Oil Panic

This article is about the Game & Watch game. For the move used by Mr. Game & Watch in the Super Smash Bros. series, see Mr. Game & Watch § Oil Panic. For the microgame from WarioWare: Touched!, see Game & Watch Oil Panic.

Oil Panic is a game released on May 28, 1982, as part of a series of dual-screened Game & Watch titles. The game is set in a gas station where a leaky pipe is dripping oil. A station employee must collect these drops in a bucket and dump them into his boss's oil drum so that he may take them to the cars waiting beside the defunct gas pumps. He also needs to be quick, as the dripping oil is right above flammable sources that will cause a major fire if the droplets made contact with them (specifically, a smoking ashtray as well as two lit stoves). The bucket can hold only three drops of oil. If a drop is missed, if the bucket overflows, or if the employee dumps his bucket anywhere but in his boss's drum, he loses one of four lives.

This game uses two miss counters: one for missed or overflowing oil, and the other for spilling the oil onto customers. If the player gets three misses from either of those categories, they receive a Game Over.

If the player earns 300 points without any misses, another boss with an oil drum will appear for 20 to 30 seconds, and any oil the employee dumps into either boss's oil drum will be worth double points. If the player has any misses at said score, all misses will be removed instead.

Ports

The Modern version of Oil Panic

Oil Panic was remade for the Game Boy title Game & Watch Gallery in which it could be played in either Classic Mode or Modern Mode. In Classic Mode, Mr. Game & Watch (representing the station employee) collects the oil and dumps it out a window to his partner. Modern Mode is even farther from the original in that Bowser is actively dumping the oil from on top of a castle, forcing Mario to collect it in not one but two buckets and give it to Yoshi for removal. The player receives 10 points after each time Mario feeds Yoshi two bucketfuls of oil. If this happens when Yoshi is on the edge of one side of the castle, he will blow a fireball that will create a Rotating Block. If he creates four Rotating Blocks on the castle's left side, he will scale them and blast Bowser away from the castle, awarding the player 15 points. If Yoshi creates a Rotating Block on the castle's right side and blows a fireball on it, it will release coins for bonus points. If Yoshi is not facing the proper direction, the oil will instead fall on either Luigi or Donkey Kong Jr. below, angering whichever one it hits. If the player has any misses at 200, 500, or 700 points, a ? Block will appear on the castle's right side, and if Yoshi blows a fireball on it, it will release a Heart, which removes a miss if Mario catches it. Modern Mode also features music, with the tempo changing depending on the speed of the game.

File:68856-Game & Watch Gallery (USA)-4-thumb.png

Classic version of Oil Panic

Thanks to the Nintendo DS's dual-screens, another port of Oil Panic was released in Game & Watch Collection. Unlike the Game & Watch Gallery versions, this incarnation is exactly the same as the original Oil Panic.

Appearances in other games

File:GWC-Oil Panic Gameplay.png

Oil Panic in Game & Watch Collection

Super Smash Bros. series

Main article: Mr. Game & Watch § Oil Panic

Mr. Game & Watch's Oil Panic move in the Super Smash Bros. series is inspired and named after this game. It involves Mr. Game & Watch collecting projectiles instead of oil, and when the bucket fills, he dumps it on an opponent, causing them damage.

A background Mr. Game & Watch spills a tub of oil in the Flat Zone stage of Super Smash Bros. Melee, a homage to Oil Panic (though the similarity ends there, as the spilled oil actually remains and makes the ground slippery for a while in Super Smash Bros. Melee). Also, Oil Panic is one of the many Game & Watch games that appear in Flat Zone 2 in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Flat Zone X in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

WarioWare: Touched!

Oil Panic appeared as a microgame in WarioWare: Touched! called Game & Watch Oil Panic. There is also a similar microgame called Drop in a Bucket.

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U trophy information

Name	3DS Image	Wii U Image	Appears In	Description
Oil Panic			G&W Oil Panic (05/1982)	The Game & Watch Multi Screen series is the big, big brother of the Nintendo DS. One classic title was Oil Panic, which puts you in charge of a petrol station that's sprung a leak. As oil drips down on the upper screen, you've got to catch it in buckets on the lower screen or risk an angry customer with a face full of oil!

Blue indicates the trophy or description is exclusive to the Wii U version.

Trivia

• In the Modern version of Oil Panic, Yoshi blasts Bowser away from the castle in one of four ways: blowing a fireball at him, laying an Egg and throwing it at him, spitting Watermelon seeds at him, or shooting him with a laser gun.