Mina the Hollower: Yacht Club Games’ Retro Action-Adventure with Built-In Randomizer

Mina the Hollower, developed and published by Yacht Club Games, launched on May 29 2026 for Windows, macOS, Linux, Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S at a price of $20 (ESRB rating E-10+). The six-year development culminated in a top-down action-adventure where the titular mouse-like hero, Mina, can “hollow” into soft soil, emerge with an extended jump, and navigate maze-like rooms. The narrative follows Mina’s quest to restore six broken, towering spark generators on Tenebrous Isle, a project intended to bring electricity and prosperity but later revealed to have harmful side effects. The game’s movement system, upgrade tree, and map design draw on classic Zelda titles and incorporate combat elements reminiscent of Castlevania.

Ars Technica

Mina includes a built-in randomizer that shuffles item locations, enemy placements, and the initial weapon choice. Players normally select one of three weapons (whip, hammer, or daggers) at the start; the randomizer presents three random weapons drawn from a total pool of five, potentially replacing the early health-filling vial with a different item. Randomizer runs can also alter progression items such as keys, creating occasional blockers. The modifier framework lets players adjust Mina’s stats, grant infinite jumps, impose triple damage, reverse controls, or spin the screen continuously. A post-launch patch will add a “warp randomizer” that reshuffles doors and holes. Over 400 cheat codes were supplied by co-founder David D’Angelo for players seeking additional challenge.

The Verge

Co-founder and programmer David D’Angelo advised players to begin with the studio’s earlier title Shovel Knight to appreciate Mina’s design, noting that “Starting with Shovel Knight definitely is helpful.” Co-founder and director Sean Velasco explained that the randomizer became feasible after the team built a comprehensive item-saving system, stating it “was easy to track the position of every single item and that meant that we could move them around.” Velasco described the decision to release the randomizer as a choice to “just let it ride,” and emphasized that any feature that could be modified was added as a debug-style modifier. He later affirmed that the game’s content is complete, saying “It’s done. We don’t need to keep adding to it.”

The Verge

Reviewers observed that the randomizer can increase difficulty, especially when early essential items such as the health vial are replaced with less useful objects. Instances of receiving a fishing trophy from a chest or having “bones” that bounce and fall into holes—thereby disappearing—illustrate potential frustration. The system’s openness to progression blockers required the team to address “a lot of kinks,” yet some players may still encounter runs where key items are inaccessible, affecting overall enjoyment.

The Verge

Yacht Club Games plans to release a post-launch update that introduces the warp randomizer, expanding the variety of world-state permutations. Aside from this addition, the studio has indicated no intention to develop further campaigns for Mina the Hollower, leaving extended content creation to the community.

The Verge

• “I have really gotten into randomizers in the fan community over the past few years,” — Sean Velasco, co-founder and director, Yacht Club Games

The Verge

• “Anything that was modifiable, we put it in as a modifier that you could just debug,” — Sean Velasco, co-founder and director, Yacht Club Games

The Verge

• “we just let it ride,” — Sean Velasco, co-founder and director, Yacht Club Games

The Verge

• “Hmmm all of them?” — David D’Angelo, co-founder and programmer, Yacht Club Games

31 hours with the spit-shined Mina the Hollower (and 34 with the four games that came before it)

*All information is drawn from the provided source material.*

The Verge