Mina the Hollower

Mina the Hollower doesn’t only trade in nostalgia; it’s a game that could only have been made today. But if you’re looking for vintage Sega or Nintendo-alike magic, here it is. A simple, perfectly satisfying move, spun out into 20 hours’ worth of fun, squeezing out every possible surprise and delight along the way. As links to the past go, this is hard to beat.

From start to finish, Mina the Hollower had me enthralled, which is pretty incredible for a game that ran me about 18 hours for a first-time playthrough (54% exploration rating). Some truly masterful game design on display, along with excellent spritework and sound design, make this an all-timer and an easy recommend for...frankly, anyone that enjoys video games. You can set the difficulty to your liking in a way that I haven't seen, ever, which makes this accessible to a very wide range of players. The exploration is top-notch, the story is riveting, the art style is striking, and the myriad ways the developers pull tricks on you is both amusing and well thought-out. I can't recommend Mina the Hollower enough.

Mina the Hollower is a grand, exhilarating adventure that never lets up, springing out fully formed as an absolute "mouse-terpiece." The thrill of discovering new areas, levelling Mina up to become stronger, and conquering seemingly impossible boss fights only gets more rewarding as you utilize everything the game has to offer and become the strongest Hollower you can be. The worldbuilding presents a beautiful, colorful setting that you’ll want to root for, even if the story suggests a more complex, morally grey truth to it all. Yacht Club Games has conquered its sophomore slump and delivered a truly special experience, one that, on every level, sparks joy and wonder even amidst turmoil and strife.

Mina is a gloriously gothic combination of ferocious combat and beautiful scenery, with enough secrets and modifiers to keep the game fresh and fun for a very long time.

Mina the Hollower does for Zelda what Shovel Knight did for Mega Man. It's a revival of a classic franchise in spirit while having enough of its own flavor and style to avoid coming across as a simple clone or copy. It's clever, creative, and an absolute delight to play from start to finish, while having enough bonus content and modifiers to keep the game exciting even after you complete its roughly 20-hour playtime. In a year that's already filled with amazing games, Mina still shines.

Yacht Club Games strikes again with a brilliant homage to Game Boy Color’s favourite titles. Mina the Hollower is a charming title with gorgeous presentation, one apt to be well received by those with an affinity for old school dungeon explorers. Just be warned: looks can be deceiving in its very high difficulty level.

A retro-styled 8-bit action adventure, there's a lot to like about Mina the Hollower if you don't mind a challenge. But unforgiving combat, accessibility options that lock out achievements, and lack of any guidance makes this a more frustrating experience than it should be.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

When it's firing on all cylinders, this a joyful game. When it isn't – which is often – it can be tiresome. The balancing is off the wall, being either too hard or too easy most of the time. The lack of a detailed map is a misjudgement that's hard to fathom. Some of the level design is A+, some is C-. A strange one. A 7/10.

I love this game when it is trying to be Link's Awakening and Castlevania. I **** hate this game when it is trying to be Dark Souls. I have said it before and I will say it again, the modern overuse of soulslike mechanics as a means of difficulty has really become a crutch in modern game design. There are /plenty/ of ways to make a game challenging without having it constantly waste the player's time, and this game just wastes the player's time way too damn much. Yes, there are modifiers that alleviate this, but that feels like a band-aid added late in the development to plaster over a balancing issue that YCG either could not fix or did not try to fix. To the game's strength, the exploration, world design, sound design, and pixel art are all top notch. I have not had as much fun in a long long time exploring, discovering, and stumbling into new areas while seemingly looking for something unrelated. There is a certain kind of magic here that unfortunately gets mired in soulslike tedium. Still, I enjoyed the vast majority of my time with it.

I am not seeing what others are evidently seeing with this game. I am absolutely the target market for this game, and it is a chore. The combat and the controls overall feel awful and the exploration is pure tedium. Originally gave it a 6, but as I'm sitting here thinking about it, it deserves lower.

It's unbelievable that those old-fashioned ghost face-jumping scares from the internet are actually in a pixelated indie game. Isn't this pure malicious intent towards players? Dev is probably quite proud of it. There are also many other details that are simply inhumane and designed to disgust players.