Release: May 28, 1982
Sales: 250, 000-1, 000, 000
Model Number: OP-51
Oil Panic is a Game & Watch game released as a part of the Multi Screen series on May 28, 1982. It was the first game in the Multi Screen series. It is a dual-screen single-player Game & Watch with a white case. It opens like a compact, with an upper and lower screen.
The player controls a station helper who uses a bucket to catch drops of oil from a leaking pipe and empties the bucket into an oil drum. Missing a drop from the pipe or missing the oil drum causes the player to lose a life. The player has four lives, rather than the usual three.
Oil Panic was recreated in Game & Watch Gallery for Game Boy and Game & Watch Collection for the Nintendo DS (a Club Nintendo-exclusive). Oil Panic is also one of the microgames featured in the collection presented by 9 Volt in WarioWare: Touched!. In Europe, it was also rereleased as part of the Nintendo Mini Classics.
In the Super Smash Bros. series, Mr. Game & Watch has a move called “Oil Panic”, which has him collect energy-based attacks in an oil bucket to throw at opponents as oil later, referencing Oil Panic. In Super Smash Bros. Melee, the stage Flat Zone is based on a number of Game & Watch games, including Manhole. In Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, the stage Flat Zone 2 shifts between several layouts, one of which is based on Oil Panic. In Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, the stage Flat Zone X shifts between several layouts, one of which is based on Oil Panic.