Mole Hunter [Upright model]

Mole Hunter © 1980 Data East.

This is a game where the player controls a hunter who has to kill moles.

This game takes place on a screen where there is the player's hunter, 16 baby moles, 16 peanuts, and the Grandfather Mole in the lower center of the field. The player has to move the hunter with the joystick to the areas where the baby moles are, and has 4 lives in total (displayed in the upper right corner). The game begins as 1 of the hunter's 4 lives moves to the center of the screen & the moles disappear underground. The player knows where they are burrowing by the dotted lines that appear. Eventually, baby moles start appearing & try to eat the peanuts, which is only possible if they get close enough to the dotted area around them. The player has to kill the baby moles before all the peanuts are eaten. Whenever the hunter kills a baby mole, it goes to heaven, the player is awarded points, and the Grandfather Mole cries. If the player misses, he starts laughing. The Grandfather Mole can eat a peanut very quickly if he gets close to it, but he is vulnerable to the player's attack when this happens. If the player hits him with the hammer, he will disappear for a little while as the player gets either 150 or 300 points, but will appear again later. The Grandfather Mole can also bite the hunter, which will cause the player to lose a life. If all 4 lives are lost, the hunter will be carried off in a stretcher, and the game is over. The best defense against this is to attack him in the beginning. Once all the baby moles are killed, the hunter can then kill the Grandfather Mole by attacking him. If this is done, he will receive 300 points for killing him plus 100 points for each remaining peanut while the Grandfather Mole slowly goes to heaven. It seems like each level in this game is the same or rearranged a bit, where the main challenge is that moles get faster & tougher.