It was a few days before I was set to hop on a plane to travel across the country to Boston to attend my first PAX East. My schedule was set, and I was ecstatic to check out all the new games (so much indie horror!) and wander the show floor. Then, an email notification. In a last-minute addition, Yacht Club Games, the storied developer behind Shovel Knight, was offering Mina the Hollower appointments for hands-on impressions and interviews.
I scrambled to respond, fudged my schedule a little bit, and was ultimately able to fit a slice of time in my back-to-back schedule to check out this new game from one of the most popular indie studios around.
I was only able to play roughly a roughly half hour demo of Mina the Hollower, but I came away impressed and wanting more. In it, you play as the titular Mina, a genius inventor who wields a mighty whip called the Nightstar. She gets her namesake as the “Hollower” due to her ability to burrow deep underground for short spurts, a useful mechanic to use in game when squaring off against tough enemies. And let me tell you, these enemies are indeed tough. Mina the Hollower is a 2D action-adventure game with a Game Boy Color-esque art style that’s reminiscent of titans of yore like The Legend of Zelda: Oracle games. You play in a top-down view moving screen to screen and explore dungeons not unlike what you’d see in those titles.
But the similarities with other popular games don’t end there. When it comes to combat, the game’s main focus, Mina the Hollower is a Soulslike. Fighting bosses is incredibly difficult, and you’ll have to master their patterns and movements while finding opportune windows to attack. Using Mina’s digging ability is the best way to dodge, but you can also jump and dodgeroll to evade your enemy’s onslaught. Many of the skills needed to be successful in Mina‘s 3D genre cousins are transferable here, but come with a bit of a learning curve given the new perspective.
For my demo specifically, I fought against a knight with a lance that could summon tornadoes in powerful area-of-effect attacks. I died numerous times, which returned me to the game’s hub, a castle with plenty of NPCs to talk to, points of interest, and a sneak peek at some of the progression and upgrade systems. I wasn’t able to engage with it fully (read: at all), but it was interesting to see just what sort of customization there was on offer.
Mina the Hollower is set to launch this spring on every current (including last-generation) platform, and it might even be a shadow drop, so we’ll be on the lookout.
It was a few days before I was set to hop on a plane to travel across the country to Boston to attend my first PAX East. My schedule was set, and I was ecstatic to check out all the…
It was a few days before I was set to hop on a plane to travel across the country to Boston to attend my first PAX East. My schedule was set, and I was ecstatic to check out all the new games (so much indie horror!) and wander the show floor. Then, an email notification. In a last-minute addition, Yacht Club Games, the storied developer behind Shovel Knight, was offering Mina the Hollower appointments for hands-on impressions and interviews.
I scrambled to respond, fudged my schedule a little bit, and was ultimately able to fit a slice of time in my back-to-back schedule to check out this new game from one of the most popular indie studios around.
I was only able to play roughly a roughly half hour demo of Mina the Hollower, but I came away impressed and wanting more. In it, you play as the titular Mina, a genius inventor who wields a mighty whip called the Nightstar. She gets her namesake as the “Hollower” due to her ability to burrow deep underground for short spurts, a useful mechanic to use in game when squaring off against tough enemies. And let me tell you, these enemies are indeed tough. Mina the Hollower is a 2D action-adventure game with a Game Boy Color-esque art style that’s reminiscent of titans of yore like The Legend of Zelda: Oracle games. You play in a top-down view moving screen to screen and explore dungeons not unlike what you’d see in those titles.
But the similarities with other popular games don’t end there. When it comes to combat, the game’s main focus, Mina the Hollower is a Soulslike. Fighting bosses is incredibly difficult, and you’ll have to master their patterns and movements while finding opportune windows to attack. Using Mina’s digging ability is the best way to dodge, but you can also jump and dodgeroll to evade your enemy’s onslaught. Many of the skills needed to be successful in Mina‘s 3D genre cousins are transferable here, but come with a bit of a learning curve given the new perspective.
For my demo specifically, I fought against a knight with a lance that could summon tornadoes in powerful area-of-effect attacks. I died numerous times, which returned me to the game’s hub, a castle with plenty of NPCs to talk to, points of interest, and a sneak peek at some of the progression and upgrade systems. I wasn’t able to engage with it fully (read: at all), but it was interesting to see just what sort of customization there was on offer.
Mina the Hollower is set to launch this spring on every current (including last-generation) platform, and it might even be a shadow drop, so we’ll be on the lookout.
by Myles Obenza
