With the enormous platformer “Shovel Knight,” developer Yacht Club Games cemented itself as a legendary indie studio. Its second game, “Mina the Hollower,” is finally here after years of “Shovel Knight” expansions and spin-offs. What I really admire about “Mina the Hollower” is that it’s an incredibly different game than “Shovel Knight”. Whereas the latter was a platformer inspired by the NES era, the former is an action-adventure that feels like a “Zelda” game on the Game Boy Color.
“Mina the Hollower” follows our eponymous protagonist, Mina, a genius mouse whose inventions have brought prosperity to Ossex, the lone major city in Tanebrous Isle. One of her creations, the Spark Generators, have shut down and she goes on a journey to restore the seven generators scattered throughout the island. While well-intentioned, she slowly learns that her generators might be used for nefarious purposes that she must uncover. The story is straightforward and sets a solid foundation and incentive for Mina to explore Tanebrous Isle.
The various different regions around the island are wonderfully diverse, from the sandy shores of Bone Beach to the icy tundras of Coltrane Peak, each environment is graphically pushed to its limits while still strictly sticking with the pixel design. The way the game utilizes colors keeps the adventure visually interesting.
Exploration in Tanebrous is a bit more open-ended too. True to its retro roots, the game doesn’t have any objective markers like modern games do, so you’ll need to rely on your instincts to figure out what to do next or how to reach a certain region. I wish there was a bit more hand-holding in this regard, but honestly I applaud “Mina the Hollower” for sticking with its guns here. Exploration is rewarding too, as you’ll be able to find upgrades such as being able to hold more healing vials, which can boost your survivability.
What really makes the world of “Mina the Hollower” truly alive is the hustle and bustle of Ossex, which acts as your central hub. Its citizens constantly move around, carrying out their days by running shops or simply just kicking objects down the street. It makes Mina’s solo adventure less lonely.
You can pick from several different weapons, such as her whip, as well as daggers and hammers. They all feel radically different. The whip lets Mina hit enemies safely from a distance, but can take a bit longer to come out as opposed to the daggers, which are near instantaneous but require her to be close up. There’s always a trade off to using certain weapons over others, so pick one that best fits your own playstyle.
Additionally, you can customize Mina further by equipping different trinkets, which augment her with passive abilities. The Proto Spark gives Mina a second lease on life should she fall, while Steady Shoes lets her move normally on terrain—she won’t slip on ice and shallow water won’t slow her down. It’s a great way to add some light RPG elements to spice up the gameplay.
Whereas many action adventure games let players roll or dodge attacks, Mina takes a unique approach. She can burrow underground for a short time to avoid enemies and their moves. However, Mina has to first do a short jump before going underground, so you’ll have to take that into account when timing your burrows. The trade off here is that Mina’s invincibility frames last considerably longer. This allows you to reposition Mina with a greater degree of freedom than a simple dodge would do. Admittedly, this took me a while to get used to, but once I got the hang of burrowing, I loved how fast and agile it made Mina feel.
However, one downside to the 2D-inspired graphics is that it’s sometimes hard to judge distances. During boss fights, I would burrow underground, and try to pop up behind the boss. Instead, I would appear right on top of them, and it’s a frustrating issue since simply touching enemies inflicts damage onto you.
Platforming is a bit tricky too, but there are plenty of quality-of-life mechanics that make judging jump distances easier. For example, Mina’s shadow will always appear, visually guiding your eyes on where to land.
“Mina the Hollower” is not an easy game by any stretch of the imagination. The bosses hit hard as if they were in a Soulslike game and you’ll have to learn their attack patterns in order to succeed. You can also collect Bones that are used as both currency to buy items like vials to heal or new trinkets, as well as act as EXP to level up Mina’s parameters such as attack and defense.
The Soulslike comparisons don’t end there! Dying will cause Mina to drop a “Spark” and she has to recover it before dying again, otherwise she’ll lose all of the Bones currently in her possession. So there’s a constant balance of trying to stay alive while gathering enough Bones. This tension forces you to be more careful when exploring and engaging with enemies, but ultimately leads to an intensely satisfying feeling when you do succeed or reach the next checkpoint to regroup and take a breather.
The game also has a bevy of modifiers you can turn on and off if the default experience is too hard. You can turn on settings like infinite health so you never die, or even crank up the difficulty with Mina taking three times as much damage as usual. It also tells you whether enabling a certain modifier will disable the ability to unlock Achievements/Trophies on your platform. That way, you won’t be able to cheat your way to 100% completion.
“Mina the Hollower” is another bold retro-inspired adventure with rewarding exploration, challenging combat, and a stylish presentation. Despite a few frustrations with depth perception and some aimlessness with story progression, its creative gameplay mechanics and exciting world makes it one of the best games of 2026.
Yacht Club Games provided a PC review copy of this title. It launches on May 29 for PC, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Switch 2, and Xbox Series X|S.
