An efficient, convenient and reliable method is presented to search the critical angle of seismic wave in multi-components seismic response of offshore platform. Wavelet analysis toolbox in MATLAB is used to reveal the time-frequency information of the earthquake wave visually. Based on both the mode information of the platform and the time-frequency characteristics of the earthquake, the key wavelet coefficient curve can be drawn to obtain the effective energy time-history curve, through which the critical angle of seismic wave can be determined. As an example, the critical angle of seismic wave is determined towards an actual platform under ten groups of seismic loads, which represent loads on four types of grounds with a group of single degree of freedom systems. Different cases are verified through time-history analysis with ANSYS program. The results show that when the structure is sensitive to the input direction of earthquake, the effective energy and the structure's response reach their peak value at the same input angle of seismic wave, and this angle is just the critical angle of seismic wave.