Tonfo: Whack the Mole

Tonfo is the sound a hammer makes when it lands. A mole pops up. Hit it. Hit the ground instead, or let one drop back down, and you lose a life. You have three. There is no level to finish and no timer to run out, only a board that keeps getting busier. IT ALWAYS GETS FASTER, AND IT IS ALWAYS FAIR A mole starts out generous. Over the first few minutes the time it stays up falls, and the gap between moles closes, until the board is running at the fastest pace one thumb can sustain. After that it stops getting quicker and starts getting fuller: a second mole begins to overlap the first, closer and closer, until the two arrive together. Two at once is the ceiling, and the game cannot break it. Every mole it shows you is one you could have reached in time, worked out from how long a person takes to see a mole and move a thumb across the widest gap that board can ask for. When you miss, it was yours to miss. That is the point. THREE BOARDS, THREE RHYTHMS Three holes in a line to start, then a 3 by 3, then a 5 by 5. Finish ten games on one and the next opens. STREAKS PAY Consecutive hits multiply what each mole is worth. One swing at bare ground and the streak is gone, which makes the choice not to swing a real one. A LEADERBOARD PER BOARD A 5 by 5 score and a three hole score are not the same achievement, so they are not the same table. Sign in to Play Games to take a seat at any of them. AND NOTHING TO BUY YOUR WAY OUT OF There is no video to watch for an extra life, and there never will be. The whole game is built on every life being lost to something you could have prevented, and an ad that gives one back says the loss did not count. STEP UP TO THE BOOTH Every run is played at a fairground stall: a striped awning overhead, a lit cabinet round the board, and bulbs that burn brighter as your streak climbs. Cream canvas by day, a charcoal midway by night. Portrait, one hand. Tonfo is free, funded by a single full screen ad when you leave a finished run. There is nothing to buy, no subscription, and no account to create.