Whac-A-Mole is an arcade game created in 1975 by the amusements manufacturer TOGO in Japan. The game consists of a waist-level cabinet with a play area and display screen, and a large, soft mallet. Five to eight holes in the play area top are filled with small, plastic, cartoonish moles, or other characters, which pop up at random. Points are scored by whacking each mole as it appears. The faster the reaction, the higher the score.