Mole Patrol

Moles pop out of their holes faster and faster across a 60-second run. Each mole appears in one of four colors, and you score only by striking it with the matching color. Pick the wrong color and you take a penalty and break your combo, and watch out for the bombs hidden among them.

• Match the mole's color to score; mismatches cost you and snap your streak.
• Chain correct hits to build a combo bonus.
• Never hit a bomb, it's an instant penalty. Speed ramps up as the clock ticks down.

• Desktop: press a color key (R / Y / G / B) while pointing at a hole (number keys 1-9 select holes), or pick a color swatch then click the hole.
• Phone & tablet: tap a color swatch, then tap the hole, fully touch-supported.

• Keep your fingers on the four color keys so you can react the instant a mole appears.
• Protect your combo, a careful correct hit beats a fast wrong one.
• Scan for bombs before you commit; one mistaken bomb tap can wreck a great run.

Mole Patrol is a nod to the whack-a-mole reflex game — not a video game originally but a physical cabinet with a padded mallet, developed in Japan in the mid-1970s as Mogura Taiji and reworked for the American market shortly after, where it became a fixture of arcades and amusement parks.

It survives as a digital form because the underlying problem is a good one: targets appear for a shrinking window in unpredictable places, so the game tests where your attention is rather than how fast your hand is. Adding decoys that must not be hit changes it again, turning pure reaction into a decision made at speed, which is why the idea keeps reappearing inside other games as a minigame.

Mole Patrol is an original take on the whack-a-mole reaction game, adding a color-matching twist, free to play instantly in your browser.

A free, original browser game on PlayPendium. No download, no install.