Everyone’s familiar with Whac-A-Mole, right? Even if you’ve never played the classic American arcade game, countless variations exist all over the world, all of which involve bashing erratic plastic animals with a blunt object.

One of our Japanese reporters recently stumbled across a very unique Whac-A-Mole game that keeps the basic gameplay theme intact, but swaps out the moles for something more…painful.

Our correspondent, female, writes: “I started the game expecting a mole to emerge from the hole, but instead a mushroom popped up. I’m not sure why, but there were brown mushrooms and red mushrooms thrusting up from the machine. I played an entire round but not once did a mole come up.”

We’re sure she’s just being cheeky. No one, male or female, could play this game and not know what they’re pulverizing.

The real question here is, how does this even exist?  Unfortunately, our correspondent has chosen to withhold the details of the arcade where this machine can be found, fearing that doing so will overwhelm the tiny establishment with curious customers or incite backlash from parents and locals. We imagine it would come as quite the shock if parents found out their children were beating on mechanical meat pistons instead of playing more wholesome games.

[ Read in Japanese ]