Oil Panic



Oil Panic is a game released in 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 their boss' oil drum so that he may take them to the cars waiting beside the defunked gas pumps. If a drop is missed or if the employee dumps his bucket anywhere but in his boss' drum he loses one of four lives.

Ports
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. Another added feature is that Yoshi can also be used to remove Bowser from the castle (when possible).

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.

Super Smash Bros. Series
Mr. Game & Watch's Oil Panic move in Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Brawl is inspired by 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 in SSBM). Also, Oil Panic is one of the many Game & Watch games that appear in Flat Zone 2 in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.