Platform(s): PC (version reviewed), PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
Genre: Action, 2D, Zeldalike, Soulslike, Indie

As someone who has been covering video games professionally since 2008, it takes a lot to impress me. I have witnessed, experienced, and thoroughly played what many have conceived to be “killer apps”, GOTY/GOAT pretenders, and all other sorts of nonsense in this industry to be incredibly jaded, especially with the current climate of how games are made, how companies are treating their staff, and how certain folks who did not earn their place in the industry somehow get top billing.

But once in a while, there is at least one title that makes me briefly forget all the poison seeping in the landscape, giving me so much joy that brings me back to the days of pure bliss in gaming. One that represents what the medium is about, tooth and claw.

Mina The Hollower, the new “retro-like” 2D action-adventure title from indie group Yacht Club Games, is it. The one title in this gaming generation that exceeds all expectations of what it means to be a pure video game experience, with its own epic story to tell, its own aesthetic to bring out its charisma, and its conveying of well-made and detailed gameplay and worldbuilding that just sticks to your mind for years to come.

Much like how the company’s Shovel Knight is their proverbial “Mario”, Mina The Hollower is their “Legend of Zelda” with a tinge of Dark Souls and other hardcore mechanics peppered onto it like fine ajimomoto. And the result is unlike any other title out there this generation of gaming.

Rats!

Mina The Hollower puts you in the bare feet of the title character Mina, an inventor of the Spark Generators that help make the Isle of Tenebrae prosperous. Mina has been called back to the town of Ossex by Baron Lionel to help fix all six Spark Generators strewed across Tenebrae, with each region of the place littered with gothic horrors and abominations big and small you have to slay in 2D glory.

As you can tell from the title screen and graphics alone, Mina The Hollower is presented in an 8-bit Game Boy Color pixel art style, with Mina being a literal red highlight amidst the purposely color-coded backdrop and enemies. Even with the most “basic” of art styles, there is a lot of life and personality in this game than most big-budget titles in this generation. The city of Ossex is bustling with live NPCs and city-esque activities, with the occasional pickpocket or two Mina has to give chase. The bayou of Nox is full of garish green and eventually purple color tones to portray its swamp-like nature without using nauseating palettes, instead portraying the toxic environment with some level of pixelated beauty.

The region of Septemburg is full of autumn brown and yellow that isn’t too garish, exuberating a mix of tranquility and dread from a horror film-like farmstead. There’s a lot of creative use of colour palettes to highlight each region of the adventure, making each of them stand out on their own and seared into your mind. The music from Jake Kaufman and Yuzo Koshiro also matches and accentuates the world to amazing effect. But then again these are legendary composers who made magical bangers for the Shantae and Streets of Rage series, so this is hardly surprising.

What is surprising in Mina The Hollower is how fresh the game feels despite its adherence to the 2D Legend of Zelda-like top-down formula. The developers do this by adding in a few Soulslike-inspired mechanics and design ideas fit for a 2D game while implementing its own. Mina cannot move or attack diagonally. She also doesn’t attack as fast as her opponents, and also has pushback for some of her rapid attacks, requiring her to be a bit mindful when on the offensive. Your currency, Bones, help power Mina up when they reach a certain capacity. But should you die, and you will, you will leave your “spark”. Dying again without collecting it means you lose all accumulated bones. You can heal yourself with potions, but only if you have “yellow plasma” recoverable life left, which you can only gain by hitting enemies. Ergo, you cannot “potion spam” and play defensively when your health is at critical.

Every encounter is tailored to make your journey as challenging and arduous as possible, from platforming puzzles in deep crypts to navigating the bowels of a dead sea creature with tons of obstacles that push you to bottomless pits, as well as an autoscroll level with TONS of blockades & crushing walls just for good measure. There’s even a short survival horror segment where you’re chased by an unkillable foe that can go through all the obstacles laid out, and you have to figure out how to progress and open closed doors without getting manhandled by it.

Luckily, you aren’t defenseless. As a titular Hollower, Mina has the ability to burrow underground temporarily and re-emerge with a higher and further jump. While Mina can dodge enemy attacks with a quick jump, her burrow can avoid them altogether and make her scurry out the way quicker. She can also bypass overhead obstacles with her burrow, while also leaping to faraway obstacles with her burrow jump (specifically platforms two tiles away). And yes, you can avoid the aforementioned survival horror segment monster by burrowing far and away from it.

Mina is skilled in combat, having the choice of one of three starting weapons to fit your play style (and the option to get them all later). These include a morningstar whip not unlike a weapon from a Castlevania title, twin daggers that are fast but have limited range, and a giant hammer that has slow attacks but deal the most damage via charged moves. Later on, and with much diligent exploring, she gets to equip a coffin shield that gives her the ability to parry attacks (and counter them), and a battery gun that reloads its bullets via melee attacks.

