Game & Watch Gallery

Manhole, Fire, Octopus, and Oil Panic share Game & Watch Gallery, the collection Nintendo published in 1997. Each chore can be played with the old LCD stick figures or in a redrawn mode that hands the same clock to Mario series characters. The idea of the cartridge is that double life, not a brand-new sport.

Classic mode keeps the sparse shapes and the original split-second demands: cover the holes, catch the people leaping from the flames, slip past tentacles while lifting treasure, catch dripping oil before it ruins the floor. The redrawn mode puts Mario and the cast around him into those jobs, and some of the falling bodies even move at different speeds. Miss the beat and the penalty arrives either way.

This set lives on the original Game Boy and stops after those four. Later collections numbered 2 and 3 add other LCD toys and longer menus. Their extra titles are separate cartridges, not secret pages in this one.

Scores can be stored, yet the play is still the old reflex test in both costumes. Nintendo's publishing is what pairs the LCD look with the Mario look on a single Game Boy release. Oil, tentacles, open holes, and a burning building remain the four emergencies on offer.