Mina the Hollower from Yacht Club Games is finally ready to go on Nintendo Switch 2. Has the wait been worth it? Find out in our Mina the Hollower review!
Mina the Hollower from Yacht Club Games is finally ready to go on Nintendo Switch 2. This 8-bit action adventure will place you in the role of the titular Mina, a renowned Hollower who must now do whatever it takes to save a cursed island in a setting inspired by Victorian Gothic horror. You’ve been commissioned by Baron Lionel to save Tenebrous Isle by reclaiming and fixing the Spark Generators that you had previously built. The Spark Generators are radiant towers that managed to transform the island into an industrial place, thus leading to prosperity and peace in the land. This is, unfortunately, no longer the case. The area of Ossex in the center of Tenebrous Isle is the only one that still has full power, and it’s from there that you’ll need to begin your quest.
As was the case for Shovel Knight, Yacht Club games took Mina the Hollower to Kickstarter back in 2022, seeking a very specific $311,503 in funding to work on the game’s development. Once the crowdfunding campaign was over, and thanks to the support of more than 21,000 backers, the project ended up securing $1,200,000+ in funding. This did mean that it managed to reach some stretch goals. One that was not achieved was having 5 main different weapons in the game, but the studio decided to work on them and include them for launch. We’re also getting a New Game Plus Mode to check out once the credits roll!
After being set for an October 31, 2025, release, the studio made the tough decision of delaying the game in order to continue working on polishing and expanding the overall experience. This is why the game’s content, as Yacht Club Games has stated, makes it their biggest game yet. When comparing this to all of Shovel Knight campaigns (Shovel of Hope, Plague of Shadows, Specter of Torment, and King of Cards), Mina the Hollower has roughly as many screens as all of those in one go.
You’ll be taking control of Mina by using the left analog stick or the D-Pad as you jump with the B button and attack by pressing the Y button. You can also press and hold down the Y button to perform extra moves with some weapons. Sidearms – extra handy tools that will aid you on your mission – can be used by pressing the X button. You can swap between them by pressing the R buttons. Sidearms require Joules to be used.
Mina can burrow underground, which is done by pressing and holding down the B button. Burrowing underground will allow you to avoid some attacks, as well as allow you to reach spots that are blocked from above. Releasing the B button will allow you to pop up. This can be used to perform a much longer jump, which is a great way of clearing some of the trickier gaps. While falling into water will damage you, there’s the option of burrowing to swim at a very, very slow pace.
As you collect Plasma by attacking enemies, you’ll fill up Plasma Vials, which you can then drink to recover some of your lost health. You can also quickly refill these at the Underlab – more on this one in a bit. The Plasma Vials will change the yellow part of your health bar to red. You can increase the yellow part of your health bar by damaging enemies, thus allowing you to heal for more health. If your health bar is depleted, you’re done! There’s a Spark Orb at the end of the health bar, which will keep the Bones you’ve collected safe when you die. Bones will serve as experience points and as the in-game currency, since you can use them to Bone Up and level up your stats, as well as to purchase items at shops.
Bones can be picked all over Tenebrous Isle, and they will come in 1, 5, 20, 50, and 100 Bones varieties. Once you collect enough Bones, you’ll instantly Bone Up and will be able to pick if you’re going to increase the power of your main attacks, boost your defense to lower the damage from incoming attacks, increase the power of Sidearms, or decide not to level up and safely store the Bones as a Bonestone. As a bonus, when you Bone Up, you’ll recover your health, Joules, and Sparks.
As you can tell from the trailer and screens in this Mina the Hollower review, the game draws inspiration from two game franchises in particular: Nintendo’s beloved The Legend of Zelda, as well as Konami’s long-running Castlevania series. It’s also got a bit of a Bloodborne vibe going on. The team has also mentioned that it was inspired by Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion rides. The soundtrack from Jake Kaufman does a great job of getting the chiptune vibes into place in order to match the 8-bit-inspired visuals.
There are 1,200+ screens for you to discover, split over 17 areas, and the game’s soundtrack includes 90+ songs! On top of all that, you’ll be fighting against 27 bosses, the aforementioned 5 main weapons, 15 Sidearms, 60 different trinkets that will change the game experience, and a whopping 266,921 Bones to find. You know, if you’re the type of gamer who likes to 100% games. This is why you’re looking at around 20-30 hours to see everything that the game has to offer, based on the difficulty setting you pick and your overall experience with action games like this one.
Trinkets are definitely going to be useful for your journey. You could, for instance, find the Lace Glove, which will boost your attack by one level, thus allowing you to deal more damage. Another one is the Brisk Brew, which will allow you to walk faster, thus increasing how quickly you can explore each area. Or you could get your hands on the Chain Capacitor, which will boost your attack power as you defeat enemies without missing. A very useful one is Keri the Whisp, which will allow you to press the B button while airborne to float and extend your fall.
The Underlab is where you’ll be safe for a bit. When you’re defeated, you’ll return to the last Underlab you activated. Burrow down to enter the Underlab, where your progress will be saved, but all the enemies you defeated and other elements above will return to life. You know, as one would expect from a Soulslike experience. You can also use the Bone Sinteter at the Underlab to convert any Bonestones on you into Bones, but not the other way around. The Plasma Vial dispenser will refresh all of your Plasma Vials. You can use the Weapon Chest to equip or inspect your weapons and upgrades. The Trinket Chest, as expected, will allow you to equip or inspect your Trinkets.
