How to play Whack-a-Mole
Whack-a-Mole is a timed reaction game played on a board of nine holes, three across and three down. Press Start and moles begin popping up out of the holes one at a time, in no fixed order. Tap or click a mole while it is still up and you score a point: the hole flashes green and a +1 jumps above it. Each mole only stays up for a moment before it ducks back down by itself, so the whole game is a loop of noticing which hole has changed and getting there first.
From Lower KS2 upwards, bombs are mixed in with the moles. A bomb is obvious to look at - a instead of a - but it rises out of a hole in exactly the same way, so the difficulty is not spotting it, it is stopping a hand that has already started moving. Hitting a bomb turns the hole red, shows a -2 and takes two points off, though your score never falls below zero. When the clock reaches zero the board freezes and you get your score alongside your best.
Controls
- Tap or click a hole. That is the entire control scheme. Every hole is a button, so a mouse, a trackpad, a finger on a tablet or a pen on an interactive whiteboard all work the same way.
- Press, do not click through. A hole registers the instant you press down rather than when you let go, so a quick stab at the screen always counts.
- Start and Play again are buttons under the board. There are no keyboard shortcuts to teach and nothing to read before a child can begin.
Round length, scoring and difficulty
Your score is one point per mole, minus two for every bomb. The round length is fixed and shown ticking down on the Time pill, and your best score is saved in the browser so a child can chase their own record across sessions without an account.
How hard the round is depends on the working level set for the session, and the difference between the three is much bigger than it first looks:
- KS1 (Years R to 2, ages 5 to 7): a 45-second round with no bombs at all. A new mole appears every 0.7 to 1.4 seconds and stays up for 1.1 to 1.8 seconds, which is long enough to spot it, aim and press without rushing.
- Lower KS2 (Years 3 and 4, ages 7 to 9): 30 seconds, with roughly one pop-up in eight being a bomb. Moles come faster and stay up for 0.7 to 1.4 seconds.
- Upper KS2 (Years 5 and 6, ages 9 to 11): 30 seconds, roughly one pop-up in five is a bomb, and a mole can appear and be gone again in half a second.
Stickers
Whack-a-Mole feeds the site-wide sticker book. Reaching 5, 15 and 30 moles in a single round unlocks Quick Hands, Mole Hunter and Whack Champion. They are awarded the moment the point lands rather than at the end, so a round that finishes badly still keeps whatever was earned on the way through.
Tips for a higher score
- Look at the middle of the board rather than at any one hole. The grid is small enough that a mole anywhere in it will register in your peripheral vision, and hole-by-hole scanning is always too slow.
- Rest your hand over the centre square between hits so no hole is more than one short move away.
- On the bomb levels, take the extra fraction of a second to check what you are aiming at. A bomb costs two points, so one avoided bomb is worth two moles.
- Let a sinking mole go. Once it has started dropping it is gone, and the time spent chasing it is time the next one is up.
- Missing costs nothing at all. Only bombs subtract, so on the KS1 round there is no way to lose points however wildly you tap.
Who Whack-a-Mole is for
The game exercises three things at once: reaction time, visual scanning across a grid, and the impulse control needed to hold a tap back when the target turns out to be a bomb. That last one is the reason it earns its place here rather than being just a fast tapping game - stopping a movement that is already under way is genuinely hard, and it is a skill plenty of children are working on.
Because it needs no reading, no typing and no instructions beyond "press the ones that pop up", it is easy to hand to a child at the start of a session as a warm-up, or at the end as something to work towards. The KS1 setting in particular gives a version with no way to lose points, which suits a learner who finds a penalty discouraging. It runs the same in a 1:1 session in the room as it does over a screen share on a tablet or laptop.
Questions about Whack-a-Mole
Can I turn the bombs off?
Yes. Set the working level to KS1 and no bombs appear at all - every pop-up is a mole worth a point, and the round runs for 45 seconds instead of 30.
Does it need a keyboard?
No. Tapping or clicking a hole is the only control, so it works on a tablet, a laptop trackpad or an interactive whiteboard with no keyboard at all.
What happens if I hit a bomb?
The hole flashes red, a -2 appears and two points come off your score. Your score never drops below zero, so a bad tap cannot put you in the negative.
Is Whack-a-Mole free to play?
Yes. It is free to play in your browser, with no signup, no download and no in-game purchases. Built by a UK SEND tutor with QTS.