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

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@HammerLord

It's okay, I'm not even on the list despite having bought it, saying I would play it and having posted progress

All fixed I believe. Anyone else?

Nate and I also 100% it.

VofEscaflowne said:

@HammerLord

It's okay, I'm not even on the list despite having bought it, saying I would play it and having posted progress

chrisbg99 said:

Nate and I also 100% it.

It seems @Renjaku has beat me to the punch. Thanks! Work keeps getting in the way of me coming in here during the day, unfortunately.

Wow, this thread moves quickly.

@nate38 With the Super Game Boy, each area has its own 4-colour scheme to match its theme, as well as the title screen, pause screen, and cutscenes having 6-10 colours. It also has a special border that shows dirt and a mole's claws, making it look like you're the mole looking into a hole at the game. I don't know if there is any sound enhancement, as I haven't played the game on a regular Game Boy.

@Guillaume In my case, I didn't get Monster World IV because I don't like buying digital games. Otherwise, I would have been interested.

@roykoopa64 The solution is actually simple, so don't overthink it!

Finished world 3 and am on world 4.

You guys were right...there are times when you really don't need everything in the room, especially with these damn L pipes. I hate having more info/things than I need in these kinds of games! Drives me crazy. I just want everything to fit together perfectly with a logical answer for everything in the room. #analogyformylife

I wasn't too bad at weeding out junk pieces. I like those stages because they could be finished faster than they first look like they could (if you don't touch its junk).

Finally got through Level 4, 100pts. Phew! A couple of those were REALLY tricky for me. "Well if I put the barrel here...then I can't go back undergro....AGGGGH." Thankfully the last couple rooms were fun. I like that the game will do that sometimes. After some difficult rooms, you'll get a couple rooms that have some sort of novelty like crushing a bunch of enemies with the ball or something like that. It's nice to have those straightforward rooms after spending so much time in the tough ones.

Level 4 beaten and with 100 points too! Took a few minutes over an hour to clear it out due to a few rooms that had me stumped but they were fun to figure out.

I just finished Level 6 with 100 points, spent 2 hr 30 minutes (and maybe more... sometimes I abuse the 3DS restore points!). This game is really challenging, sometimes frustratingly so!

The toughest rooms involved moments where it seemed like there was only one possible method for using a certain item. In one room, there's a barrel to the right of a hole, and I figured I had to create a path of barrels, but it turns out you set up the barrels in a way to act as stop points for flinging the ball to the goal. None of the barrels actually had to go in any of the holes. I don't know why I hadn't thought of that before; I just couldn't 'see' it.

The slider pieces give me so much trouble (the heavy weight pieces you can't pull), especially in the rooms where you have to slide them around a certain way to make a path for the ball. I simply find it difficult to map the strategy out in my head, keeping in mind, ahead of time, that where I dig out of the hole will become a new obstacle as well.

@PogueSquadron

Yeah, sometimes there's a string of those easy rooms following a brutally difficult room, they're generally fun and are always a welcome respite.

Went back and 100% the first level and then 100% level 2 and 3. The first level took some thought because I was getting acquainted with the concept, then I breezed through the second level and thought maybe I'd gotten the hang of it and it wouldn't be too tricky anymore, but then the third level definitely had me scratching my head again.

This definitely is a great value for $3.

@Jargon I'll echo that. I really had no idea this game existed until a couple weeks ago. What a tricky little bastard this game is.

I just beat level 4 with 100% (as I've been beating every level) in about 1:14. This game is an awesome value for $3.

And now I just beat level 5 with 100% in around an hour and a half. I had to backtrack through the level though, because I missed the map. Pain in the butt

I lol'd at a sign that tells you to go "undergroond".

Yeah! Go underground and throw a ball at Big Mama!


Also, am I crazy for thinking that Portal has a lot of roots in this game? Obviously it's not the same exact concept, but I find myself thinking in a lot of the same ways. "Well obviously I'll have to go into this hole...then through here...but wait, if I do THAT, then THIS is blocking my way...so I guess I'll have to restart this and try something else." I find myself thinking in the same ways. Digging underground is one thing, but since the underground and surface sections rarely line up, you have to always have an enter/exit strategy. Really plays with your head.

Am I missing some trick to the bonus games? The first two were fairly easy, but in the later ones, I don't feel like I have enough time.

@Mop it up

First of all, did you know you can stun him with cabbages?

Here's what I did for the final bonus stage. I don't know how well this strategy works for earlier ones.

Never let him get up by nailing him with the same cabbage just as he gets up again. You have enough time to make one hole or put away one cabbage (maybe two) before he gets back up. Once the cabbages in the immediate area are clear, get Jinbe pinned in another spot.

Based on my map right now, I'm probably about 70% done with Level 7.

Just beat the bonus level for Level 7. That was a tough one, for reals. So glad that one's out of the way!

I think I'm getting better at this game and realizing the kinds of solutions to aim for. Man, there are seriously a bunch of junk pieces in a lot of these rooms. Also, what T-Bun said a while back:

TriforceBun said:

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.

Yeah, this become a good approach in general.

Anyway, it feels so good to continue figuring these out on my own. I gotta say, I love abusing the 3DS restore points sometimes (I don't consider it cheating, but you may have a different opinion), like when I'm able to clear out a room of enemies before I even move any pieces or dig any new holes, so that if make a wrong move with a barrel or something, I just quickly re-load the last save without facing those enemies again. Stuff like that can cut down on some of the tedious stuff, if used correctly!

I'm getting closer to the goal with each and every step… Gotta finish rescuing the little kids and especially the wife!

Oh, and the signs never stop getting funny.

I used an item to skip a room. Does that count against my percentage?

I kind of regret it. You think it'd be a good idea, but in the end, I'm probably hurting myself because for all I know, there could be an important lesson to learn in that level. It was just so annoying :(. It was one in World 6 with a lot of spikes and three pairs of holes down the middle of the room. I guess I was just tired and cranky and didn't feel like doing it.

I 100%ed Level 4 last night. For the first time, I found myself solving puzzles in ways that felt like were not the solutions the designers intended, leaving big parts of the room unused. Is that typical?