Since its release in 2014, Shovel Knight has been a gift that keeps on giving. Groundbreaking for its hugely successful crowdfunding campaign, it also helped usher in a glorious era of throwback platforming gems like Sabotage Studio’s The Messenger. Yacht Club Games has spent years expanding the Shovel-verse while developing its next project in parallel. Now that follow-up is finally here, and with Mina the Hollower, the studio is moving beyond Mario-like platforming to explore the formative era of action RPGs.
Blending the exploratory charm of The Legend of Zelda with the European gothic setting of Castlevania, and adding subtle nods to numerous other titles, Yacht Club Games has delivered another finely polished gem that stands shoulder to shoulder with the classics it pays tribute to. Zelda is the key inspiration here, though – the game takes its cues from Link to the Past and Link’s Awakening, key maturation points for the series.
Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Handheld/Undocked)
The story follows Mina — an inventor and member of the earth-studying guild known as the Hollowers — who is summoned to Tenebrous Isle to reactivate the Spark Generators, revolutionary power sources of her own design. At the request of her old friend, Baron Lionel, she travels across the island to investigate why the generators are failing, repair them, and restore balance to the local communities.
Along the way, you explore the regions around the capital, battle hordes of monsters, and repeatedly cross paths with Thorne, a mysterious rival. The main narrative is fairly straightforward, but it’s fleshed out with side quests and smaller subplots, including Thorne’s ongoing opposition to Mina’s mission and lighter diversions such as helping two hunters take down a bunny-shaped monster. Tenebrous Isle is filled with stories both funny and sad.
Building on the style of its previous title, the game sticks with the 8-bit visuals, this time drawing inspiration from the Game Boy Color’s palette. Jake Kaufman returns with another strong set of chiptune compositions, collaborating with the legendary composer Yuzo Koshiro (ActRaiser, Streets of Rage) to produce an infectious musical suite.
Everything about Mina the Hollower oozes retro cool, demonstrating an expert command of style and genre conventions. Rather than feeling like a simple throwback, it’s a focused, confident reinterpretation of classic action RPG execution.
Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Handheld/Undocked)
Tenebrous Isle is an intricately designed area to explore, with a central town hub that connects in all directions to mechanically distinct biomes that you must traverse to find and fix the Spark Generators. The looping, layered design harks back to classic top-down and side-scrolling RPGs of yesteryear, recreating the kind of interconnected map that went on to inspire Hidetaka Miyazaki’s From Software titles (which are heavily referenced throughout).
You are free to venture out from the hub, tackling any of the six areas in whatever order you choose. Without a map to refer to, NPC dialogue, signage, and environmental clues are all you have to go on as you hunt down the next objective.
The freedom to explore and the lack of hand-holding are hugely refreshing in this current era of quest markers and constant tutorial pop-ups. That said, it can be easy to get lost on this treacherous island, and for a while I found myself wandering back and forth between the hub and seemingly blocked paths.
Later, after the game forced me to be more observant and realise that secrets and hidden paths appear on each screen, everything started to click into place. There’s an extensive manual tucked away in the menus, but for the most part, Mina’s journey is one of discovery.
Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Handheld/Undocked)
There’s a heaving menagerie of deadly creatures great and small across the island, and you are given plenty of ways to dispatch them. Combat and movement both revolve heavily around manual jumping, which conjures fond memories of the Roc’s Feather item in Link’s Awakening. Mina can burrow underground, then burst up to launch herself into the air. Mastering this ability is essential for progression, with jumping puzzles scattered throughout every area and a high number of aerial enemies to contend with.
Health is managed by a potion system, the replenishment of which is tied directly to aggressive offence in combat. Spark charges add an extra layer of survivability, while bones are the game’s primary upgrade resource. A surprisingly deep weapon system provides a wide arsenal of primary and secondary tools to experiment with. Each main weapon has a distinct feel and can be upgraded to unlock additional utility. The Nightstar is a chain whip that will have you feeling like a Belmont, while the Blackstrike Maul delivers slow but heavy-hitting attacks. Whisper and Vesper favour rapid dagger-based combat, the Battery Buster caters to projectile-focused playstyles, and the Guardian Casket supports defensive approaches.
Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Docked)
Sidearms add further variety, offering both offensive projectiles and defensive options that complement primary attacks. Mina can also equip trinkets that further customise and modify her overall playstyle.
Speaking of modification, the game has an exhaustive menu of quality-of-life and difficulty options that let you tweak the entire experience to your liking. These mods build on the cheat code system in Shovel Knight and can be enabled at any time if you don’t mind sacrificing the game’s feat challenge system. Not very good at jumping? Give Mina a super jump. Looking to sprint through another playthrough? Double her walking speed. Maybe you’re playing with a young adventurer and just want them to breeze through Tenebrous Isle with no resistance. There are plenty of options for casual players.
Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Docked)
The modifier menu is so jam-packed that it even includes a favouriting system. This can be a punishingly difficult game at times, with the boss battles in particular providing a serious challenge, so it’s nice to see the developer cater to those of us who prefer an easier time at the cost of earning achievements. It’s worth noting that there are modifiers to increase difficulty as well, so there are plenty of options for those who baulk at easy modes.
Mina the Hollower, like Shovel Knight before it, pays careful homage to a beloved genre and visual style, while also blending in modern design sensibilities. While the potential for future DLC that could bring players back to Tenebrous Isle is exciting, the base game already feels substantial, offering plenty to uncover across the main campaign. Re-igniting all the Spark Generators took around 25 hours and there’s a wealth of post-game content, as well as numerous weapon builds to experiment with.
It also feels purpose-built for handheld play. The Game Boy Color-inspired visuals suit a smaller screen perfectly, and Jake Kaufman’s soundtrack, best experienced through portable speakers, adds even more character to the small-screen experience. Performance is razor sharp in both modes and offers a stability that’s noticeable during visually busy boss battles and platforming puzzles. The original Switch targets 60fps, while Switch 2 has 120fps support and HDR settings for those that have the display to accommodate it.
