iPhone Review: Whac-A-Mole
Developer/Publisher: Kiloo
Price: $1.99
Acquired: Review Copy Provided
Verdict: My four year old loved it, but like me, lost interest after two or three waves. If you MUST have officially licensed Whac-A-Mole, this is your game.
Pros: Official Whac-A-Mole on iPhone/Touch. Four game types provide some variety.
Cons: Uninspired graphics. Repetitive gameplay. Actual ‘whacking’ surface uses less than half the touchscreen. Power ups like the spiked club and baseball bat are gratuitously violent: they contribute little to gameplay mechanics.

Large screen, small whacking area.

Officially licensed Whac-A-Mole has come to the iPhone/Touch: if you’ve been waiting, you’re in luck.

The actual whacking surface takes up less than half of the touch screen: the top portion of the screen represents the top part of an arcade machine, and doubles as the playing surface for the three mini-games that can occur during play. There are two types of moles, those with red hard hats (which take one tap to bonk down) and those with gray armored hard hats. Gray hat moles take two whacks.

The game offers three difficulty levels and four modes of gameplay: Classic, Cork, Follow the Leader, and Master Mind. Play is timed – when the timer reaches zero, the game is over. You can add time by whacking the creatively titled “time” power up. Other power ups include a baseball bat and “power mallet” that allows you to whack gray helmeted moles with one whack instead of two.

One of Whac-A-Mole's three mini-games.

Classic is the Whac-A-Mole you’d expect, but along the way you can play three different mini games: touch the middle of a bar exactly as the moving pointer is over it, weave a car in and out of oncoming traffic, and move a mole past three obstacles. These sound far more engaging than they actually are.

Cork lets you plug holes. If that doesn’t get you all excited, then perhaps Follow the Leader is for you: repeat an increasingly long sequence of mole appearances. In Master Mind you have to figure out what kind of mole is the “right” mole for each hole – red helmet or gray. Zoo wee mama, where are my heart pills?

In the interest of full disclosure, I am probably biased: to me, at LEAST half the fun of real life Whac-A-Mole is pounding physical objects with a stick. So when translated for touch screens, I just don’t get the same satisfaction out of the mole whacking experience. This isn’t unique to the iPhone/Touch version, I don’t care for Whac-A-Mole on DS, either.

Whac-A-Mole is rated “9+ for infrequent/mild cartoon or fantasy violence,” but I cannot imagine anyone nine years old enjoying this game or even playing it more than about thirty seconds. For free, nab it, but after shelling out $1.99, I feel like Johnny the paperboy in Better Off Dead, “I want my two dollars.”