Mina the Hollower

Often brilliant, sometimes frustrating; Mina the Hollower is Yacht Club Games' most ambitious title yet, and when it works, it is spectacular. However, it is much more uneven than any of the Shovel Knight entries, and I can't give it as unqualified a recommendation as I would those. It is worth your time and money, but know what you're getting into: a very challenging game that leaves you to your own devices more often than you might hope.

Best original game I have played all year, 9.5/10 masterclass blend of Bloodbornes and Castlevanias alike My only complaint is the occasional hard to understand out of nowhere puzzles like in the mirror place with the broken glass and the overbearing difficulty spikes of the final area that I didn't really appreciate having little to no checkpoints for. I loved this game and you just might too. I want to ____ Mina the Hollower

This game is yet another extremely fun entry from Yacht Club Games. I really enjoyed the ass-kicking that came with getting all of the achievements, I thoroughly enjoyed the difficulty, and adored the art and music. Instantly became one of my favorites. It isn't without its faults though, some times this game can feel super unforgiving and it can just keep kicking you when you're down. It's definitely not a game that I'd expect everyone to be able to find the same enjoyment that I did. I still really love it though. 10/10 would BONE UP! again

My first game of it's type and i thoroughly enjoyed it. There are some frustrating moments, but it's also super fun and worth it!

I was expecting to not like this for many reasons, but I've fallen in love. (First of all, ignore my low play time - my Steam Deck desynced. I've actually put like 30 hours into this.) This game seems to be an homage to the old 2D Game Boy Zeldas, but in reality, it plays more like Hollow Knight. The game is more focused around combat, than it is around the other elements that you would expect to see in Zelda (platforming, puzzle solving, etc.). As far as the combat goes, there's a lot of focus on elements from Dark Souls or the aforementioned Hollow Knight: you're memorizing attack patterns while being precise about your timing, positioning, and building up your heal meter. As others have said, much like similar games, the difficulty here can be BRUTAL through the first level or so. After that, it's still hard, but you have a lot more freedom to customize your passive abilities, weapon, and overall build. I would stick it out through the first boss to see if you'll truly like this game. As far as the other elements go - exploration, puzzle solving, even some light platforming (somehow, even though this is a 2D top-down game) - the game is actually really strong in these areas too, albeit a little unconventional. You're not picking up unique items in each area that let you surpass specific obstacles, like you would expect from a Zelda game. In 99% of cases, you actually have all the abilities you need to access most secrets right from the get-go, but you'll need to get really creative to figure out all the secrets. (A remaining few secrets do require an equippable item or two to access, but even THESE puzzles don't have specific answers. You have a lot of freedom in how you solve them.) Yacht Club gets a LOT of mileage out of a limited camera angle and moveset - the latter of which, by the way, feels really good to use. Mina's burrow changes your speed AND vertical direction rapidly, and constantly, throughout combat, making every encounter a lot more exciting than you would expect from a top-down game. There is so much creativity going on in this game as far as level design and enemy design goes, that you completely forget about how the 2D angle is a limitation. The last, and most important, element of praise I have to give this game is its horror elements. The game isn't SCARY, but it's tremendously spooky in all the right ways. Every area is an homage to a different sub-genre of horror. You've got elements of gothic horror, cosmic horror, ghost stories, body horror, even some slasher stuff. This isn't like Mario where you've got the "beach level" and "forest level" - even when a new level seems mundane at first, there's usually something going on to captivate your imagination a little bit deeper. If you have even a passing interest in ANYTHING folklore or horror-related, play this game with the difficulty modifiers tuned down and just immerse yourself in this cool gothic world. It's silly and spooky all at the same time.

My favourite so far for this year. Really nails the retro aesthetic it's going for while still managing to be incredibly intelligently designed, slick as hell and just full of life, character and secrets everywhere. Definitely can be pretty challenging at times but it's non-linear enough with so many different loadout options that you can always try a different approach or just come back later. I also really liked how it's designed to be 100%ed without needing to rely on any external information, the tools within the game are completely sufficient and are made available at a sensible time in the playthrough.

A delightfully fun that feels like a fusion of Oracle of Seasons (more combat focused) and Bloodborne souls-like mechanics that can be frustrating at times yet rewarding and feel like something that's new too.