Mina the Hollower Switch 2 Review: Zelda + Elden Ring = A damn good time

In 2014 a small Indie Team with the Name Yacht Club Games released Shovel Knight. A classic Action Platformer that took over the Indie world by storm. Now they are back again with their new game, Mina the Hollower, a mix between 2d Zelda and Elden Ring. Just like with Shovel Knight they again created one of the best games in the genre.

Mina offers a twist on a classic formula

Mina looks like an old Game Boy Color game and feels a lot like old 2d Zelda games like Links Awakening. After the first hour of gameplay the world opens up far and wide. Like you would in Zelda games you have multiple dungeons you have to explore. But Mina the Hollower gives you the Freedom to explore most of them in any order you want.

However unlike Zelda Mina the Hollower doesn't have many puzzles to solve. Instead the game focuses on Combat and a surprisingly big part of the game is a platformer. For me the hardest moments in the game weren't bossfights, but long jumping sections where the game demands a lot of timing and precision from you.

For the most part I enjoyed those sections but sometimes I felt like the last bit of polish is missing. Some jumping segments just have one evil surprise too much. It's never to the point of feeling frustrating but it can feel a bit unfair at times.

Same goes for the combat itself. At the beginning you can choose between one of Five Weapons that all play a little bit different. As said earlier it plays like a 2d Zelda game with the one big difference that Mina can dig underground. This digging is used for many movement parts but also for combat to dodge enemy attacks or dig under them to attack from behind. Mina wants to be a Soulslike in the combat department but similar to my jumping criticism I sometimes feel a little lack of control. 

It still plays amazing overall but I just never felt so much in control as I would in a game like Hollow Knight Silksong. There is just often this moment of like “What this attack hit me?” or “How should I have dodged that?”. Thankfully Mina the Hollower almost never demands this kind of precision from you because of its great progression system.

Mina the Hollower Progression feels rewarding

In Mina the Hollower you collect Bones as your progression currency. Those you can get for defeating enemies or exploring the world. With those Bones you have tons of options. In the Town, some shops sell you permanent upgrades like more health, but there are also weapon upgrades and the best of all, there are Trinkets.

These Trinkets offer you a wide array of options, from jumping further, to gaining a parry ability, to options like becoming invincible for a second. There are tons of different Trinkets to find, either through exploration or through the Shops. In my eyes, those really helped to eliminate the small weaknesses that Mina sometimes had in its combat or jumping parts. As there really is a trinket for any situation you can imagine.

With the bones, you can also level up and boost your stats or build out your homebase to gain more quality of life features. As you can see, Bones can be used for a lot of things and Trinkets do feel really strong. All of this leads to my favorite part of the game. Its Exploration and World Design.

Mina offers a world worth exploring

The World and Level Design is where Mina the Hollower really shines. First, it offers you a lot of freedom. As mentioned in the Intro, a huge chunk of the game you can play in any order you like. Secondly, there are secrets everywhere!

Some are simply hidden walls, others are mini puzzles and some are just hidden behind little questlines or jumping parts. What makes those so rewarding to explore is that you will find cool upgrades, trinkets, or simply tons of bones that you need to progress much more easily.

I rarely felt this engaged when I was exploring a world. But it's not just the secrets that make Mina shine. Each section of the world has its own gimmicks and ideas. The outstanding part here is how smartly those levels are designed. Yacht Club Games never hold your hand or explain to you, “In this area you can do XYZ”. Instead, they design the level in such a clever way that you will find out for yourself how they work.

I'm sorry for being a bit vague here, but for me, finding out how all the different levels work was the most fun I had in Mina the Hollower and I don't want to spoil any of the fun and magic moments in that regard. So please just trust me when I say, they nailed it!

The same goes for the dungeons themself, each has its own twist and ideas and none of them feel the same. Some even don't feel like dungeons at all. To top all of this, the world is really smartly connected. In many ways, the way you unlock shortcuts or hidden paths reminded me of Dark Souls.

The best part of this is that none of these ideas overstay their welcome. It almost felt like every few hours, I kinda played a different and new game. All of this is followed by a very memorable soundtrack. Each zone has its own wipe and many of the songs are already stuck in my head for good.

Mina the Hollower is close to perfection

In many ways, I want to compare Mina the Hollower to my Game of the Year of 2025, Hollow Knight Silksong. From the smart level design, great world building and creative ideas. Most of this is here. However, the moment I compare the two, the small cracks do start to show.

As mentioned earlier, combat just isn't as much on point. With the progression system, you can eliminate most points, but because it's a big, imprecise it just never feels as rewarding. The same goes for the Platforming. Silksong is a masterpiece in this regard and Mina is often close but just has a few too many unfair moments.

The worst part however, is the balancing itself. Both games offer a lot of freedom, but Silksong manages to always stay just right on the difficulty curve. Mina on the other hand, is a bit all over the place. In the first few hours, Mina felt really difficult. Then there was a huge chunk of the game where I had great Trinkets and upgrades and I felt overpowered. I could just facetank enemies and spam my attack to win.

By the end however, a big difficulty spike occurred that honestly rattled me for a moment. Here it just simply shows that the core gameplay from Mina the Hollower is fun and well made, but it just doesn't reach the perfection of Hollow Knight Silksong. The same applies also to the visuals. I overall love this Game Boy Advance look, but there are just a few moments where the game felt harder to read than it should be.

Lastly, the story itself. It is fine and especially some of the side quests and characters have a lot of charm. There are some twists, but it's not a story that could ever touch my emotions like Pragmata lately, for example.

Mina the Hollower Verdict - a flawed Masterpiece

Now granted, maybe it is unfair to compare Mina with those games. But this should also show how damn good Mina the Hollower is. Its very damn close to Masterpieces like Elden Ring, Zelda BotW, or Silksong. It took inspiration from all these games and managed to make something unique out of it.

Especially the Level Design itself and the great progression system make Mina the Hollower a game I will never forget. To me, this is an instant classic, a game I will surely play again in the future and honestly, so far the best game I played this year.

Rating: Essential

Rating System Order: Masterpiece | Essential | Strongly Recommended | Recommended | Mixed Feelings | Disappointing

Vaulted: Games that make it into the Kasur Gaming Vault have a special place in my heart and are games that define my gaming taste.