Overview
Vermin is part of the Silver series — the very first Game & Watch product line. Released July 1980, it was designed by Nintendo R&D1 under the direction of Gunpei Yokoi. Like all Silver series games, it features a single LCD screen, a silver-and-black plastic casing, and runs on two LR43 watch batteries. The game can display the time in a corner of the LCD screen when not in active use.
The Silver series established the conventions of the entire Game & Watch format: simple, intuitive controls (left, right, and time buttons); two game modes (Game A for standard difficulty, Game B for harder); and a miss counter that ends the game after three errors. These conventions proved so successful that they were carried through every subsequent series in the lineup.
Gameplay — Mole Whacking
The player swings a hammer left or right to hit moles as they pop from holes in the ground. Three escaped moles ends the game. The speed and frequency of moles increases with score.
Game A begins at a comfortable pace suitable for new players. Game B starts at a harder difficulty from the outset, offering a greater challenge for experienced players. The game tracks misses — errors in play — and ends after three misses are accumulated, encouraging players to extend their sessions and beat their personal high scores.
Legacy & Significance
Vermin's reflex-based gameplay proved the format worked for pure action titles, not just positioning puzzles.
As part of the Silver series, Vermin contributed to the commercial juggernaut that Game & Watch became in the early 1980s. Nintendo sold tens of millions of Game & Watch units during this era, establishing the company as the dominant force in portable electronic gaming — a position it has held, in various forms, ever since. The Silver series units are today prized by collectors for their historical significance and relative durability compared to later, more complex models.
> MODEL: MT-03
> SERIES: SILVER
> RELEASE: JULY 1980
> STATUS: IN_COLLECTION_