QCF: Mina the Hollower

The halcyon days of a development house being propped up entirely through the popularity and success of its flagship mascot are long gone, yet Yacht Club Games has managed to do it for a little over twelve years thanks to the charismatic and strong back of the spaded squire, Shovel Knight. After seven games and nearly fifty cameos later, however, Yacht Club has arguably toured the azure star around the block more than Nintendo has with its iconic plumber in that amount of time, and has now set its sights on delivering another larger-than-life world to pour its creative juices into—producing a new hero to support the Yacht Club Games’ masthead.

Following an eight-year development run funded by a million-dollar Kickstarter Campaign, Mina the Hollower is Yacht Club Games’ sophomore release, and another retro-inspired experience that’s engineered around the juxtaposition of multiple gameplay conventions. Like Shovel Knight before it, the Zelda-like, Game Boy Color-minded formula is a zesty melting pot of familiar yet fresh tastes that successfully results in Mina the Hollower delivering a signature flavor in its own right. More importantly, it already feels like the kind of follow-up that proves Yacht Club still knows how to build a standout world around a new hero.

Just because Mina the Hollower is an inventive blend of familiar concepts doesn’t mean it’s good, though, right? I mean, that line of thinking has also led to a slew of disasters like Spaghetti Tacos and whatever the hell that Magnum PI/Murder, She Wrote crossover was. Fortunately, not only does Mina the Hollower deliver a fusion that’s on par with Avacado Toast, it may just be the best damn game to have released in 2026 so far.

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PPR 169

It’s funny how we all used to talk about the summer being the perfect reason to catch up on our backlogs, with the notable drought of marquee game releases until the winter season, when publishers and developers arguably carpet-bomb the quarter with hundreds of game releases aimed at competing for those coveted holiday dollars. Well—that’s not so much the case anymore because the summer is also reserved for some hype-level marketing and promotion towards those aforementioned holiday releases, and we’ve now arrived at the point where players can put their anticipation to the test with interactive previews in the form of public demos they can try out.

While there are sprinkles of shadow-dropped slices of games to pick out from their respective studios, Valve has taken it upon themselves to make a whole-ass spectacle called Next Fest, a limited-time event designed to court studios to publish their demos on their platform so that excitable players can, in turn, download and play them on their platform.

What makes Steam Next Fest so rad is that it helps bring eyes to games both big and small, and as such, Press Pause Radio got around to playing a giant wave of Next Fest demos, and decided “Hey, we should like, talk, about these right?”

So talk they indeed done DID. Join Andrew, George, and Sean as they talk about flavored Seltzer water, Echoes of Aincrad, Magical Blush, Pizza Kidd, the Steam Machine price reveal, ReStory Chill Electronics Repairs, Normal Golf Game, Duskfade, The United States Tick epidemic, and so much more! We've published every demo discussed on the show in our show notes, with links to their respective store pages so you can check them out. So please, go ham on that install button as we present you with another episode of Press Pause Radio!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 42-GAMEZAP-4 (424-263-9274)‬, and be sure to stop by at our Forums if you haven’t already registered and post your thoughts about the show. Finally, make sure to rate and subscribe to us on iTunes and YouTube, follow us on our Twitch page and BlueSky, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group! This episode has been brought to you by our new friends at the SuperPod Network, be sure to check out all the other rad podcasts they host for Video Games and more! Finally, this episode was also brought to you by our new sponser, Dubby, a new, jitterless, friendlier energy drink made from a formula that contains a slew of vitamins, amino acids and nootropics including their patented NeuroFactor®. Click on the link listed or enter "PRESSPAUSERADIO" and get 10% off of your order right meow!

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PPR Presents Limelight: Mina the Hollower Weekend

While we strive to never play favorites at Press Pause Radio, we would be outright liars if we didn’t cop to the fact that Yacht Club games is one of our favorite independent game studios out there, so yeah—you could say we’re a little excited about Mina the Hollower going gold, and now that it’s here, it’s an experience that’s so much more than we could have ever hoped for.

Our review of Mina the Hollower will hopefully be out in the next week or so as we prep our pieces, videos, and podcast to start the month of June off, and we couldn’t think of a better stone to kill two GameBoy Color-inspired bats with than to stream the new release from Yacht Club for y’all this weekend!

Be sure to tune in to our Twitch or YouTube  at 7:45 PM PST on 05/29/2026, and again at 6:30 PM PST on 05/30/2026, to watch what may already be the biggest contender for the Golden Zonkies’ 2026 Game of Year award! You can check out the streams here or directly on our Twitch and YouTube channels, and vibe along with us as we work towards ushering in a new age of Limelight for y'all!

Late to the Party: Mega Cat Studios Retro Game Trio!

Let's be real: there's a lot to loathe about 2026, what with our economic state of affairs, the increasingly robust perversion of the internet via AI slop and constantly shifting weather patterns. Hell, we can't even find solace in the little things anymore, like going down to the store and just buying a damn pack of Pokemon cards (but that's another feature for another time).

