Whack-a-Mole

Whack-a-Mole is the timed-reaction arcade classic, rebuilt for the browser. Moles pop up out of a grid of holes one after another, each one staying up for only a moment. Tap a mole while it's up to score a hit · land at least the target number of hits before the round timer runs out and you win.

The pop-up schedule is fixed, not random. Which hole a mole appears in, when it appears, and how long it stays are all generated from the round seed · so two players handed the same code play exactly the same pattern, tick for tick. The skill is pure attention and reaction speed: keep your eyes moving across the whole grid and your tap finger quick.

What it trains. Three reflex bundles at once: peripheral attention (you can't stare at one hole · the mole is somewhere else), reaction time (each mole has a short window), and the inhibition of false starts (tapping an empty hole costs you nothing, but it disrupts the visual scan that finds the next mole). The same skills underpin driving, ball sports, and the live-feedback elements of any rhythm game.

Difficulty speeds it up; level speeds it up more. Easy rounds use a small grid, leave each mole up for a good while, and ask for a modest share of hits. Harder rounds grow the grid, shorten each mole's window, tighten the gap between pop-ups, and raise the hit target · and higher labyrinth levels squeeze the timings tighter still. A high-level expert round feels like an arcade.

Part of the PlayMemorize family of brain-training games. Runs entirely in your browser, works offline as a Progressive Web App.