Remember the ol’ video game Kickstarter boom that ran for a few years in the early to mid 2010s? For a brief moment in time, it felt like there was a genie out there granting all kinds of wishes if players could stump up the dough. That fever died down after a while into a more realistic state, and a lot of that came down to disappointment. Some games never materialized. Some did, but didn’t live up to expectations in some manner. Still, there were some games that fully delivered on the hopes and dreams of those who backed them, and one of the very best in that regard was Shovel Knight from Yacht Club Games.
Shovel Knight was a brilliant game that paid homage to a number of classic games while also carving out a strong identity of its own. Had it been the only fruit of that Kickstarter campaign, I’d still argue it was one of the better outcomes. But Yacht Club wasn’t anywhere near done, as it had a number of Stretch goals that it planned on making good on to the same level of quality as the base game. This was all great, but it meant that the developer was essentially tied up with its first game for several years. The wait for its second original game has been a very long one indeed, but Mina the Hollower is finally here.
Mina the Hollower is a top-down action-adventure with some light RPG mechanics sprinkled in, and the easiest comparison here is to The Legend of Zelda, with the Game Boy and Game Boy Color entries in particular feeling like the clearest sources of inspiration. You play as Mina, whose occupation (title?) is Hollower. It just means she digs really well. Anyway, she’s dispatched to go investigate some doings that are transpiring, and in true adventurer fashion she doesn’t even make it to her destination without some chaos ensuing. When she finally gets where she’s going, things aren’t much better. Fortunately, this is a video game. All Mina has to do is follow all the spokes leading out of the hub, collect the mystic doodads, and everything will be okay. Right?
That hollowing mechanic sits at the core of the game. As with Shovel Knight’s handy gardening tool, Mina’s hollowing ability has a variety of important uses. On a basic level, it helps you move around faster. You can also use it to dig underneath obstacles, dig up items, zip into underground spaces, and even boost your jumps to achieve greater distances. Where you’ll be using it most, however, is in combat. Mina walks too slowly compared to most of her foes to keep ahead of them above ground. You’ll need to dig down and make like Bugs Bunny to avoid their attacks and find openings to strike back. The rhythm of combat takes a little time to get used to, especially since Mina can’t take many hits. Once you do though, it feels really great.
Mina will pick up her first weapon soon after starting the game, but you’ll eventually have access to several different types. You can even upgrade them by finding another weapon of the same kind. You can swap between weapons at any hideout, and it’s fun to experiment with each of them. Not only for your personal playstyle preferences, but also for certain situations. Sometimes it’s just fun to change weapons for the sake of variety. All of them are a lot of fun to use and mix things up nicely if you’re looking to do that. I’d recommend the whip-like weapon early on, but there’s really no wrong choice here.
You can earn bones by collecting items dropped by enemies or laying about, and this is how Mina buys items and levels up. The leveling system here reminds me a bit of Zelda II, where when you gather enough “experience” you can choose between a few different options to upgrade. Once you upgrade something, the next level for that stat will cost more bones. This will lead to most people having a balanced build while still leaving the door open for people who feel like specializing. You can also convert bones into gems which will keep them safe until you choose to convert them back at one of your hideouts. Provided Mina is still holding on to her Spark, she won’t lose any bones if she dies. She’ll just lose the Spark to the enemy that defeated her. You can recover that Spark by going back and beating that enemy, but if you die before reclaiming it you’ll lose all the bones you’re holding.
The hideouts are also where you can restore your health vials, which work in the familiar Souls-like way. Pop ’em when you need ’em, but know that you won’t be able to get them back until you reach your next hideout. The other resource you need to manage is your supply of energy (called Joules) for your sub-weapon. You can pick up a variety of sub-weapons that work similarly to the ones in Castlevania or the 8-bit Ninja Gaiden games. Like in those games you can only have one at a time, so you need to hang on to whatever tool suits you best in your current situation. The Joules that serve as ammunition for these sub-weapons are pretty easy to scare up, but you won’t be able to let them fly forever in extended combat situations like boss battles. You’ll also lose all of your Joules if you die. Basically, it’s a plentiful resource that won’t help you if you carry it to your doom, so use those sub-weapons liberally.
There are a bunch of other items in the game that convey various benefits, but for now the last type I’ll mention are the trinkets. Once you find these, you can equip them to augment and improve Mina’s abilities. These make navigating the world that much easier and allow you to reach items and areas you would otherwise be unable to access. With that said, you don’t actually need them in most cases. One interesting thing about Mina the Hollower is that after the first part of the game, you can pretty much choose your own order for handling much of the rest. There is clearly an intended order, but you can just do what you like if you want a stiffer challenge. This is also a surprisingly huge game, with my first run taking just a whisker over 20 hours with plenty remaining to discover.
Well, there’s a lot to Mina the Hollower that I won’t talk about here. Some things are best left to discover on your own, I think. So let’s just bring it all in and wrap things up. The presentation is excellent, with lovely Game Boy Color-inspired visuals and a superb soundtrack featuring tunes from Jake Kaufman and Yuzo Koshiro. There’s an engaging story, and the world design is excellent. It’s sprawling with lots of distinctive locations and secrets around every corner. The gameplay is every bit as great as you would expect from Yacht Club Games, with deep mechanics, tense combat, interesting exploration, and some satisfying puzzles. I didn’t even talk about the frankly obscene number of options and modifiers that allow you to tweak the game in hundreds of ways, sensible or otherwise.
Mina the Hollower is another masterpiece from Yacht Club Games. It’s one of those games that only gets better the more you play it, and considering how enjoyable it is off the hop, that’s really saying something. There is so much to do here, and yet it never feels overwhelming or like it’s stretching the soup too thin. I think the most important thing, something it really nails, is in how satisfying the game feels on a fundamental level. Always a joy, constantly shaking things up, and ever finding new ways to surprise you, Mina the Hollower is a genuine must-play.
Version Tested: Nintendo Switch 2
Review Copy Provided by Yacht Club Games
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