Mina the Hollower Is Bigger Than All of Shovel Knight Combined

Six years of development. More content than five Shovel Knight campaigns combined. Over 25 bosses. 60 trinkets. A full level-up system and New Game Plus. Mina the Hollower is the most ambitious project Yacht Club Games has ever attempted, and it is finally almost here.

During the February 12 PlayStation State of Play, Yacht Club revealed a new trailer and confirmed a spring 2026 release window for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, Switch 2, and PC via Steam. A limited-time PS5 demo launched the same day.

What Is Mina the Hollower?

Mina the Hollower is a top-down action adventure game built in the style of Game Boy Color classics like The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, but with the gothic atmosphere and combat depth of Castlevania. You play as Mina, a renowned Hollower (a specialist in underground exploration), on a mission to save the cursed island of Tenebrous Isle.

The core mechanic is burrowing. Mina can dig beneath the ground to dodge attacks, navigate hazards, and ambush enemies from below. Combined with her whip and a deep arsenal of sidearms and trinkets, the combat system rewards experimentation and build variety.

Bigger Than All of Shovel Knight

Here is the number that matters: Mina the Hollower contains more total screens than the entirety of Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove. For context, Treasure Trove is not one game. It is a collection of five campaigns: Shovel of Hope, Plague of Shadows, Specter of Torment, King of Cards (which includes a full deck-building card game), and Showdown. That is a massive amount of content.

Mina’s world spans dozens of distinct regions, all densely interconnected. Your main quest sends you to restore six failing Spark Generators, each guarded by a ferocious boss and located far from the relative safety of Ossex, the island’s last functioning zone. Between those major objectives, the game is packed with optional areas, secrets, and challenges.

The numbers: 25+ bosses and mini-bosses, 60 trinkets to discover, a full weapon upgrade system, stat-based leveling, New Game Plus, and hundreds of gameplay modifiers. Yacht Club estimates over 20 hours of adventure for a standard playthrough.

Six Years in the Making

Mina the Hollower was funded through Kickstarter in early 2022 and was originally scheduled for an October 31, 2025 launch. Yacht Club delayed it shortly before release to apply final polish and balancing.

Director Sean Velasco addressed the long development cycle directly: “We spent many years carefully building Mina the Hollower. It took longer than we expected and demanded everything from our team, but we kept refining it until it felt right.”

That patience has a track record. Shovel Knight itself went through a lengthy development before becoming one of the most acclaimed indie platformers of the 2010s. Yacht Club does not rush.

The PS5 Demo

A limited-time PS5 demo is available now through February 26. It covers the opening of the game through the first major boss fight. The download is only 277 MB. Progress carries over to the full game at launch, so there is no reason to skip it.

The Steam demo page already has Very Positive reviews, with 92% of 483 ratings positive. Players are praising the tight controls, the burrowing mechanic, and the visual style that manages to feel both retro and modern.

Why It Matters

Yacht Club Games proved with Shovel Knight that a tiny studio could build a game worthy of standing alongside the classics it was inspired by. Mina the Hollower is their attempt to do it again with a completely different genre and a far more ambitious scope.

For fans of Hollow Knight, Silksong, or the growing wave of indie metroidvanias, Mina the Hollower is one of the most important releases of 2026. The pedigree is there. The demo reviews confirm the quality. Now we just need the final release date.

Wishlist Mina the Hollower on Steam.