Believe it or not, the curious obsession with striking moles on the head with a mallet stretches all the way back to the mid-twelfth century. The noblemen of Belgium would celebrate their long sought-after victory over the mole population by gathering as one, large, bloodthirsty mob to finish off the vermin remnants of the country with their bronze-plated maces.

The gaming world has been waiting long enough for a virtual depiction of mole-murder, so it's good to know that Gamebridge have brought to WiiWare the quirky party title Happy Hammerin'. Part of the Japanese-developed Happy series, the game is a straight-forward representation of whack-a-mole powered by the Wii Remote. To talk of the controls would just be to talk of a singular wristal movement – no buttons are required for Happy Hammerin'. Aim your hammer on-screen with the IR pointer and flick down to unleash a brutal end on the probably-innocent sentient creatures.

The actual game itself is structured into three modes. Mole Adventure is the primary campaign mode, playable with either one person or two-player co-op. You're tasked with playing through four stages – Jungle, Space, Japan and Horror – dispatching as many enemies with your almighty hammer before the end of the level. There are three difficulty levels to each stage, with the harder variants lasting longer. The aim is to rack up as many points as possible, with valuable combos being awarded for not overlooking any creatures. At the end of each level, you're scored on your reaction times and max combos, and a medal is duly rewarded. You can then choose to upload your score to the worldwide leaderboards via Nintendo Wi-Fi connection.

Mole Marathon is essentially an endurance mode designed for one player. In classic whack-a-mole style, the objective is to crush as many moles as you can as the little buggers exponentially increase. Missing more than five will end your game, after which you can once again upload your score to the online leaderboard. This mole-hunter managed a cool near-one-million points before it was game over – making what would be a bloody pile of about three hundred Montys.

Party Battle gives you the chance to chance the share the experience of hammering those furries (now now) in a competitive sense. The multiplayer is local only, for up to four strong-stomached people, and consists of two versus game modes – one where players scramble to get the best 'hand' by whacking moles of the same colour, as the other crowns the brave hunter who violently crushes the specified number of animals before his or her rivals. It's not the biggest compliment in the world to say Party Battle is the most varied mode in the game – it is indeed the only time where you can't really get away with mindlessly waggling your hand to kill everything on screen.

And that really is the underlying reason that makes it difficult to recommend Happy Hammerin'. You've probably guessed already that the game is an incredibly simple experience that never really strives to achieve more than the expected. The controls are functional, the style is bold and bright and the music is suitably light and upbeat. Yet there isn't enough substance here to give gamers the drive to play for any prolonged period of time. Some of the richest gameplay experiences to be had come from simple concepts, but it's all too easy to be damagingly simple if the concept isn't up to snuff.

Still, at 500 Points, it is a fairly economical way to entertain insatiable youngsters. If nothing else, it's also the cheapest way yet to legally exercise mole genocide.