Signing you in

That’s not a real institution of higher learning, but it’s the best way I can explain much of the past several weeks as I prepared to play Mina by playing the four biggest game previously made by studio Yacht Club Games.

I had expected Mina the Hollower, in development for six years for PC and consoles, to potentially be something special.

A demo I tried in March had felt great. Mina the Hollower had an old-school premise: a singular move for its hero that felt so good to control and so rich with possibilities that, in the hands of skilled designers, it could be riffed on in various ways for the length of a full game.

Mina’s core maneuver, her hollowing, made her sort of an upside down Super Mario. Nintendo’s hero jumps through the air, discovering power-ups at the apex of his jump by bonking overhead blocks, then defeating enemies by landing on them.

Mina essentially jumps into the ground, digging (“hollowing”) into the earth to fetch buried treasure, then burrows for a short distance to emerge on the other side of a wall that hides treasure or an enemy that needs some battering.

On May 6, 21 days before the writing of this review, I checked with Yacht Club Games co-founder and programmer David D’Angelo, to ask which of the studio’s games I should play to truly appreciate the new one’s design.

“Starting with Shovel Knight definitely is helpful,” he continued, referring to Yacht Club’s first game. He gave me a link to a spreadsheet of over 400 cheat codes that could help me out, if I found the game too tough.1

“Most folks say Specter of Torment is the least difficult and quickest to finish in terms of playtime, and [it] refines much of Shovel Knight,” he told me. “King of Cards is a big celebration of everything we did in [the Shovel Knight compilation] Treasure Trove— might work for you better if you’re a fan of shorter, Mario-style courses. And it’s probably the closest to Mina in terms of polish.”

So that was that. Four games, none of which were required. Mina is a whole new game in a whole new world, best I can tell. I’d barely played that first Shovel Knight before and never the other three.

I just thought it’d help. It did. It turns out that playing a game studios major works before their latest is very illuminating.

That\u2019s not a real institution of higher learning, but it\u2019s the best way I can explain much of the past several weeks as I prepared to play Mina by playing the four biggest game previously made by studio Yacht Club Games.

Mina\u2019s core maneuver, her hollowing, made her sort of an upside down Super Mario. Nintendo\u2019s hero jumps through the air, discovering power-ups at the apex of his jump by bonking overhead blocks, then defeating enemies by landing on them.

Mina essentially jumps into the ground, digging (\u201Chollowing\u201D) into the earth to fetch buried treasure, then burrows for a short distance to emerge on the other side of a wall that hides treasure or an enemy that needs some battering.

On May 6, 21 days before the writing of this review, I checked with Yacht Club Games co-founder and programmer David D\u2019Angelo, to ask which of the studio\u2019s games I should play to truly appreciate the new one\u2019s design.

\u201CStarting with Shovel Knight definitely is helpful,\u201D he continued, referring to Yacht Club\u2019s first game. He gave me a link to a spreadsheet of over 400 cheat codes that could help me out, if I found the game too tough.1

\u201CMost folks say Specter of Torment is the least difficult and quickest to finish in terms of playtime, and [it] refines much of Shovel Knight,\u201D he told me. \u201CKing of Cards is a big celebration of everything we did in [the Shovel Knight compilation] Treasure Trove\u2014 might work for you better if you\u2019re a fan of shorter, Mario-style courses. And it\u2019s probably the closest to Mina in terms of polish.\u201D

So that was that. Four games, none of which were required. Mina is a whole new game in a whole new world, best I can tell. I\u2019d barely played that first Shovel Knight before and never the other three.

I just thought it\u2019d help. It did. It turns out that playing a game studios major works before their latest is very illuminating.