The player assumes the role of a spy who infiltrates a building filled with elevators. He must collect secret documents from the building and traverse the 30 levels of the building using an increasingly complex series of elevators. The player is pursued by enemy agents who appear from behind closed doors. The player must outwit them via force or evasion. Successful completion of a level involves collecting all the secret documents and traversing the building from top to bottom. In the lower floors of the building, the elevator systems are so complex that some puzzle-solving skills are needed.
The game cabinet was a standard upright. The controls consisted of a 4-way joystick and two buttons, one for "shoot" and the other for jumping and kicking. The graphics are extremely simple, 2D color graphics. The maximum number of players is two, alternating turns.
The player assumes the role of Agent 17, codename: "Otto", a secret agent for an unspecified organization or government. As Otto, the player must "acquire" (steal) a series of secret documents from a tall building which Otto enters from the roof. Otto must traverse the building's numerous levels via a series of elevators and escalators while acquiring the documents. After retrieving all the documents, Otto must escape via the getaway car at the bottom of the building and thus progress to the next level of the game.
The documents are located behind red closed doors which the player enters to retrieve. Enemy spies appear from behind some doors and the player can evade them or attack them in a number of ways. Using his gun he can fire at them or use it to sever a hanging light above their head, dropping it on them. The player can also kick the enemies (by jumping into them) or attempt to crush them with an elevator Otto is riding. The player loses a life if hit by enemy fire—physical contact with the enemies themselves will not affect him. Otto may jump over low enemy fire or duck to evade higher enemy bullets. The environment itself also lends itself to some danger for Otto; the player will lose a life if he falls into an empty elevator shaft, or is crushed between a descending/ascending elevator and the floor/ceiling. However, these hazards also threatened enemies; slaying hostile agents using the elevator scores large bonuses.
The upper levels of the buildings are fairly easy to traverse and sparsely populated with enemies. As the player progresses downward, enemies become more numerous and some escalators appear for travel between levels. In the lower floors of the buildings (which, since the building is traversed from top to bottom, is actually further into the level), the elevator system becomes very complex and traversal more difficult. On these floors, not only does the player need to manage to get to the bottom floor, they must at the same time evade or dispatch the numerous enemy agents attempting to apprehend them. Traversing these lower floors requires some puzzle-solving skills and this novel gameplay added to its appeal.
Legacy
There is a sequel to Elevator Action called Elevator Action II, also known as Elevator Action Returns. It updates the graphics and includes a more in-depth storyline than the original, including multiple players. It was later ported to the Sega Saturn in Japan as a console game and is also included in the Taito Legends 2 compilation for the Sony Playstation 2, PC and Xbox.
The Killer List of Videogames includes this game in its list of "Top 100 Video Games".
A port to the original Game Boy included the ability to acquire different weapons, such as a machine gun that fired more rapidly.
An enhanced remake of Elevator Action, titled Elevator Action EX, was released on the Game Boy Color in Japan. The game was released in the United States with a Dexter's Laboratory licence, under the title Dexter's Laboratory: Robot Rampage.
There is also another enhanced remake on the Game Boy Advance, called Elevator Action - Old & New, which was released only in Japan.
In 2005, Elevator Action was released on the Xbox, PlayStation 2, PSP, and the PC as part of Taito Legends.
The title of the dojin game ElePaper Action is a parody of Elevator Action's title. The game's credits sequence features a mini-game similar to Elevator Action.
Some of the chapters in the Hellsing manga are named Elevator Action.
On March 5, 2007, the NES port of Elevator Action was released on the Wii's Virtual Console.
Two games for Palm OS, Agent Z and its sequel, Agent Z 2 by Ellams Software, are based on Elevator Action.
The "Nintendo punk" band 14 Year Old Girls did a song about this game; the song is also called "Elevator Action".
In 2007, 505 Games released a game similar to Elevator Action for the Wii. The North American release is called Spy Games: Elevator Mission. It is called Elevator Action for the European release.
Ports
Like many games of this era, Elevator Action was ported to some home systems in 1985 for personal use. It was ported to the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, MSX, Commodore 64, Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy.
A port was planned for the Atari 2600, but never released. However, a prototype of the game was illegally published by CGE Services Corp. and sold in Classic Gaming Expo 2001. There are some issues with collision detection, and the game is only 95% complete, leading many to speculate that the video game crash of 1983 was a key factor in its non-release.
More recently, Sony published a mobile version of this classic game. This game has also recently become available for download on the Nintendo Wii's Virtual Console.
Compilation releases
The original Elevator Action game has been included in various compilations, including:
- Elevator Action Old & New (Game Boy Advance)
- Elevator Action Returns (Sega Saturn)
- Taito Legends (Playstation 2, Xbox, Windows)
- Taito Legends Power Up (PSP)
See also
Similar games:
External links
- Elevator Action at World of Spectrum
- Elevator Action at the Killer List of Videogames
- Elevator Action at MobyGames
