In the late ‘90s, as I was starting to dig my teeth into the Game Boy library, there were two games I constantly saw stacked up in bargain bins and on clearance sales: Wave Race and Mole Mania. Wave Race was a best seller with an even better-known sequel on the N64, but Mole Mania remained obscure.
It’s too bad. Everything about Mole Mania exudes that Nintendo charm—the artwork, the graphics, the music, the controls, and the design. Everything.
Mole Mania was developed by Nintendo EAD and Pax Softnica, who provided developmental support for a lot of Famicom and Famicom Disc System games like Shin Onigashima (The two companies also happened to develop the original Wave Race).
The main character Muddy Mole was created with a certain degree of input from Shigeru Miyamoto. Tired of his garden being raided by a horde of moles, the farmer Jinbe takes his revenge on Muddy Mole by kidnapping his family. Muddy must now travel through the eight worlds of Jinbe Land to rescue them!
Mole Mania (or Moguranya in Japan) is an action-adventure puzzle game that takes many cues from the Eggerland/Lolo series. But the game possesses a better sense of fluidity and a subterranean twist than other titles in the genre. The top-down action is very Zelda-like, but rather than navigating dungeons you must clear screens. On almost every screen, the objective is to navigate a bowling ball to destroy cement-like blocks that barricade the next screen. Muddy can dive underground, so sometimes you need to alternate between the surface and underground to get through a screen.
The game starts off simple but becomes increasingly complex. World 1 holds your hand during the early sections, but after the first boss fight, the game becomes tricky and intricate. It’s all about puzzle-solving, good reflexes, and understanding enemy patterns. To counter the baddies of Jinbe Land, Muddy fights back with cabbages and bowling balls.
Mole Mania has full Super Game Boy support, with a neat mole-theme template and a beautiful color palette when you play it on your Super Famicom/Super NES.
If you’re a lover of 2D-action and cerebral puzzles, dig up Mole Mania on 3DS Virtual Console or be on the lookout for it at a retro games store! It has that trademark Nintendo charm and needs more love.
