Whack-a-Monty

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Whack-a-Monty

Gameplay screenshot
Appears in New Super Mario Bros. (2006)
Super Mario-kun Volume 36 (2007)
Type Action
Controls Stylus Tap
Objective Tap as many Monty Moles as possible within the time limit

Whack-a-Monty is an Action minigame featured in New Super Mario Bros.. The goal is for the player to tap Monty Moles with the stylus to defeat them, but they must avoid tapping Luigi. The minigame name is a pun on Whack-a-Mole, and plays similarly to it.

Gameplay

The minigame takes place on a 5×4 grid, where Monty Moles and Luigis come out of holes and quickly hide back in them. Each Monty Mole is worth one point if whacked. However, the player should be careful that Luigis sometimes pop out. If Luigi is hit, the player loses three points. The player must rack up as many points as possible within the 30-second time limit.

In the multiplayer version, up to four players can compete, and whoever has the most points wins. Unlike in single-player mode, the points can go below zero. Multiplayer mode also has adjustable difficulty. The Easy difficulty has no Luigis, the Normal difficulty has some Luigis, and the Hard difficulty has many quickly moving Luigis.

In-game instructions

  • Single player: "Whack Monty Mole whenever he pops out of a hole! WHACKITY WHACK!!! You'll lose points if you hit poor Luigi by mistake. Be careful! How many Monty Moles can you whack?"
  • Multiplayer: "Whack Monty Mole whenever he pops out of a hole! WHACKITY WHACK!!! You'll lose points if you hit poor Luigi by mistake, so be careful! How many Monty Moles can you whack?"

Gallery

Names in other languages

Language Name Meaning
Japanese ボコボコもぐらたたき
Bokoboko Mogura-tataki
Holey Whack-a-Mole
Chinese 棒打鼹鼠
Bàngdǎ Yǎnshǔ
Whack a Mole
French Tape-taupe Tap-a-mole
German Schnapp den Monty Get the Monty
Italian Schiacciomatto From schiacciare (to smash)
Korean 우당탕 두더지 잡기
Udangtang Dudeoji Japgi
Rumbling Mole-Catching
Spanish Dale a Monty Hit Monty

Trivia

Whack-a-Monty as it appears in volume 36 of Super Mario-kun
  • The music that plays during this minigame is an arrangement of the Underground Theme from the original Super Mario Bros., like in Coincentration, Intense Coincentration, and Hide and Boo Seek.
  • Whack-a-Monty makes an appearance in volume 36 of Super Mario-kun, in which Mario can be seen playing the minigame by whacking the Monty Moles by his house. However, Mario accidentally whacks Luigi in the process, when he mistakes him for one of the Monty Moles.
  • The Touch Screen sprites for both Luigi and Monty Moles are partially obscured, so the lower region of their sprites are not shown during gameplay. For Monty Moles, both their regular and defeat sprites consist of an entire body. For Luigi's normal pose, he has hands pointed downward, but his sprites do not have any legs.
  • The sprite for Luigi when he takes damage heavily resembles one of his Luigi's Mansion artworksMedia:LM Luigi Flee.png.