Molar Mayhem
Molar Mayhem is a VERY straightforward action game for the Playdate, and it’s about teeth. It’s meant to be played just for a minute or two while you’re waiting in line at the grocery store or post office, or you can squeeze in a few rounds during an ad break because you won’t pay the extra $12/month for the commercial-free Netflix. There’s no title screen. There are no online leaderboards. Like all the best workout routine videos, however, there is no fluff getting in the way of what you’re actually here to do. What you’re here to do is trying not to get bit. (Wouldn’t say no to some online leaderboards, though.)
You play as a tooth running back and forth in a perpetually chomping mouth. One lower tooth will fall, so you need to hop into that newly created hole to duck under the incoming upper teeth. They’ll then raise back up and another tooth falls, so you have to sprint over to that safety hole and drop down before the teeth come down again. That’s it! Hole opens, run to hole before you’re crushed, repeat.
The speed of both your tooth and the falling teeth increase as the game goes on, so even though you have less time to hide, you run faster. The tooth hole is random so there’s always a chance you go the wrong way, but that's part of the fun. It reminds me of the popular TI-83 calculator game from middle school titled simply Ball, where you’d move left and right to fall down the holes as the screen continually rises, trying to crush you. It also feels like, strangely enough, Super Hexagon. There are quick replays, a clear goal, and no way to actually win – you just get a little farther each time. Your high score is on the screen right next to your current score, and that’s all the UI you get.
Oh, and I kind of buried the lede here, but this is one of the rare video games that you can play one-handed. This is perfect for me because I just got my blood drawn today and can’t bend my one arm. Who needs two arms? Not me, if I’m playing and/or writing about Molar Mayhem.
It’s a very snappy experience, and you won’t play it forever. But for a single dollar, you can throw away your fidget spinners and stop doomscrolling during your quiet moments, and you don’t even need to worry that your quiet time will cause you to think too hard about the CIRCUMSTANCES. Run back and forth as a tooth and see how high of a score you can get. It’s a pure, simple gaming experience that anyone can understand, and it’ll also make you think about how the inside of your mouth looks a little bit (but hopefully not too much).
(Released August 30, 2025, on Itch and December 16, 2025, on Catalog. Also pay-what-you-want for the original PC/Mac version. Copy provided by developer.)