Known as "Moguranya" in Japanese (a portmanteau of the Japanese word for "mole" and the English word "mania", and also oddly enough the name of the main character in the Japanese version), this is a game that's been recommended to me for years, but I only just got around to finally giving it a go. I recently picked up a GameCube and a GameBoy Player, so I finally have a way to play GameBoy games again. I also found a copy of this for 300 whole yen at the resale place where I picked up my GameCube and such, so it was an easy choice to pick it up. Unfortunately, the save battery was dead, so I had to beat it in one sitting, but I probably would've beaten it in one sitting anyway because of how addicting it is X3. I 100%'d the Japanese version of the game over the course of a little over 6 hours.

The game stars the main character Moguranya in a quest to save his family. The game opens with the cabbage farmer Jinbe angry that the moles keep stealing his cabbages, so he takes things into his own hands and kidnaps Moguranya's whole heckin' family, all seven children and his wife, and leaves Moguranya a taunting note daring him to try to get them back. Being a loving father, Moguranya of course immediately sets out on a quest to rescue his family and teach Jinbe a lesson. It's a fairly light story, but there's quite a bit of fun, silly dialogue given to you via signs in each level written by both the bosses of that world as well as from the elderly mole who serves as your tutorial giver as well as checkpoint bearer. There are also fun little vignettes of Moguranya and his rescued kids every time you beat a world (very much like older Kirby games have), which add to the silly fun of it all.

But the real meat here is the gameplay, and the gameplay that's here is basically a Sokoban game (warehouse block pushing), but probably the most fun version of that I've ever played (especially granted it's a genre I don't generally enjoy). The game has seven worlds (with world 8 just being a boss rush) of many rooms each, and the goal of each room is to get a boulder to the rock wall at the end to break it and allow you to progress to the next room. There are also 20 cabbages in each level to collect by rolling them into a hole, as well as a map, radar, and time trial mini-game against Jinbe which also add to the score you get at the end of each stage (although 100%-ing the game doesn't actually do anything, so far as I can tell).

What sets this apart from other Sokoban games isn't just the very forgiving difficulty, but the fact that it not only auto-saves after every room you complete (probably why the save battery in mine is dead ^^;), but it also has unlimited lives and you respawn at the start of a room just as you entered it. While there are enemies and tough, well-designed bosses, getting killed at the action parts will never send you way-way back, and they're just as much a part of the puzzles as the walls and boulders are. You also have a large degree of control as to how you manipulate the boulders, cabbages, and other obstacles you'll encounter. You can push them, pull them, and also launch them forward and behind you by flipping them over yourself. This means that while it may be possible to make a room unsolveable so you need to backtrack a room to reset it, you'll never get stuck or have to redo large swaths of content like so many other Sokoban games. You're also a mole, so naturally you can dig too, giving every room two layers to consider in your goal to solve the puzzle therein. The level design is really well done, and although the difficulty curve is a bit up and down in a weird way at times, it always feels so satisfying when you finally solve the room.

That difficulty curve issue, if you can even call it that, is really the only major issue the game has, if you can really call it that. There's a weird feeling to having one room that takes you some 15 minutes to finally wrap your head around and complete, and then have it followed by several that you almost instantly figure out, but it's not really a bad thing. Though this game does suffer from that Lemmings-style of "okay, I know what to do, now I just gotta DO it" that many action-puzzle games suffer from. The game should also really heal you whenever you complete a room, as there are heal rooms run by the elderly mole, so you can just backtrack through safe, completed rooms to get healed when you're really hurt, and it doesn't really make much sense not to just heal you every time you win a room. But again, these are really small complaints.

The presentation is also really what you'd expect from a first-party Nintendo game. It may only be a GameBoy game, but the sprite work is really excellent, as are the animations. It looked really nice even on a big TV~. The music is also very good, and has a very Kirby-like feel to it (despite not being a game made by HAL).

Verdict: Highly Recommended. I'm definitely not the first person to recommend people play Mole Mania, and I highly doubt I'll be the last. It's an excellent puzzle game with a super addictive "just one more room!" feel to it that is never consistently soul-crushingly hard. It's not a super hard physical game to find, and it's also on the 3DS Virtual Console, so this is a pretty easy game to pick up legit too. If you're a fan of puzzle games, this is absolutely not a game to sleep on~

I love me some puzzles. Especially ones you can get in and out of quickly and enjoy in your spare minutes. Mole Mania is about as good as it gets in that department. Especially when it comes to Game Boy.

The big flaw that keeps this from being a perfect game is the lull/plateau of the puzzles that happens through a large swath of Worlds 6 and 7. You've seen it all at that point. They don't bring in any new folds. And the World maps are too big for their own good at that point. I'll also note that the bonus events are more annoying than anything else but obviously are just there for the 100%.

Other than that the game is amazing. The puzzle build up and variety before the plateau is great. The game being compartmentalized into single screens means you can play for 2mins or 2hrs at a time and walk away feeling like progress was made. The bosses are actually really fun action as opposed to the bonus stages. And the little story told and tiny cutscenes are funny n' cute.

Mole Mania is exactly what I want out of a handheld game on my handheld emulator. Loved it.

[Emulated/played on Miyoo Mini v2]

This is a hot, unique Game Boy puzzle gem.

You play as a mole who can "win" each level by throwing bowling balls at the exits.

Each level contains a bunch of screens, each serving as a mini-puzzle. These puzzles are solved by digging holes, navigating the underground and surface, and hitting the exit with your bowling ball.

The scoring system is very satisfying: if you fully complete a level (clear all screens and get all items) you get 100 points. This feels good.

I did this (got all 100 points) for the first four levels and then sort of lost interest. While I was loving the gameplay I felt pretty satisfied after four levels and things were starting to become just a little bit tedious. There is no rewind feature so if you dig a hole in the wrong place or throw a ball in the wrong spot you potentially need to start over the screen, which does get pretty tiresome.

Overall, this thing is a real good time and I love that it has its own special Super Game Boy border.

Pros: Fun top-down puzzler that has the player navigating two planes, the surface, and the underground, as you tunnel down and pop out from the other, to solve puzzles, push and throw big ass bowling balls into holes, nab cabbages, and open doors. Really fun stages, really polished design, and plenty of personality and charming characters (Grandpa mole is a favorite of mine). Gotta mention the art/character design, which was made by Yoichi Kotabe, the man behind the 2D art of Mario, as well as Pikachu (also I believe this game was backed by Miyamoto himself, so there's a lot of Nintendo vibes here). Plays great on Super Game Boy as well!

Cons: There's not a whole lot of cons here, other than, and this may not even qualify as a con, but that this is a game that would've benefitted greatly from two screens, like, if it were on a DS. It'd be useful to always see both the underground and surface at the same time. As is, you can always pop your head up to check whats happening on the surface without fully committing, but, if you were always seeing what was up there, it could help with some puzzles quite a bit, like moving enemies or obstacles. Eh, not really a complaint so much as a desire to get a DS version that we never got...

What it means to me: Pretty sure I saw this game featured in Nintendo Power, didn't think much of it at the time, but many years later I saw it used at a Gamestop, gave it a purchase, and gave it a play, and kinda loved it. It's a great game!