aka: Mogurania, Mole Mania: Buddel Dich durch!, Mole Mania: You'll dig Mole Mania!
Moby ID: 20550
- Overview
- Credits
- Reviews
- Covers
- Screenshots
- Videos
- Promos
- Trivia
- Specs
- Releases
- Patches
- Prices
- Forum
- Contribute
- Released
- July 21, 1996 on Game Boy
- Credits
- 20 people
- Releases by Date (by platform)
-
- 1996 (Game Boy)
- 2012 (Nintendo 3DS)
- Publishers
-
- Nintendo Co., Ltd.
- Nintendo of America Inc.
- Nintendo of Europe GmbH
- Nintendo of Korea Co., Ltd.
- Developers
-
- Nintendo EAD
- Pax Softnica
- Moby Score
-
7.7
#5,086 of 25.6K - Critics
- 81% (7)
- Players
- (11)
- Collected By
- 27 players
- Genre
- Action
- Perspective
- Top-down
- Visual
- Fixed / flip-screen
- Gameplay
- Arcade
Puzzle elements
Game Boy Specs
- ESRB Rating
- Kids to Adults
- Number of Players Supported
- 1-2 Players [ view all 6 specs ]
Description official descriptions
Muddy Mole's wife and seven kids have been kidnapped by the evil farmer, Jinbei! It's up to you to help Muddy solve the many puzzles of Jinbei Land. Snatch all of Jinbei's cabbages in every level, and if you get stuck, dig underground and create your own secret underground paths. A word of warning, however - Jinbei has got his best goons guarding your family, so you'd better watch out!
Mole Mania plays from an overhead perspective. Although in each room you have to destroy all the foes to progress, the game is much more puzzle-oriented than it is towards action. It is quite common in later levels to get yourself 'stuck', which can be fixed by leaving and returning to the screen to reset the puzzle. One of the game's clever 'hooks' is that players can dig underground in each stage to find a completely different map than they do above ground, which can be used to get through otherwise impassable terrain.
The game also features a two player mode, where one player is Muddy, and the other is Jinbei. Muddy must swipe as many cabbages as possible, and Jinbei must stop him. At the end of the round, players swap roles, and then the player who got the most cabbages wins.
Spellings
- モグラーニャ - Japanese Spelling
Groups +
- Animals: Moles
Screenshots
Promos
Credits (Game Boy version)
20 People (12 developers, 8 thanks)
| Executive Producer |
|
| Producer |
|
| Director |
|
| Coordinator |
|
| Programmers |
|
| Designers |
|
| Sound Composition |
|
| Screen Text |
|
| English Translation |
|
| Special Thanks |
|
Reviews
Critics
Average score: 81% (based on 7 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 11 ratings with 1 reviews)
A unique puzzle game worthy of your time.
The Good
The biggest draw of this game is that many of the puzzles have multiple solutions, and not just the "multiple variants of a single solution" kind. In this game, it is perfectly possible to finish a puzzle, and have a piece of tubing, or a barrel (or even half the field in a couple puzzles) left untouched. While this may not sound like much, it makes the puzzles feel much more natural, as opposed to the "every piece used, perfect solution plotted, possible to complete in exactly N moves" of basically every single other puzzle game ever created.
The innovation of having surface and underground levels works, by the way. You must keep an eye on both levels when planning a solution, and most of the puzzles would be much more boring without that second level.
Finally, you are able to skip around puzzles that you get stuck on, by either using an item, or by going to one of the other 7 levels. Nice touch.
The Bad
First, the bonus sections. (In these, you run around trying to avoid a farmer while dropping cabbages down holes. There is a time limit.) These seemed quite out of place, considering the puzzle-oriented nature of the game. More importantly, they are significantly more difficult than the rest of the game, turning them from what could have been a welcome diversion to an annoyance. While they do not need to be completed to finish the game, they are needed for a 100% rating.
Somewhat less of an issue is the placement of underground enemies in the later levels. As you can't actually see underground at the start of each puzzle, there is a possibility of unfairly running into an enemy you couldn't see. While this just requires a quick restart of the puzzle, it is still irritating.
The Bottom Line
If you like puzzle games, but want something a bit different, this is the game for you. There's plenty of puzzles, and the concept is interesting.
Game Boy · by qwertyuiop (62931) · 2007
Analytics
MobyPro Early Access
Upgrade to MobyPro to view research rankings and price history! (when applicable)
Related Games
Wanted! Monty Mole
Released 1984 on Commodore 64
Whack A Mole
Released 2001 on Windows, Browser
King of the Cabbage World
Released 2003 on J2ME
Pipe Mania
Released 2008 on PlayStation 2, Windows, Nintendo DS...
Mania Challenge
Released 1986 on Arcade, Atari 7800, 2019 on Antstream
Soccer Mania
Released 2002 on Windows, PlayStation 2
Soccer Mania
Released 2002 on Game Boy Advance
Released 2007 on Windows
Word Search Mania
Released 1999 on Windows
Identifiers +
- MobyGames ID: 20550 [ Please login / register to view all identifiers ]
Contribute
Are you familiar with this game? Help document and preserve this entry in video game history! If your contribution is approved, you will earn points and be credited as a contributor.
- Ad Blurb (+1 point)
- Alternate Title (+1 point)
- Correction (+1 point)
- Critic Review (+½ point)
- Group (+¼ point)
- Product Code (+¼ point)
- Related Site (+1 point)
- Release info (+1 point)
- Relation (+½ point)
- Tech Spec (+1 point)
- Trivia (+1 point)
- Video (+1 point)
Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Ben K.
Nintendo 3DS added by CrankyStorming.
Additional contributors: chirinea, gamewarrior, formercontrib.
Game added January 4, 2006. Last modified November 9, 2024.
