A Nintendo community
by the fans!
           
  Forum main
 + 
Retro Game Club Discussion Thread - 12 Mole Mania
 
Mole Mania ($2.99): Join Muddy Mole in a race to defeat the evil farmer, Jinbe. Work your way through each puzzle by pushing, pulling, or throwing black balls to defeat or trap enemies. Blast strategic exits and burrow into soft soil to tunnel your way through underground paths to the next action-packed level. Defeat the bosses and solve all of the puzzles in Jinbe Land to reunite Muddy Mole with his beloved wife and kids. You'll dig the fast pace and challenging fun of Mole Mania!


Why not add Mole Mania to your collection, and indicate that you are currently playing it? And don't forget to rate it when you're done!

Negative Worlders who pledged to participate (will be bolded and colored once they post progress)
DrFinkelstein
rebonack
Renjaku
Triforcebun
anon_mastermind
Jargon
roykoopa64
nate38
Mop it up
Zero
GameDadGrant
HammerLord
Guillaume

Negative Worlders playing despite not pledging
chrisbg99
Poguesquadron
Ploot
kgtennispro
VofEscaflowne


List of Awesome (finish the game)
Renjaku
nate38
chrisbg99
ploot
roykoopa64
Triforcebun
Jargon
Mopitup
Rebonack

List of Awesomest (finish the game 100%)
Renjaku
nate38
chrisbg99
ploot
roykoopa64
Triforcebun
Jargon
Rebonack

URL to share (right click and copy)
09/01/12, 10:25    Edited: 09/24/12, 00:39
 
   
 
Beat level 3. I read the sign about how to beat the boss, but it totally did not stick in my mind so I had to figure it out on my own. I think I like it better that way.

And I had to go back to reach the three screens before fighting the boss, I missed them too
09/03/12, 17:33   
Edited: 09/03/12, 17:33
Yeah, I just beat level 3 as well. So far I have my 100 points on each of the three levels.

I must say, Level 3 is where the difficulty really starts to ramp up! I was staring at several of the rooms for quite some time, just scratching my head and wondering how the heck I'm supposed to get the bashing ball over to the exit block. I'm so glad I figured them all out on my own; I hope I can continue with this kind of progress, though I'm sure it's only going to get more challenging. There's always some little move that Muddy can do that I'm overlooking, and so I make it much harder than it needs to be, if that makes sense!

Like the one room on level 3 where there's too many holes near the exit block; it just didn't seem possible to even get the ball over there. But there was a way, of course!

Ah, the music is so humorous, kind of like in a DK '94 kind of way.

nate38 said:


Okay, so...the Jinbe statues are definitely peeing into their fountains, right? Am I seeing that right?

Those are just too funny.
09/03/12, 20:00   
Edited: 09/03/12, 20:02
100% on Level 4. Took me a little over an hour. Almost half of it was on one puzzle. The one with lots of holes and seemingly not enough barrels.
09/03/12, 22:35   
@nate38

Ugh, I'm stuck on that one right now!

Here's a picture of that cursed room, I can't wrap my head around figuring this out! The enemies are annoying and only make it harder to mess around and try various solutions.
09/03/12, 22:53   
roykoopa64 said:
@nate38

Ugh, I'm stuck on that one right now!

Here's a picture of that cursed room, I can't wrap my head around figuring this out! The enemies are annoying and only make it harder to mess around and try various solutions.

This is pretty much my main complaint with the game, particularly on later puzzles. The enemies in the tougher rooms are less about adding to the challenge and more like these little frustrating obstacles that distract from the puzzles. What I generally do is try to kill them ASAP (with the ball, ideally, so as not to move any of the barrels, etc around that I don't need to).
09/03/12, 23:02   
Just 88%'d level 2, Level 1 was 90%. The sun boss was kinda weird and just took a long time. Did I end up knocking him into some kind of water?

This game is alright so far. Not impressed but maybe I would have been back then. Still some head-scratching fun though!
09/03/12, 23:23   
Ok, played through the first level of the game and I gotta say that Mole Mania is way different than I expected. I'm really enjoying it so far. It's a quite unique little puzzle game. The only thing that I didn't like much was the music, that sounded a bit repetitive. But hey, only got the 1st level down, so who am I to judge the game yet?

Also, the cutscene with the Father Mole encoutering one of his children is one of the most adorable things I have ever seen in a gameboy game.

