Mina the Hollower is the long-awaited follow-up to indie mega-hit Shovel Knight. With Shovel Knight, which released in 2014, developer Yacht Club Games spearheaded the modern wave of independent games that perfectly combine retro stylings with modern gameplay twists. While Yacht Club has since released a number of (free) Shovel Knight expansions and other spin-off titles, Mina the Hollower is their first big release in over 10 years.
You play as Mina, a Hollower, as you might have surmised. Mina is a mouse who can burrow through the ground, popping up and attacking her foes. Generally speaking, it plays like a 2D Zelda, more specifically Link’s Awakening. The world is made up of a series of screens full of pits to jump over, enemies to fight, and, of course, collectibles to find. The Zelda comparison is only so useful, however. There are no defined items needed to progress, nor any elaborate puzzles. Mina is first and foremost an action-platformer.
Mina is the inventor of Tenebrous Isles’ Spark Generators, which have mysteriously gone offline. The game begins with Mina returning to the island where she learns from Baron Lionel that the generators were deliberately destroyed by Thorne, a bat who was once in the employ of the Baron. Mina is tasked with travelling to each tower and restoring them to working capacity, battling many horrible creatures along the way.
Every area of the map has its own aesthetic and mechanics, each as clever as the last. Bone Beach has shifting sands to navigate, as well as minecarts full of dynamite you must detonate to proceed. The autumnal Septemburg sees you intermittently pursued by the area’s rather spooky boss, giving the game a distinct horror feel for a time. This means that exploration remains exciting from beginning to end, as the core gameplay is constantly changing up.
Ossex is the main city on Tenebrous Isle, and it’s here you’ll return in between your expeditions to each Spark Generator. This town has a great sense of place, with shops, minigames, wacky denizens, and plenty of secrets of its own to discover. The pixel art is fantastic across the board, but it’s in Ossex that Yacht Club Games really show off what they can do with such (relatively) simple graphics.
The city may be an early highlight, but really every inch of Tenebrous Isle is full of secrets and delightful moments. A lot of these are too good to spoil, but rest assured I was reminded of the likes of Hollow Knight: Silksong, where you start pulling one thread and suddenly you’re in a whole new area or having an unforgettable encounter with some astonishing beastie. Often your delving will result in a new sidearm or trinket or permanent upgrade to healing capacity, but there are also little fun and weird self-contained story beats to discover.
At the beginning of the game, Mina can pick from one of three main weapons. Once you begin exploring, however, you can chance upon more versions of those three weapons, as well as brand new ones. If you find another version of a weapon you already have, it will be upgraded. For example, I chose to start off with the Blaststrike Hammer, and by finding another one, I unlocked the ability to follow up my swings with a charge move. This means you can, of course, change things up if you regret your initial choice, but also that exploration can be rewarded with increasing the utility of your favourite weapon.
Mina levels up by collecting a certain number of bones, the currency used on Tenebrous Isle. Upon leveling up, you can choose to increase her attack, defense, or how much damage her sidearms do. Each time she levels up all three, the cost for the next level up will increase. You can lose your bones upon death, but this is where sparks come in.
Sparks are a clever way of retaining challenge without making the game quite as unforgiving as a soulslike. Upon dying, Mina will lose a spark. If she dies again before retrieving that spark from the area where she died, she will then lose all her bones. As long as you get that spark back, you will be able to die again without losing anything. As you progress, you’ll unlock more sparks, giving you several more chances to come back victorious without losing your bones.
There are sidearms and trinkets too, and there sure are a lot of them. Sidearms use a resource that is restored upon using a checkpoint and include things like an umbrella that can be used as a shield or to float across gaps and a drill that lets Mina dash ahead while also dealing damage to anything in her path. Trinkets are more passive modifiers, like providing +1 to attack or defense, spawning a little ghost that heals you for a while after you take damage, among many other boons.
Thanks to all these interacting systems, you’re given a lot of choice as to how you approach combat. Fundamentally, combat involves swinging your weapon and then burrowing away from danger before going in for another attack. When you add in the various weapons, some of which allow for ranged or charge attacks, the sidearms, and the trinkets, you can really mould Mina to be the type of warrior that suits you best.
Anyone familiar with Shovel Knight’s soundtrack will be delighted to learn that Mina the Hollower’s soundtrack is just as rad. It evokes the music of the 8-bit era in such a way that avoids being derivative or grating. Aside from the nostalgia angle, it also just really sets the tone so well for this gothic horror, Castlevania-adjacent world of crow farmers wielding scythes and haunted trains.
Mina the Hollower has been a long time coming, but I’m thrilled to confirm that it offers an experience well worth the wait. It meets and even exceeds the lofty expectations placed on Yacht Club Games after their much-loved Shovel Knight took the world by storm. Mina the Hollower spoils you with satisfying, responsive, and challenging gameplay, a haunting but beautiful world to explore, and an audio/visual experience that will soothe even the most reluctant nostalgist. So what are you waiting for? Dig in!
Rating: 9.5/10
Mina the Hollower was reviewed on Steam with a code provided by the developer.