Games like Mina the Hollower
By Chang · Updated July 2026
Mina the Hollower is Yacht Club Games' love letter to Game Boy Color action-adventure — top-down, gothic, brutally tight. Below are five games that share its DNA: the retro-modern feel, top-down Zelda lineage, or the punishing-but-fair combat. Ranked by overlap, with a clear note on what each one trades off.
At a glance
| Game | vs Mina the Hollower | Year | Platforms | Genres |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shovel Knight Yacht Club Games | 88 | 2014 | PC, macOS, Switch, PS5, Xbox | action, platformer, retro |
| The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening Grezzo / Nintendo | 85 | 2019 | Switch | action-adventure, top-down |
| Unsighted Studio Pixel Punk | 82 | 2021 | PC, Switch, PS4, Xbox | action-adventure, metroidvania, top-down |
| Hollow Knight Team Cherry | 75 | 2017 | PC, macOS, Switch, PS5, Xbox | metroidvania, action, platformer |
| Blasphemous The Game Kitchen | 70 | 2019 | PC, macOS, Switch, PS5, Xbox | metroidvania, action, platformer |
The details
Same studio. The same obsessive love for 8-bit fundamentals — tight controls, generous level design, every screen handcrafted.
Side-scrolling platformer instead of top-down. Friendlier difficulty. NES-style 8-bit palette instead of Mina's Game Boy Color tones.
- 8-bit
- tight controls
- retro-modern
- platformer
- boss-driven
The template Mina is openly riffing on. Top-down exploration, secrets in every screen, weird and lovable NPCs, equipment-gated puzzles.
Far gentler difficulty. No gothic horror — dreamlike whimsy instead. Switch-exclusive, which limits affiliate options.
- top-down
- puzzle-light
- exploration
- tight controls
- atmospheric
Top-down, 16-bit-styled action game with the same crunchy combat satisfaction and metroidvania-shaped exploration.
Real-time countdown timers on every NPC create dread Mina doesn't have. Sci-fi setting, not gothic. Pixel-art rather than Game Boy Color.
- pixel-art
- top-down
- challenging combat
- interconnected map
- time pressure
Wildly different perspective, but the same fingerprint: hand-crafted world, melancholic mood, exploration that rewards stubbornness, bosses that teach you.
Side-scrolling metroidvania instead of top-down adventure. Hand-drawn instead of pixel-art. Much larger scope.
- hand-drawn
- interconnected map
- challenging combat
- atmospheric
- exploration
- melancholic
Pixel-art gothic action with weighty combat and atmospheric dread. If the macabre side of Mina is what hooked you, this leans all the way in.
Side-scrolling metroidvania instead of top-down. Tone is religious horror, not gothic adventure. Slower and more deliberate combat.
- pixel-art
- gothic
- challenging combat
- atmospheric
- boss-driven
- gruesome