Mina the Hollower - Switch 2 Review

It’s finally here. The long-awaited next project from indie gaming royalty (if you can still call them indie) Yacht Club Games, Mina the Hollower is a lovely retro-inspired adventure game. When I heard the makers of Shovel Knight were making a Zelda-like, it got me giddy with excitement. After an initial postponement of the release, we finally get to meet Mina, the titular character, and the vast game world of the Tenebrous Isle. 

But many questions remain… is it actually a Zelda-like or does it just look like one? What’s a hollower? Well, join me as I find out!

The Good

Mina the Hollower follows the story of the aforementioned Mina, a fabled inventor-mouse who created Spark Generators to power the mysterious Tenebrous Isle. While Mina has been away and left the island in command of her co-inventor Lionel (and now de facto mayor of Tenebrous Isle), the generators have failed, and the island has been overcome by all sorts of baddies and creatures. The setting is very much gothic Lovecraftian vibes, which gives the whole story a kind of Frankenstein, Mary Shelley feeling. Coupled with the beautiful pixel art and chip-tune music, Mina the Hollower is a fantastic nostalgia trip. The look, feel and general setup are incredibly faithful to Game Boy Color or Super Nintendo classics, yet it still feels fresh and interesting.

So yeah, what actually is Mina the Hollower? Of course we don’t want to slap labels on games but it’s our role to give you guys the detail to decide whether it’s worth investing your money or not. Well, I wouldn’t actually describe it as a Zelda-like. Sure it looks like Link’s Awakening, but the structure is very much a hub (the central city of Ossex) with many, many spokes. However, each area reminded me more of classic Castlevania games: stages with checkpoints that you must return to if you die (which will happen a LOT), but as you progress, you unlock dozens of small permanent shortcuts, which means that even if you haven’t made it to the next checkpoint, you are still making some kind of progress. It’s actually designed in such a clever way, and while it’s punishing (more on this later), I was really impressed at how the devs came up with hundreds of different ways of making what appears to be quite linear sections feel a bit more interconnected and full of depth. In addition to this, the main currency in Mina the Hollower is ‘bones’, and in true Souls-like fashion, you will lose them all when you die (at least any that you haven’t banked), and you have one chance to return to where you died to get them back. Fail and they’re gone for ever. The bones are used to upgrade Mina (or ‘bone up’ as they call it) and the RPG progression is well-balanced, satisfying and absolutely necessary if you want to survive!

One more massive positive I must highlight is the value for money that Mina the Hollower presents. I’m a Brit, so I can generally only speak in our humble currency; it will set you back about £18 British pounds, or about US$20. Given the sheer amount of content in the game (I’ve been playing for north of 20 hours and still not close to 100%), this is frankly a steal. Hollow Knight: Silksong took a recent gamble on this (selling a massive game for fair money) and I understand that it paid off, and it seems to be worth it. Even if Mina the Hollower cost double what it does, I think that would still be fair. Bravo.

TL;DR

• Superb nostalgic feel to the game
• World and level design are ingenious
• An absolute bargain!

The Bad

As I have alluded to, and as perhaps may not be surprising after comparing it to a souls-like, Mina the Hollower is H-A-R-D. Yes, I’m a fairly seasoned gamer in the souls/metroidvania/RPG space, so I’m used to a bit of punishment, but Mina can get incredibly frustrating at times. Seeing as you have a few options from the outset as to which area to investigate, it means you may end up choosing one for which you are way out of your depth. Yes, the RPG system is fairly rewarding but I also found it quite hard to get my head around it for the first few hours of playing. I have to say I nearly gave up the ghost and threw my toys out the pram, but I persevered because a) my editor would have been mad and b) the exploration is incredibly fun. There are no difficulty levels; however, there are a number of ‘modifiers’ that you can use to make the experience easier. That is welcome, but for many people they will want to spare themselves the headache.

One other curious thing in Mina the Hollower is the lack of an in-game map… Which is certainly one of the decisions of all time. There is an overworld map that you can unlock (and which can only be viewed from one particular place in the game loop), but there is no map for any of the general stages or dungeons… It meant I got lost quite a lot and completely lost track of what I was meant to do or where I had gone wrong. Of course I think this plays into the general ‘We ain’t holding your hands, mate’ ethos from Yacht Club, which is admirable in a period of yellow paint patronising us all. And perhaps they’re right; perhaps we don’t need one, but I personally feel the inclusion of one would have greatly enhanced the adventure feel. I think of a game like Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair where not only is the map a tool to prevent you from getting lost, it can also be used to solve puzzles and realise 'Ooh, I think there’s something over there’. Anyway, I was surprised there wasn’t one included!

TL;DR

• Base difficulty feels incredibly unfair at times
• Lack of map hinders sense of adventure

Final Score: 9/10

Mina the Hollower is perhaps one of the best-value Switch/Switch 2 games of recent times, which has to be applauded. I personally found it a bit too frustrating at times, but if you give it the patience it deserves, then the rewards are pretty handsome. The soundtrack, pixel art, level design and sheer breadth of gameplay make Mina the Hollower another hit from Yacht Club Games.

Thank you for checking out our Mina the Hollower Switch review, thank you to Yacht Club Games for providing the review code and thank you to our Patreon Backers for their ongoing support:

• Andrew Caluzzi (Inca Studios / Camped Out)
• Bel Cubitt
• Bobby Jack
• Jack Caven
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