Mina the Hollower is a game that's seemingly designed specifically to make go 'oooooooo!' It's a Zelda and Castlevania flavored dish, seasoned with so many secrets to find it's like a deliciously thick layer of cheese on top of it. And it's not the cheap stuff either. You don't need to hump every wall going 'ugh' until you find the fake one. There's always a subtle hint pointing you in the right direction. So subtle that you'll sometimes only notice it after you've already found the secret, and then feel like a right dumbass.

But when you do break into someone's house and notice their attic is hiding a bunch of loot, figuring out how to get there is a real treat. You can see there's some kind of an entrance to the top right, but you can't reach it from inside. So you explore the outskirts of the house and lo and behold, there's a gap in the neighbor's balcony you can slink through. And voilà, you're inside. It's a short little sequence, but it's clever, it's satisfying, and it gives you a heart attack once a clown abomination suddenly materializes from the hell dimension. What's not to love?

Video version of this review (~11 minutes)

Zelda Meets Castlevania

But let's rewind back for a second. I mentioned that Mina is inspired by Zelda and Castlevania, so how much of that DNA is here? Well, let's just say you don't need a maternity test, because right from the very start Mina displays its roots proudly. Before you even know what the controls are, the game will stuff a whip in your hands, give you throwing axes powered by booze, and send you out to devastate the local countryside where people love to hide food inside walls.

The game really isn't joking about being a Mousevania. Your attacks are slow and deliberate, but they pack one hell of a punch. So the fights aren't just about standing still and trading blows until someone cries for their mommy. They're more about position and timing... and occasionally just annihilating a nasty elite without them being able to touch you.

And if you don't think that's Castlevania enough - I wasn't joking about the throwing axes. Mina has a wide variety of sidearms that require Joules (aka MP) to fire, and all of them do weird and funky things that your normal weapons simply can't. So if you're ever in trouble, you always have a portable black hole generator in your back pocket. Just don't rattle it.

We should also address the elephant in the room here - Mina is an absolutely gorgeous game. It's got that crunchy Game Boy Color style that feels so very nostalgic. And it must've been an absolute pain to create, because the game isn't lazy with its visuals - there's a ton of cute details everywhere. In fact, it's so cuddly that I got blindsided when I realized the game is actually quite brutal.

Mina can be brutal at times

Weird Difficulty Curve

I just jumped down a ledge in the starter area and got instantly spanked by a bunch of roided out dudes in armor. But at the same time, Mina is not unfair. Because when I came back, better prepared and with vengeance in my eyes, I ended up being the one doing the paddling. Mina fits in that highly enjoyable difficulty category of 'challenging but fair'. If you give the enemies the respect they deserve, even if they are disgusting ooze monsters, you'll have a great time.

Nowhere is this more apparent than with the bosses. They'll throw a million attacks at you, but then - after every barrage - they'll strike a pose to assert dominance. That's when you can shove a whip right down their nose. It's a fun little song and dance. You'll probably get destroyed the first time or two while you figure out the rhythm, but then you can come back and return the favor... with interest. And I really like that kind of thing.

Which is why I had to do a 'shocked Pikachu' face when I reached the midgame and realized the difficulty curve completely flipped around. After picking up some ridiculous upgrades that gave me +25% armor, +25% health, among other things - I basically couldn't die anymore. It wasn't until the final stretch of the game that I had to stop with my tried and tested "parry swords by headbutting them" style of fighting.

Is this a big issue though? Honestly, probably not. And it's probably even my fault since I obsessively explored everything. Which meant I could just crush bosses under the sheer weight of my bulging sack... of money. So if you play more casually, the curve might feel much more natural.

Bosses are a ton of fun, and there's a ton of them!

The Whip and the Hammer

But if you're not in the mood for whipping people, there's also four other weapons to torment small woodland animals with. All of them have unique movesets and change up the gameplay significantly. For example, if you pick up the hammer you'll lose the safety of the whip's range, but you'll gain big bonkin' damage and the ability to do Dark Souls roll around enemies while yelling 'git gud'.

