Review: MB Electronic Whac-A-Mole Game

When I first saw the Electronic Whac-A-Mole Game sitting on my sister's coffee table, I immediately wanted to play. The Whac-A-Mole game is an all-time carnival favorite of mine. To see this mini electronic version sitting on their table got me pretty dang excited. My niece and nephew however were less enthusiastic.

I was able to get my niece up to show me how to use it, and as soon as the game powered on, I realized this was nothing like the carnival game that I loved since childhood, in fact it was quite the opposite.

Appearance:
 
There are 4 moles set up on the plastic base. Obviously up to 4 players can play the game. The game also comes with 4 light weight plastic mallets done up to look like cutesy wooden originals from carnivals. At first glimpse the game is cute as heck. You have your 4 moles all with different color coded hats on, sitting in a plastic field of grass. The small plastic mallets were equally as cute.
All seemed well till...

Game On:
 
I watched as the moles hats began lighting up and she began hitting at them. Ugh, this was the first suck-o-licious moment was when I noticed the moles didn't pop up from the ground, in fact they just stood there making no movements at all. You have basically wait for your moles hat to light up, hear a stupid sound, and then hit the mole.

In less than 5 minutes I was bored.

When you set the game to a harder game you only have the ability to listen for the sound. Your mole basically wont light up. Now this wouldn't be so bad, had the games sound not been so low. They never put into consideration that young children like yelling, screaming, and laughing when they play a game. A small giggle from a child playing, and you could easily miss the sound.

Besides these issues, I encountered another issue as soon as my nephew and his friend decided to join in on the game.

The moles are place too closely together. So before long the game ended up being tugged around just so they could place their moles in front of them. Then of course, the hitting in the limbs due to the plastic mallets and over enthusiastic children.

The game ended like this. Smack-A-Kid.
 
I'm not saying smack your kid!!! I'm saying that when 4 kids are playing, its only a matter of time before one kid accidentally hits another one in the face, or arms.

The game ended ugly. One kid is crying, another one is sent to his room for not apologizing, and me I'm left sitting there, feeling like a moron for even asking them to play with me.

Overall:
 
Whac-A-Mole entertained for a short amount of time, till my niece ended up getting hit with the plastic mallet. Although it is very lightweight, it still poses a problem. The children enjoyed it only on easy mode, but even then they grew bored of it rather quickly. The game itself is far too small to allow for a safe game of 4 players. Hard mode is too hard seeing how the sound is very low.

All in all, I don't think this one is an excellent buy. For those with 2 kids, maybe... but other than that, the price is normally set at around $20.00, and in my opinion it's over priced for what it does.

-The game requires 3 AA batteries to work.