Mina the Hollower Review
Sometimes, truly special games have this neat little trick that their developers pull, where they establish rules for how certain things go in the game before breaking them in a climactic or exciting way. A popular example of this would be the original Resident Evil 2 (Claire A route). Throughout the entire game, when you interact with an unlocked door, a door opening animation plays and you are "safe". The enemies in the previous room can't reach you, and you simply have to contend with whatever is in the room you entered. However, at one point during her route, Claire will open a door, and after it swings open, a minor horde of zombies start to spill out into the room.
This is terrifying for several reasons, of course, but the primary reason is that the game broke its own rules. Up until that point, doors were safe! Touch a door, move forward, end of discussion. Afterwards, though, every player retained a feeling of unease and caution, because it might happen again. It never does, of course; the trick is one-and-done, and that's what makes it so memorable — it catches you off-guard just when you're getting complacent and comfortable.
I'm sure that entire opening I wrote will have nothing to do with Mina the Hollower.
Mina the Hollower is a top-down 2D action-adventure game that resembles the Game Boy era of The Legend of Zelda games (Link's Awakening, Oracle of Ages/Seasons). You control the titular Mina, a technological savant and Hollower, which is a designation assigned to those that specialize in "hollowing the ground out" (i.e. digging holes). This is reflected in a number of ways, via the tunneling mechanic that allows Mina to avoid most (but not all) attacks, cross most (but not all) hazards and gaps, and access the safe room — the Underlab.
The story begins in an electrifying manner, with Mina's ship being run aground by a terrible beast. A friend now-turned-foe attacks Mina, they escape into the nearby city of Ossex, learn that a rebellion is afoot, and Mina sets out to re-light the six Towers scattered across the landscape. Along the way, Mina will contend with several different enemies, solve some pretty incredibly constructed puzzles, and utilize a variety of weapons, trinkets, and more to survive.
If that little blurb seems bare-bones, I apologize, because a lot of what makes Mina special is the way things are recontextualized as you play. This is one of those scenarios that "trust me, bro" is going to have to suffice, because spoilers of any kind would do y'all a disservice. I don't want to give away any of the surprises, of course, but there were multiple points in the game where I started clapping like a seal because of a trick the developers successfully pulled off.
From the get-go, the game is wide-open to you. There are multiple paths to choose from, and while two are intended to be your first pick (Newsie, the newspaper hawker, will regularly update with new issues that hint at your next objective), nothing is stopping you from heading to the later game Towers first. There are trinket accessories that make traversal through these zones easier, of course — a trinket that increases how long you can burrow is extremely helpful in the Bayou zone, for example — but with proper play, you could hit up any of the zones you please.
Speaking of, the zones are all fantastically diverse. A graveyard crypt gives a unique vibe compared to the bayou, which is vastly different from the pompous-feeling castle located at the heart of Ossex, etc. Each zone has its own quirks and hazards for Mina to contend with, so exploration really does become key to making the game more manageable — trinkets that will help in one zone are often found in an earlier part of the zone or an already cleared zone, for example. The worlds are dense, too, with secrets to find on practically every screen in the game.
This is not a game you can brute force, either. Mina does not take damage very well (on normal difficulty, at least) and the game does expect you to duck and dodge via burrowing before counterattacking during a window of opportunity. Say it with me now: similar to Dark Souls, where timing is everything, Mina the Hollower does a real good job of forcing you to adapt to unique situations on the fly.
It's not all combat — puzzles are extremely well thought out, too. Sometimes you need quick reflexes and timing; other times you need to activate switches and levers in specific orders, or manipulate terrain to guide an object down a waterfall. There's enough variety in puzzles (and solutions, in some cases) that I never felt worn down or bored while trying to figure things out. I will say that one section did trip me up for a while, but that was because I didn't know you could burrow underneath to move the Bouncy Pods. Consider that your free, non-spoiler tip for the article, a small gift from me to you.
Combat can get a little frustrating, especially if you're not a fan of the Soulslike "collect your resources before you die again, or they're gone" mechanic. Thankfully, Yacht Club Games has implemented quite possibly the most robust set of accessibility options I have ever seen in a game. Labeled as "Modifiers", these range from the commonly expected boosts to stats, walk speed, and burrow speed, to the more esoteric modifiers of auto jump near pits, burrow infinitely until you press a button, kill all enemies in one hit, take less damage, take no damage, create more checkpoints, more healing consumables, infinite healing consumables, and more. Using these will disable achievements, however, if you are into those.
I am not joking when I say that after you complete the game, a whopping 239 modifiers are then available for you to tinker with. You can even turn off the RPG progression mechanics and turn it strictly into a Zelda-like, or, for maximum goofiness, you can turn all 239 modifiers on at once. One of those modifiers is invert controls, and another is invert screen. Have fun.
From start to finish, Mina the Hollower had me enthralled, which is pretty incredible for a game that ran me about 18 hours for a first-time playthrough (54% exploration rating). Some truly masterful game design on display, along with excellent spritework and sound design, make this an all-timer and an easy recommend for...frankly, anyone that enjoys video games. You can set the difficulty to your liking in a way that I haven't seen, ever, which makes this accessible to a very wide range of players. The exploration is top-notch, the story is riveting, the art style is striking, and the myriad ways the developers pull tricks on you is both amusing and well thought-out. I can't recommend Mina the Hollower enough.