The hammer is also why I like to believe Mina is called the Hollower. Not because she's a mouse and because she digs holes. That's just the tip of the iceberg. No, no, it's because she can hollow out someone's skull in a single hammer swing! That takes some serious commitment, especially given the size difference! Now you might be thinking I'm making Mina out to be oddly heartless here... and you're not wrong! She's ruthless.

She's straight up willing to break into an orphanage, smash all of their presents, and even steal their bed bones! I don't even know what those is, but I'm sure stealing them will emotionally devastate the kids and set them up for a life of crime and misery. Sucks for them, but this is how you get your level-up juice.

Instead of using souls or cold hard cash, Mina prefers to get boned - and when you get enough, you'll be able to upgrade your defense or damage. Powerful upgrades, though not exactly the most exciting ones. But thankfully the trinkets you can equip more than make up for it. They have all sorts of fun abilities like tunneling through walls or becoming the lord of flies.

There's only a few weapons, but they're all thoroughly unique

Semi-Open World

And so collecting them became a sort of a sidequest for me - which is why I spent so much time wandering through the semi-open world. While it's not a true Metroidvania, Mina's zones are all heavily interconnected and stuffed to the brim with shortcuts. So much so that you'll find yourself spending fifteen minutes exploring a cool new area, only to then realize you've actually gone through here five hours earlier and that you are, indeed, a dumbass.

But honestly, I really like that. Not being a dumbass, but rather the world feeling like an actual world. Where finding a new shortcut or unlocking a new travel option genuinely feels like it matters. And since the early game difficulty is fairly high, being able to just wander off and go slap birds somewhere else is great. It's certainly a much better option than just slamming your head against a wall hoping the owner cheaped out on the builders.

The same philosophy extends to how Mina treats its main currency. You have safe bones that are safely tucked away in your stash, and unsafe bones rattling in your pockets that you'll drop if you ever die without a Spark - basically an extra life. It feels highly punishing, but the game actually gives you ample opportunities to pick your teeth off the ground - and I mean this both literally and figuratively. It never feels cruel.

They're not all super-relevant, but opening shortcuts is always a blast... heh!

Simple yet Creative

And because of this, the levels are allowed to be genuinely tricky. They're not just basic combat arenas with random enemies sprinkled in. The vast majority are cleverly designed and make the best use out of the very limited mechanics. Because despite everything I've said so far, Mina only has four abilities - smack, smack with a magical item, jump and dig. That's all you get.

Since the game can't expect you to pull off miracles with just that, the designers were forced to get creative and make it so each zone, and each subzone, has a strong theme and its own bag of tricks. Sometimes you'll be stumbling around in the dark. Other times you'll be getting head trauma from bouncing like a lunatic. And sometimes you'll just be doing your damnest to avoid becoming crocodile chow.

But regardless of what the game throws at you, it's never frustrating since controlling Mina feels just right. Even though you're limited to the four cardinal directions, something that sounds unbearable on paper, there was never a moment where I wanted Mina to star in RATSHAKER 2. The game just feels good to play.

Which is why I was genuinely delighted to see it's actually a fairly lengthy game. I fully expected this to be a 5-6 hour adventure, something short but sweet, but nooooooo. Mina clocks in at around 20 hours, probably even longer if you try to 100% complete it. And that's on top of a New Game+ mode waiting for you at the very end. So if having a mouse whip people is your kind of kink, there's plenty of it here.

Mina's world is large and full of interesting things to see and people to beat up

Is Mina the Hollower Worth Playing?

Which brings us to the most important question - who would I recommend Mina to? Well, if you're at the point in your life where back pain is a serious concern, Mina is going to be a blast of pure nostalgia. But even if you're young enough to use skibidi as a verb, if that's even a thing anymore, this is still a truly great action-exploration game.

Perhaps the best endorsement I can offer is that despite being given a review copy and two weeks to casually play through it, I finished it in four days. I just couldn't put it down. And considering the whole thing is just 20 bucks - if you have even a passive interest in the genre, just get it. It's great fun.

And if you decide to jump in, I've also made a beginner's guide covering some of the things I wish I knew before I first started.