in particular is the most apparent at a glance – the visual style of Mina the Hollower screams HD Game Boy Color, similar to how Shovel Knight was HD NES. However, as a massive fan of Zelda’s Game Boy outings, these comparisons are extremely surface level. It looks like a Game Boy Zelda game, but it doesn’t feel like one.

The game Mina the Hollower most closely resembles is its direct predecessor: Shovel Knight. Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment, specifically. While the game follows a 3/4 isometric perspective like Zelda, it plays at a much faster pace. Mina does not just run around and whip or whack things, occasionally using one of the game’s many sidearms. She can jump naturally (unlike Link) and she can burrow, providing her a type of invulnerable dash. Mina speeds up when burrowing, allowing her to easily get behind opponents and dodge attacks, and when she bursts out of the ground that force can be leveraged for a longer jump. The burrowing ability is Mina the Hollower’s unique spin on this genre and such a simple idea massively changes the game feel, providing a more action-oriented and faster-paced game.

Another sign of Mina’s true inspiration is the world design itself. There are some similarities to the Oracle games here as well – an open world compartmentalised by rooms that players must explore while also frequently returning back to a central town where many of the core side characters dwell. While Mina’s world is not strictly level-based like Shovel Knight – to the extent that you can do any of the Spark Reactors out of the advised order – its actual areas beyond the central hub are more linear. The areas loop back around on each other to make backtracking easier, and several shortcuts can be found that bring players from one land to another; however, the primary path from a land’s entrance to the Spark Reactor and the boss that guards it is an entirely linear affair.

Mina has to deal with difficult platforming challenges and fight a wide variety of enemies as she progresses from one screen to the next in a metaphorical straight line. There are even some auto-scrolling screens where she has to go forward. The only time the game diverges from this within its core seven areas is when Mina needs to solve some kind of puzzle that unlocks the door forward – usually not through a Kear, which is reserved for optional content, but by solving a unique puzzle that brings down a gate.

All of this is done while providing Mina with checkpoints via the underlab, where she can heal up, swap out her primary weapon, equip trinkets, and harvest the bones from her bonegems. While sounding straightforward on paper, each of these mechanics is incredibly engaging, providing Mina with a lot of variety in how she approaches levels – and also delivering challenge.

Mina’s health functions more like a fighting game than The Legend of Zelda’s traditional heart system. Mina has a red health bar and underneath it is a yellow plasma bar. As Mina’s health decreases, so does her plasma, but by fighting enemies without getting hit, collecting bones, and destroying objects her plasma bar increases. The plasma bar doesn’t act as a second life bar or anything, but instead an indicator of how much health Mina can restore when she drinks a plasma vial – a portable healing item that restocks in the underlab.

In addition, while Mina is drinking her plasma vial she cannot move, so she can still get hit, which disrupts the healing but still costs her the vial. What this all results in is a healing system based entirely around skill and the ability to adapt to battle. Tension is already high when Mina is taking damage, and she can’t just heal up and negate that – she must fight back to build up the plasma bar, retreat to safety, and find a moment to use the vial where she won’t be damaged. It’s the game providing Mina the power to heal, but she must still work for it.

When it comes to approaching said fights, Mina has several weapons at her disposal, the first three being a whip, twin daggers, and a large hammer. Each provides different gameplay options, so which one Mina uses is up to her preference. Personally, the whip is extremely good, providing a great balance of speed, range and attack. Mina can also equip relics, the primary collectables of the game.

The number of relics Mina can equip starts at one but can be increased, and they provide a mixture of passive skills, new movement options, and even new forms of attacking. Much like the weapons, which relics Mina uses is her choice, but it’s a decision that isn’t easily undone, as Mina can only equip a new relic when she finds it or when visiting the underlab. Having the right relic equipped can be the difference between precision platforming challenges and a more comfortable run, so getting as many as possible is definitely a must.

Some relics and weapons can be purchased through the game’s currency: bones. However, bones are also the game’s equivalent of EXP and, just like Shovel Knight, what Mina loses when she falls in battle, assuming she lacks any sparks at that time. The bone mechanic is really cool, providing Mina more choice on how she will grow over her adventure.

Is it better to use the bones to level up (they function similar to Zelda II where upon hitting the level requirement, Mina is offered the chance to increase her attack, defence, or side arms, or convert it into safe bonegems for the underlab bank), or is it better to spend those bones on new relics, weapons, and other upgrades like ammo or health increases? One path has an incredibly buffed-up Mina who’s still using the basic toolkit, while another has a Mina with tons of variety but made of glass, dying in a few swings – and that path is entirely up to her.

Of course, Mina can also find relics, weapons and upgrades by exploring the world, meeting the locals, and discovering secrets, and this might be Mina the Hollower at some of its best…and worst. There is some fantastic side content in the game; fun characters to engage with that have their own little plots and require Mina’s help. They might not ask her directly, but figuring it out is part of the fun.

This side content can also lead to optional bosses and areas that are some of the game’s most interesting challenges and mechanics. Technically, Mina the Hollower can be beaten entirely with the base kit – it is not like The Legend of Zelda where new items are needed to progress. Therefore, to make up for that, Yacht Club Games packed the adventure with cool side content that makes full use of Mina’s various relics and abilities.

However, sometimes Mina the Hollower can be too obscure. It provides a lot of support to help Mina solve puzzles; almost every NPC has something useful to say. There are a handful of solutions, though, that really require out-of-the-box thinking, and doing things the player would never have thought to. It’s not bad, and it doesn’t bring the game’s enjoyment down, but in a title with so much player support, it feels like a bit of an oversight – although it’s possible some hints may simply have been missed somewhere.

Mina the Hollower has a ton of support in its options beyond the typical manuals and tutorials. Mina can attach modifiers to her adventure to make it easier (or just make it weird) and is not penalised for doing so. She can increase her burrowing time, double her health or attack power, give herself unlimited ammo, or make herself twice as big (for some reason). If she wants to explore without risk of death, an exploration mode can be turned on that removes the enemies, although it isn’t personally preferred to do this so that all of those valuable bones can be gathered! None of this is required to use, but they are great options that make Mina the Hollower more accepting for those who don’t play as many games – or just want a slightly different experience when going through New Game+.