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Mina The Hollower

Platform(s): Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X
Genre: Action/Adventure
Developer: Yacht Club Games
Release Date: Dec. 2023

About Rainier

PC gamer, WorthPlaying EIC, globe-trotting couch potato, patriot, '80s headbanger, movie watcher, music lover, foodie and man in black -- squirrel!

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'Mina The Hollower' Reveals Guest Composer Yuzo Koshiro, Live Stream Tomorrow

by Rainier on March 1, 2022 @ 4:19 p.m. PST

Mina The Hollower is a bone-chilling, action-adventure featuring classic gameplay with an 8-bit aesthetic in the style of the Game Boy Color but refined for the modern era.

You play as Mina, a whip-wielding Hollower and visionary inventor. She receives a troubling letter from Baron Lionel, her longtime patron and the overseer of Tenebrous Isle. Mina’s advances in Spark Technology brought power to the Isle for the first time many years ago, ushering in newfound prosperity for its citizens. But now, the Spark Generators have gone out, and foul play is suspected.

You will use a myriad of weapons and oddball trinkets to vanquish the monsters thwarting Mina’s objective. Along the way, you’ll unearth the secret horrors of Tenebrous Isle.

The Hollowers are a guild dedicated to studying the earth and its latent resources. By using their special technique, Hollowing, they can move faster underground than above it! Hollowers have worked for ages to analyze and amplify secrets buried beneath the surface. Mina’s Spark technology is her latest contribution to the Hollowing arts.

Some time ago ago, Spark technology transformed Tenebrous Isle from a backwater nowhere into a bustling and industrious place. Under the guidance of Baron Lionel, the Spark Generators were installed, transforming everyone’s lives nearly overnight. But now, the prosperity of Tenebrous Isle is threatened. The sparks have gone out of the generators, and a creeping evil is growing closer to the heart of the island’s capital city Ossex, the only area still running at full capacity. 

Moreover, the Spark Generators were constructed remotely like spokes around the island, making their locales fraught with danger. Mina will have to undergo a whirlwind tour of the island’s exotic biomes in order to restore them all.


Yacht Club Games announced that legendary video game composer, Yuzo Koshiro, will be a guest composer for their brand new Kickstarter game, Mina the Hollower.

Koshiro has contributed to iconic games going back 30+ years. Some of his musical contributions include: 

Super Smash Bros., Shenmue, The Revenge of Shinobi, Streets of Rage, Etrian Odyssey, Castlevania, and much much more.

 “I am very happy to announce that I am working with Yacht Club Games and Mina the Hollower’s main composer, Jake Kaufman, on songs for the game’s soundtrack. This exciting collaboration is thanks to all the backers of Mina the Hollower and the fans of my work as well. Thank you everyone,!” said game composer Yuzo Koshiro.

With only 48 hours left of their Kickstarter campaign, Yacht Club Games has one more spectacle under their sleeve!

Yacht Club Games announced their 24 hour Twitch Live Stream Event spectacular! This event will be chock-full of gamplaying, in-depth Q &A, and special guests.

Industry friends from studios such as Playtonic Games, Nitrome, Sabotage Studio, Gears for Breakfast, Brace Yourself Games, Inti Creates, and more will all be attending in support of the Kickstarter’s last hurrah! The 24 hour Twitch Live Stream Event will begin on March 2nd at 3pm PT on their Twitch channel!

Smooth 60fps action combat, a world full of mystery and horror, and top-down adventuring combine in a mix that may remind you of classic titles like Castlevania, The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, or even Bloodborne. Whip foes, burrow through the ground, and explore a pixel-perfect world in Mina the Hollower, a brand new game from the developers who brought you Shovel Knight!

Mina the Hollower is inspired by Gothic Horror, a literary genre popularized in the late 1700’s. Known for its macabre and morbid tone, the genre’s stories often focused on a horrific descent from normality into an unknown world.

You won’t want to miss this harrowing, yet heartwarming tale!


Are you ready to level up? Mina the Hollower features an experience point and level-up system (a first for Yacht Club Games!).  Here's how it works: As you defeat foes throughout the world, you’ll earn Bones. You’ll also find Bones hidden in chests, and all around the world. The Bones are your money, but they are also your experience. Beware, there will be ways to lose your Bones! We’ll detail those mechanics in a future update.

Once you get enough Bones, you "Bone Up" to the next level! You can Bone Up on your Attack, Defense, Sidearms, or create Bonestone as currency to spend later. Every time you Bone Up, that category becomes more expensive. Should you build your character evenly, or put all your eggs in one basket? If you take too many risks, you could lose your Bones...

What exactly does it mean to be a next-gen Game Boy Color game?

  •  Compact Resolution - Game Boy’s screen resolution was a tiny 160x144. Mina’s is 256x144, essentially the same screen real estate, but widescreen. This small resolution (smaller than Shovel Knight!) gives a close-up view at the expense of screen real estate. Each pixel is very impactful!
  •  Finite Color - Art assets in Mina the Hollower all conform to the Game Boy Color's palette restrictions, limiting sprites to only 4 colors per 8x8 pixel tile. That even includes black and transparency!
  • Focused Tech - Mina features sprite art with no 3D, scaling, or rotation, just like the classic 8-bit handhelds. Instead, we use a lifetime’s worth of 2D wizardry knowhow to bring the world to life.

The "Expanded NES" music and sound effects in Shovel Knight were all made using the free program, FamiTracker, and they can be played back on a real hardware console. For Mina the Hollower, audio recluse Jake Kaufman is imagining that the souped-up fantasy Game Boy supported extra sound chips of its own, and has turned to the MSX home computer and its beloved Konami SCC expansion to capture the lush, haunting sound of this chip mashup.

Mina the Hollower is in development for Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and PC, currently scheduled for Dec. 2023.


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