Mole Mania

About Mole Mania

Mole Mania (1996) is Nintendo's Game Boy puzzle game in which a mole digs above and below ground to steer a heavy black ball through each screen, rescuing his family from a bearded cabbage farmer.

Mole Mania in Depth

On each screen, Muddy Mole must move a black ball to a gate to reach the next. He can push, pull and throw it, and dig into soft ground to travel underground around obstacles. Where to dig is the heart of the puzzles: holes in the wrong places can block his progress, a ball dropped into a hole returns to its starting point, and a bad hole can make reaching the gate impossible, forcing him to leave the screen and come back to try again. Obstacles include moving enemies, pipes, barrels, weights and bosses.

Muddy, called Mogurānya in Japan, is out to rescue his wife and seven children, kidnapped by Jinbe, a cabbage farmer and ruler of Jinbe Land. Muddy must cross Jinbe Land's seven worlds, avoiding enemies, solving puzzles, stealing cabbages and beating each world's boss, freeing his family one by one before facing Jinbe himself. Jinbe has a Mario-like look and build, with red overalls, a green shirt, a full beard hiding his face and a brimmed gardener's hat, and his enemies include dinosaurs and two unnamed "plumber sons".

Making Mole Mania

Nintendo developed and published Mole Mania for the Game Boy, releasing it in Japan on 21 July 1996, North America in February 1997 and Europe in May 1997. Readers of Family Computer Magazine gave it 22.1 out of 30 in a 1998 poll. Nintendo Power's four writers praised its catchy music, challenge, multiplayer and Super Game Boy support but disliked levels that mixed simple and complex puzzles unevenly. Nintendo Magazine System's Dave McComb liked its simple but effective sprites, addictive puzzles, bosses and two-player mode, though he found the sound average, Mega Fun's Ulf Schneider stressed that each level needs careful planning and praised its battery backup, and IGN liked its presentation, non-linear structure and versus mode. Retrospective views have been equally favourable: Nintendo Life liked its crisp visuals, cut-scenes and soundtrack but found digging occasionally frustrating, and Hardcore Gaming 101 called it the result of "smart game developers" taking a simple premise and expanding it "in millions of smart ways". It came to the 3DS Virtual Console in 2012 and Nintendo Classics in 2026.