How to play
Tap the brown mole as it appears. You have 30 seconds.
About Whack a Mole
Whack a Mole is the fairground favourite in its simplest form. Nine holes, one mole, thirty seconds. The mole pops up in a hole, you tap it, it pops up somewhere else. Count how many you can hit before the clock runs out.
How to play
The board is a three by three grid of round holes. One of them turns brown: that is the mole. Tap or click it and you score a point, and the mole vanishes until its next appearance. If you are too slow, it moves on by itself.
The mole changes position every three quarters of a second, picking a hole at random. Sometimes that means it shows up in the same hole twice running, which is easy to miss if you were already looking elsewhere. The timer at the top counts down from thirty, and when it hits zero your score is final. Tap once more to play again.
Tapping an empty hole costs nothing. There are no bombs, no decoys and no penalties. It is you against the mole and the clock.
The numbers
Over thirty seconds the mole makes forty appearances, so forty is the highest score anyone can get. Each appearance gives you three quarters of a second. That sounds generous until you try it, because your eyes have to find the mole, your hand has to travel there, and both have to happen before it moves.
Most people score in the low twenties on a first go. Thirty is good. Thirty-five and above means you are hitting nearly everything.
Getting quicker
Rest your finger or pointer over the centre hole between hits. From the middle, every other hole is one short step away. If you leave your hand in a corner, the opposite corner is a long trip and you will arrive late.
Do not stare at one hole. Soften your gaze and take in the whole grid at once, the way you would watch for movement out of the corner of your eye. The change of colour will catch your attention faster than hunting from hole to hole.
On a phone or tablet, try two hands. Give the left thumb the left column, the right thumb the right column, and let whichever is closer take the middle. It halves the distance each hand has to cover.
Once you have hit the mole, do not relax. It will be back in well under a second, possibly right where it just was.
A game for everyone
Whack a Mole needs no reading and no instructions, which makes it a good first game for small children. It is equally good for a quick contest between adults, because thirty seconds is short enough to demand a rematch. Pass the phone round, one turn each, highest score wins.
It is also a useful little test of reactions and hand-eye coordination. If you play a few rounds every day you will probably see your average creep up, which is satisfying in itself.
Play it anywhere
The game runs in your browser on phones, tablets and computers. It is free, there is nothing to download, and a round is over in half a minute. If you like it, try Target Tap and Reflex Test, which test the same quick fingers in slightly different ways.