The game is a "reverse Whack-a-Mole": The players pop their heads in and out of 11 holes in the star-shaped ground to avoid being whacked by the three hammer-wielding Monty Moles. The objective is to stay above the ground for as long as possible without being hit. If a player gets hit, their timer stops as they are stunned for a few seconds before going back in. After 30 seconds, the player who remained aboveground longest is declared the winner.
This is one of the minigames that can appear in Decathlon Castle. Here, the player's objective is to stay out of the holes as long as possible to earn as many points as possible, up to 1,000.
In Mario Party 7 and Superstars, the winner celebrates as the losers are chased off by the Monty Mole. If the minigame ends in a tie in Mario Party 7, all the players are chased away by one Monty Mole, while in Superstars, the players simply do their tie animations.
