🦔 Whack-a-Mole

How to play

Nine holes are laid out in a three by three grid and an animal pops out of one of them at a time. Hit it before it drops back down. A new one appears every 800 milliseconds whether or not you caught the last, and the round lasts 30 seconds, tracked by the countdown and the draining bar above the grid.

• Click a hole — swings at whatever is in it. Only a hole with an animal currently up counts; clicking an empty one does nothing at all.
• Start button — begins a 30-second round, and restarts it at any time. The label changes to Play Again once the clock runs out.

Scoring

Every successful hit is worth 10 points, and there is no penalty for a miss or for clicking an empty hole. The only limit is time. Animals also get harder to catch as you score: each one stays visible for 1000 milliseconds minus 2 milliseconds per point, down to a floor of 500. At 100 points they are already showing for only 800 milliseconds. The Best readout keeps the highest total of your session.

Tips

• Only one hole is ever active, so watch the whole grid rather than any particular corner. Peripheral vision beats hunting.
• Keep the pointer near the centre of the grid between hits. Every hole is then about the same distance away.
• Missing costs nothing but the time you spend on it. If an animal is already sinking, move to where the next one will appear instead.
• The pop-up interval stays at 800 milliseconds all round; only the time each animal stays up shrinks. Late in a high-scoring round you have to hit almost immediately.

Frequently asked questions