Review Roundup: Mina the Hollower — What Critics Are Saying
Yacht Club Games' pixel-art adventure has tied Forza Horizon 6 for the top Metacritic score among 2026's early releases. Here is why critics rate it.
Transparency note: HotGameNews staff have not played Mina the Hollower. This is a roundup of published reviews and aggregate scores, not our own hands-on review.
The scores. Mina the Hollower from Yacht Club Games launched May 29, 2026 across PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2. On Metacritic, the PC version holds a Metascore of 90 (“Universal Acclaim”) based on 69 critic reviews: 65 positive, 4 mixed and none negative. That put it level with Forza Horizon 6 at the top of Metacritic’s midyear list of 2026’s best-reviewed games. OpenCritic’s 2026 hall-of-fame list, which tracks 90-plus games, shows it at 91. The user score is 8.1 out of 10 from 465 ratings.
What critics love. The praise is for how the game remixes familiar ideas into something distinct. Per Metacritic’s excerpts, The Guardian called it “a game that could only have been made today,” offering “20 hours’ worth of fun” with nostalgic charm. GamesRadar+ called it “one of the best indie games” its reviewer had played, while acknowledging it “borrows familiar ideas from Zelda, Dark Souls, and a million others.” SpazioGames said it “takes the best of Zelda, Castlevania and the Soulslike genre” while keeping its own identity.
The complaints. Metacritic’s summary of player and critic feedback points to a few consistent frictions: difficulty spikes, the absence of an in-game map that makes navigation tedious, and combat that some players found awkward. Player opinion is more divided than critic opinion, with 15 percent of user ratings mixed and 11 percent negative, though other players are effusive, with one calling it potentially “the best indie game of all time.”
Why it matters. Very few games reached a 90 on Metacritic in the first half of 2026, and this is one of them. It is a strong signal that critics are rewarding ambitious, genre-blending independent work.
The bottom line. Critics call it a love letter to Zelda, Castlevania and Soulslikes that is confident enough to stand on its own. If you dislike being left to find your own way without a map, check the player feedback before you buy.
Scores reflect Metacritic and OpenCritic at time of writing and can change.