After multiple delays stretching back to its originally planned October 2025 release, Mina the Hollower from Shovel Knight developer Yacht Club Games finally has a “true final release date.” The top-down action-adventure game launches May 29 for $19.99 on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, Switch 2, and PC. The Yacht Club Games team confirmed the date on social media with a healthy dose of self-aware enthusiasm, telling fans to “prepare yourself for one of the greatest top-down adventures ever to be delivered directly to your soul for less than 20 bucks.”
For anyone who hasn’t been following the project’s lengthy development cycle, Mina the Hollower casts players as the titular Mina, a renowned Hollower sent on a mission to rescue a cursed island. The game leans hard into Game Boy Color-era pixel art, with widescreen visuals and modern animation refinements layered on top. The core loop blends whip-based combat using Mina’s signature Nightstar weapon, a roster of alternate Sidearms with completely different move sets, equippable Trinkets that grant exotic effects, and a burrowing mechanic that lets Mina dig under hazards and monsters or quickly cross gaps while invincible. There’s also a leveling system for build customization, over 25 bosses and mini-bosses, 60 Trinkets to find, and a New Game Plus mode for players who want to dig back in after the credits roll.
Yacht Club Games kicked off Mina the Hollower as a Kickstarter campaign back in February 2022, raising over $1.4 million between Kickstarter and other crowdfunding sources. The game was originally scheduled to launch on Halloween 2025, but got pushed first to a Spring 2026 window and now to its final May 29 date. Director Alec Faulkner started Mina as a side project to sharpen his coding and art skills, and Yacht Club leadership eventually folded it into the studio’s pipeline as a natural follow-up to the Shovel Knight series. The team also recently confirmed that the final game contains more total screens than the entire Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove collection.
The combination of Game Boy Color-style visuals, Castlevania-inspired whip combat, top-down Zelda-like exploration, and a $19.99 price tag gives May another exciting title to look forward to. Yacht Club has earned a lot of goodwill with the Shovel Knight series over the years, and the studio’s commitment to refining retro gameplay for a modern era usually pays off. After six-plus years in development and several false starts on the release date, it’s good to finally have one we can mark on the calendar.