That being said, we can at least count on something: there are still plenty of stellar studios that continue to release retro-inspired classics. (And with physical copies to boot – literally!)

 Given the tumultuous curveballs we keep seeing through this already shifty year, Press Pause Radio (or myself, more specifically) is a bit late to the party on some of the early year releases from Mega Cat Studios. So join us as we dive into peeks at Plyuk and Old Towers for the NES, in addition to Super Fanger for the SNES.

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QCF: CAIRN

We all have a vision in our heads of something that we love doing beyond any reproach. A passion that we put on a pedestal, and fabricate this perfect version of what we aspire it to be, and when that drive reaches a fever point, no one else will ever understand your vision. Not family, not friends, and not even colleagues who share your love of the avocation at hand. Everything else starts to lose meaning—or worse yet—become a hindrance between you and the focus you need to lock the hell in for to achieve the goal at large.

Even though we’re all capable of that intense dedication to something we love, there’s a big gulf between someone striving to be the world’s best bowler and someone trying to be the first Alpinist to reach the top of the world’s only unclimbable mountain. A new survival-action title from the same folks who brought us Furi, in CAIRN, from The Game Bakers, aims to challenge the limits of human tenacity, both through the lens of Aava and the personal state of mind she finds herself in, and the symbiotic level of perseverance that players will need to guide her to the peak.

As simple as that all sounds, it’s the execution of CAIRN’s buildup and turbulent framing of Aava’s quest to surmount Mount Kami that sets it apart as an experience that’s unlike anything I’ve played before it—an experience that constantly teeters between being a tale of inspiration and a cautionary tale of self-destruction.

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PPR Presents The Golden Zonkies: Class of 2025

Now that 2025 has finished swirling its nasty self into the shower drain of time, we’re ready to jump into the  "Düo-Dusé" fresh! (yeah, George is still calling it that) and begin our annual “Game of the Year” feature for 2025, the Golden Zonkies! We’re not going to lie—the selection was vast this year, and there was a LOT to choose from,  especially during a year where brand new hardware dropped from Nintendo! Still, I think we came away with some choice picks, and we hope you enjoy the deliberation as we present to you, the Golden Zonkies: Class of 2025.

In case y’all don’t remember the updated flow from the last couple of years, we have changed up our format and have done away with categories!  Now, bear in mind that we’re still giving our prestigious mark of excellence, a Golden Zonkey, to the games that are deserving of recognition, but we’re not doing so by a respective genre or category. Instead, we will be giving them out in a personal list format by each of us in the podcast, and we’ll be spending time discussing why we picked the titles we did within a countdown of three.

Also, the biggest change to the process is that we will no longer limit nominations to the titles that were released that same year, but instead, games that we had the opportunity to play that year, because honestly, it gave a somewhat stressful deliberation process a much-needed shot of levity for us to play with for Golden Zonkies!

 Normally, we would have done a roundtable of games that were worth a quick mention from the year, but we decided to mention them in passing instead, along with some not-so-honorable-mentions (we also chose a few more not mentioned on the show to include in the post!) We will then award the “Golden Zonkey of The Year” in a unanimous vote that was similar to the previous format, and conclude the show from there.

With that being said, thanks again for tuning into our Game of the Year special, and for just listening, watching, or reading anything done by us. We’re hoping to make 2025 a banner year for Press Pause Radio, so stick around and enjoy!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 42-GAMEZAP-4 (424-263-9274)‬, and be sure to stop by at our Forums if you haven’t already registered and post your thoughts about the show. Finally, make sure to rate and subscribe to us on iTunes and YouTube, follow us on our Twitch page and BlueSky, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

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PPR Presents Limelight: Baby Steps

God dammit y’all, he’s doing it—George is going to stream Baby Steps.

After all of the hype, the memes, and the ongoing discourse over its themes of overcoming Toxic Masculinity, the same people who brought us Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy have unleashed whole brain-breaking, finger-numbing exercise of rigor and patience that’ll test every fiber of your being, or at least George's anyway.

Be sure to tune in to our Twitch or YouTube at 7:00 PM PST on 01/15/2026 to watch Nathan stumble around like a drunken Bambi! You can check out the streams here or directly on our Twitch and YouTube channels, and vibe along with us as we work towards ushering in a new age of Limelight for y'all!

PPR Presents Play Play: Gladmort Press Kit Demo

2025 sure has been a banger year for the Neo•Geo, like—we’ve got Final Vendetta, Vengeance Hunters, and the game in our latest entry of Play Play: Gladmort, by Chipsonsteroids and Pixel Heart.

George had the opportunity to check out a slice of this action title for SNK’s black-and-gold wonder, courtesy of a demo provided by the developer, where he played it with original hardware via the NeoSD Flashcart from Teraonion. Check out what he has to say about it, and all of the ways you can scope out this game now, regardless of whether or not you have what may be the most expensive retro console to own.