Much like Elden Ring and other Soulslike inspirations, Mina The Hollower’s world is brutal and unwelcoming, but you can conquer it by dedicating lots of time braving through its levels and secrets while uncovering treasure to power Mina up. And if you need a breather, there are save points/bonfires called Underlabs that refill your health and potion count, as well as other resources you have if you spend the time to upgrade them through the Hollower Guild.

These treasures include Trinkets which give Mina a slew of abilities to amplify her combat and platforming prowess. Trinkets really help in at least making the hardcore experience bearable, with some of them making you move faster (and even more if you kill a foe), brighten up dark areas, summoning wisps whenever you’re hit, and so forth. You can even use sidearms that uses your Joule resource; they are limited but also help immensely in attacks and defenses.

My go-to trinket setup is the one that summons flies whenever you kill an enemy, orbiting around you and attacking anything closeby. Late in the game, I did manage to snag a trinket that gives me the equivalent of Bayonetta’s Witch Time when I dodge jump at the last second. Sidearms-wise, I enjoy using the Parasol that not only block enemy attacks and space them out, but also can be carried and used to float over chasms. There’s a lot of useful tools and upgrades that are worth scouring the earth for, encouraging you to explore and sink further time in.

Even if you get some of these game-changing trinkets at the tail (heh) end of the game, there is New Game Plus that ups the challenge and enemy levels, but also lets you keep everything you’ve found and upgraded. Care to try to go through the game faster than usual? Or you rather have your endgame items serve you better as you endure Ossex and its hellish surroundings one more time while scouring its entirety? Or would you rather go through a new game plus variant with little to no Underlab checkpoints? Go right ahead; Mina The Hollower is replayable as heck. This is moreso with its plethora of modifiers and “cheat codes” you can activate before and/or during the adventure on a new slot.

In fact, the mods can be a blessing or a curse, depending on your point of view. On one hand, less-abled and casual gamers can experience the journey through less arduous means. On the other, the temptation to back down from the challenge while you’re playing the game au naturel is incredibly high. Mina The Hollower’s default difficulty will pulverize you time and again; if it’s not the tricky puzzles or the intense setpieces, it’s the boss fights.

My toughest challenges is one instance with a “demon dog” straight out of a cosmic horror Cthulu bit that splits into two halfway WHILE also not giving you a chance for a potion respite. Another involves an animated brain of a giant sea monster corpse that is surprisingly fast for its mass once untethered.

I can count the number of times I really just want to call it quits and debuff the game’s difficulty, but I persevered. And felt a helluva lot more rewarded for my determination. Yacht Club’s Zeldalike-slash-Soulslike hybrid is really well-designed and creative with its action beats and level layout. One moment you’re just platforming through tricky obstacles using the burrow to navigate through overhead blockades. The next you’re in a pseudo-survival horror section set in a backwater farmstead where crows rule the roost. You also get a cool tower-climbing sequence that combines all the enemies and obstacles in the section you’re in, having to burrow through “electric pipes” to push back the rising current as you ascend posthaste to the top.

Sharing more of the later experiences means diving into spoiler territory, but I will say that the game’s humble 2D action-adventure trappings is just the basis of all the cool awesome moments the devs get to put in. Amidst its gameplay is also its narrative, presented with a balance of “show don’t tell” while also dishing out text in the most appropriate forms. While some aspects can come off as predictable, its delivery and payoff are noteworthy from start to finish, sometimes even having you question whether the actions of its key players are just for the sake of maintaining certain status quos.

House Of Mouse

Few games exuberate such class, style, and prestige as Mina The Hollower. Yacht Club Games’ second-ever major title has very unique aesthetics, fun and well-designed dungeons and action setpieces using as many colours as a Game Boy Color console (8-bit if we’re counting), and incredibly challenging yet satisfying boss fights you’ll ever experience in a 2D top-down action adventure title that is on par with classics like The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Alundra. In short, a veritable classic that no self-respecting action-adventure gamer should be without.

Don’t let its cute animal portraits fool you; this 20 to 30 hour title is as hardcore as they come (or softcore if you plan on using the optional assists). You owe it to yourself to experience it without modifiers on your first playthrough; the journey is arduous yet satisfying once the solutions click and the patterns are recognised.

Mina The Hollower is a triumph in game design, fun factor, storytelling, and vision, resulting from years of blood, sweat, tears, and heart from Yacht Club Games. While many titles of this generation have been labelled the title of GOAT with little to no justification, this 2D Zelda-like effort damn well deserves it.

Pros

• Amazing art style and graphic choice with tons of detail & life.
• Atmospheric & thub-thumping soundtrack.
• Challenging yet fair difficulty.
• Plethora of weapons and trinkets to use and abuse.
• Memorable set pieces, action sequences, and boss fights.
• Charming yet harrowing story from start to finish.

Cons

• The temptation to reduce the difficulty is incredibly high, as Mina The Hollower will test your patience.

Final Score: 100/100

Review copy provided by publisher.