I finished Wario Land yesterday, so now I'll get to focus on Mole Mania more.
09/04/12, 00:23   
@roykoopa64 I remember that one, it's quite clever. You really have to consider all the possible places the barrels can go. If you or anyone else would like part or all of the solution, here's what you do:

Use this picture as a reference point for each barrel, then place each numbered barrel as I describe below. I'll list each step on its own line, in case you want to see a part of the solution and figure out the rest.

Step 1. Move to the left side of barrel 1, the flip it behind you into the hole. After you do this, move the ball onto the barrel you just placed, then flip it behind you, and it'll be in the place barrel 1 started.

Step 2. Stand under barrel 2, then flip it behind you, into the hole just above barrel 4.

Step 3. Push barrel 3 all the way up to the wall, then stand in the hole to its left, and flip it behind you into the hole just above the blocker. Now, move under the blocker and push it up, onto barrel 3.

Step 4. After you do Step 3, push and pull the ball to where barrel 2 started, then stand under it and flip it on top of where barrel 2 rests in the hole. Be careful! If the ball falls into a hole, you will have to leave this room and re-enter to reset everything and try again.

Step 5. Now, stand to the right of barrel 5, and flip it behind you into the hole. Move to the right of barrel 4, and push it into the hole to the left of it. Carefully push the ball across the barrels, and rest it on top of barrel 5. Flip it behind you, move it up in front of the door, then kick it, and BAM, you win!
09/04/12, 00:59   
roykoopa64 said:
@nate38

Ugh, I'm stuck on that one right now!

Here's a picture of that cursed room, I can't wrap my head around figuring this out! The enemies are annoying and only make it harder to mess around and try various solutions.

This is where I'm at too. I took a break and went back to NSMB2.
09/04/12, 01:06   
Finished Level 5 100%. Took almost two hours. Again, a lots-of-holes-not-enough-barrels stage kept me going for a while. And then other times the solution is pretty straightforward but I spend too much time planning some other elaborate solution that ends up failing, haha.
09/04/12, 02:24   
@roykoopa64 ..I finished that room without exiting and re-entering the room..

The spiral room took me longest. I just didn't know where to begin.
09/04/12, 02:32   
Renjaku said:
@roykoopa64 ..I finished that room without exiting and re-entering the room..

The spiral room took me longest. I just didn't know where to begin.

Hah, I really liked this room. Took me a good number of tries, but it was very interesting.

One of the things I find that helps out is to start from the door and pretty much work backward. Like, if there're two holes in front of the door, I know I'll probably need to fill one of those in with a barrel before the end of the puzzle. Or if the door only has a single "space" in front of it (then a wall), I'll know an L-pipe should probably go there.
09/04/12, 02:37   
Edited: 09/04/12, 02:38
I beat that room! And I didn't even have to use Mop It Up's solution. Although one time I figured it out and accidentally threw the ball into a hole and had to start it all over again
09/04/12, 03:05   
Level 5 took me almost 2 hours to 100% too. 1:42:48.

I always have to back track to find the map I missed.
09/04/12, 05:06   
Just bought the game and beat World 1. I enjoyed it. Definitely made me think more than the first world of a Nintendo game would these days.

But I only got 84%. I guess I missed some cabbages. Is there any real point else than pride to going back? And if I go back, will I have to do everything over again? Like, will I have to do the bonus stage again?
09/04/12, 05:44   
I'm not sure if there's a reward for all points yet or not, but I'm going for it anyway. Reminds me a little of Yoshi's Island in that regard.

Unlike Yoshi's Island, though, all the puzzles and stuff will already be done. You don't have to recollect points or anything, just look for what you missed.
09/04/12, 05:54   
Thank you @Mop it up, I've finally made it through Level 4 (so far it's 100 pts each level).

I'm about halfway through Level 5, gonna have to call it quits for tonight. Hopefully I'll be able to pick back up on this by Friday.

So far Level 5 doesn't seem any worse than the hardest puzzles of Level 4, so that's encouraging! I like how each level seems to introduce some new elements, like the arrow blocks in this case.
09/04/12, 06:53   
TriforceBun said:
I'm not sure if there's a reward for all points yet or not, but I'm going for it anyway. Reminds me a little of Yoshi's Island in that regard.
You know what else reminds me of Yoshi's Island. The font in the level select screen. Weird, but it does.

Finished level 6 100%. Two and a half hours. The game structure is great for short bursts, and yet it's apparently compelling enough to marathon, haha.
09/04/12, 07:12   
Bagh I accidentally restored an old Restore Point so I'm going to have to play through Level 3 again. Whoooops.
09/04/12, 07:27   
How long is level 7? I spent 2+ hours on it and still no map.
09/04/12, 12:06   
  Forum main
 +