Sally's not done with you yet.
Drop a URL, screenshot, or file and Sally will give you the honest truth.
The Review
Let's be honest, Yacht Club: you Kickstarted this back in 2023 and made us wait so long we started to suspect Mina was a tax writeoff with a whip. Then you actually shipped it, it shot to the top of the 2026 charts, and reviewers started throwing 9.5s around like confetti. Annoying. You were supposed to be a cautionary tale and instead you nailed it.
Mina the Hollower is a love letter to the Game Boy Color era so detailed you can almost smell the AA batteries. Top down action, a burrow mechanic that genuinely changes how you move and fight, and level design tight enough to make Link's Awakening nod in respect. This is what happens when a studio worships the past instead of just cosplaying it.
The catch is the difficulty, which does not so much challenge you as audition you for therapy. Mina is hard in the deliberate, you-died-because-you-were-sloppy way that fans will adore and everyone else will rage quit. After Shovel Knight the expectations were a mountain, and somehow you climbed it in a chiptune cape.
What It Nails
- +The burrow mechanic is a real idea, not nostalgia with extra steps: it reshapes both combat and exploration.
- +Pixel art and chiptune so lovingly crafted they out-retro the games they worship.
- +Tight, non-linear level design that respects your intelligence and punishes your laziness.
- +Proof that Yacht Club is more than the Shovel Knight one hit wonder everyone quietly feared.
What It Botches
- -The difficulty curve is less a curve and more a wall with a smug face.
- -The three year wait after the Kickstarter tested even the most patient backer's faith.
- -Retro purism means a few modern comfort features are missing in action.
- -The gothic tone is great until the cuteness and the creepiness start arguing over the aesthetic.
Think your work can survive this?
Drop a URL, screenshot, or file and Sally will give you the honest truth.
Who It's For
Shovel Knight loyalists and Game Boy Zelda romantics who want a real challenge, not a participation trophy.
Who Should Skip
Anyone who hears 'punishing retro action' and feels their thumbs quietly file for divorce.
Your turn. Drop something.
Drop a URL, screenshot, or file and Sally will give you the honest truth.