What are some of the weapons that you’ll be using to try and save the day? You’ll have the powerful Nightstar, a crushing mace that is tied to a flexible chain, making it a perfect option for attacking enemies from a safe distance. The Blastsrike Maul is a huge hammer that you can charge up by pressing and holding down the Y button to unleash a powerful attack. Want to attack enemies at a much faster pace? Then Whisper and Vesper are your best option. This pair of nimble daggers is great for quickly stabbing your enemies. Each of your weapons has two potential upgrades, which you’ll obtain as you collect another weapon of the same type. These upgrades will make each weapon a lot more versatile, so be sure to try them all!
Sidearms can be found while exploring each location. As mentioned before, they will require Joules to be used, which is why you should always make the most of Joule Jars. Get the Gyro Dagger to launch it toward enemies as you wait for it to boomerang back toward you, hitting everything on its path. You can even smack it and juggle it back to continue attacking with it. Grab the Volt Hatchet to use a shockwave to hit multiple enemies. The Hollower’s Rocks are simple yet effective, since you can have them skip across water to hit targets that would otherwise be out of reach. The Iron Steed can be used to ride across large gaps, and you can even ring its bell to draw the attention of enemies so that you can hit them as you travel.
What’s different between the Nintendo Switch and the Nintendo Switch 2 versions of Mina the Hollower? As expected, the Nintendo Switch 2 version features a higher screen resolution, HDR support, Joy-Con 2 mouse features, as well as an increased refresh rate. This means that you can play Mina the Hollower at 120 frames per second, which definitely makes a difference as you take on all of the action and platforming that the game has to offer. There’s also support for HDR.
This one features an in-game achievements system, which you can check by visiting the Feats section. There are 50 in total for you to work on, so there’s plenty of stuff for you to do during your time with Mina the Hollower! What are some of the objectives that you’ll need to complete? You’ll unlock Feats for buying your first item, defeating each of the bosses in the game, unlocking all weapons, trinkets, cloaks, and upgrades, beating a Spark Generator boss without taking damage, striking 3 enemies with a single charge of the Drill Driver, defeating 6 enemies while using a single continuous spray from the Fog Thrower, parrying 15 consecutive attacks with the Guardian Casket, defeating a boss while at 1 HP while using only Sidearms and the Joule Syringe Trinket, or boosting one stat to 10 while keeping all others at 3 or below. Oh, and you’ll also have to complete the game in New Game Plus. Perhaps this is how you might be able to speedrun the whole thing in less than four hours?
Mina the Hollower is finally ready to go on Nintendo Switch 2. This 8-bit action adventure will place you in the role of the titular Mina, a renowned Hollower who must now do whatever it takes to save a cursed island in a setting inspired by Victorian Gothic horror. You’ve been commissioned by Baron Lionel to save Tenebrous Isle by reclaiming and fixing the Spark Generators that you had previously built. The Spark Generators are radiant towers that managed to transform the island into an industrial place, thus leading to prosperity and peace in the land. This is, unfortunately, no longer the case. The area of Ossex in the center of Tenebrous Isle is the only one that still has full power, and it’s from there that you’ll need to begin your quest.
Being part of the Hollowers – a guild dedicated to studying earth and its latent resources – means you have a particular set of skills that will allow you to quickly move underground while also using powerful equipment above to destroy anything and anyone foolish enough to stand in your way. You’re the only one who can reach and restore the six Spark Generators. And for this, you’ll need to visit the many areas that Tenebrous Isle has to offer, collecting extra main weapons, Sidearms, and trinkets, choosing which route to take based on how challenging you want things to be.
As you explore each area, you should keep an eye out for the special upgrade items that will grant you very important boosts. These include the Health Rose, which increases your max health, the Trinket Bag, which increases how many Trinkets you can equip at once, Joule Boxes, which increase max Joules for using Sidearms, Spark Cointainer, which increases max Sparks, thus allowing you to boost your odds of recovering any Bones after being defeated, as well as the Vial Pouch, which increases the max number of Plasma Vials you can carry, a very useful one since you’ll be able to heal additional times.
The game offers a series of modifiers that can make the game as easy or as challenging as you want it to be. Do know that some of the modifiers will disable Feats. You can check out visual modifiers, others that will make the game easier, ones that will bump up the difficulty, some that will change the visuals, modifiers related to enemies, to Sidearms, Trinkets, and some that are simply labeled as “Weird.”
Some examples of these modifiers include enabling auto jumps, being able to walk on pits, increasing the amount of Plasma you can gain, displaying damage dealt to enemies, removing weather visual effects, making Mina take three times as much damage, not having Sidearms drop, making the healing water at the Underlab only restore half of Mina’s health, enabling higher jumps than normal, doubling walking speed, increasing burrowing speed, making it so that enemies are unable to detect Mina, or even completetly ignoring damage from enemies. These are all optional, and you can just play the game to have the standard experience that the dev team has balanced for you.
If you’ve played the demo version of Mina the Hollower, you’ll be able to import your demo save data into the full game, which is certainly appreciated. There’s also a rather extensive in-game manual with tons of valuable information that is definitely worth checking out before you begin your adventure.
The wait has certainly been worth it, since this is one of the best games of the year on Nintendo Switch 2, making it a must-play on Nintendo’s current-gen console. Mina the Hollower is available on Nintendo Switch 2 with a $19.99 price tag. You can also get the Nintendo Switch version of the game for the same price and then grab yourself the Mina the Hollower – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition Upgrade Pack at no extra cost to upgrade your copy to the Nintendo Switch 2 version.
Disclaimer
This Mina the Hollower review is based on a Nintendo Switch 2 copy provided by Yacht Club Games.
