Elevator Action is a fun game from the 80's. One of the first I played when I went to an arcade as a kid. It was a quarter-muncher. That is, you were going to die a lot, so prepare to pay to play often.  The premise is bare-bones simple, you are a secret agent that going to rappel into a high-rise building-maybe an apartment complex from the top floor. You are gong to locate the red doors and go in to get documents, move down to the ground floor, and try to get to your escape car. To defend yourself, its possible to duck, but don't worry, you get a jump kick! Its pretty sweet! You can jump over bullets, and knock the spies out in one hit. Your gun, while not automatic, has unlimited bullets and they travel the whole screen. Its defensive and offense at the same time! Nice, huh? You clear the building, and now head to a new one! Same deal, top floor starting location, more clever foes, different wallpaper.

Now how are you getting down the floors? As the name states, its Elevator Action! Lots of them! You get in one, you control if its going up or down, but you lose the ability to duck on them. There are also escalators. They are usually only found on the middle floors, and can save you from a bullet as you use them to go up or down one floor.  But elevators are plentiful, and you use them to move downwards most and to sometimes catch an unlucky enemy walking below and crush them. It makes a funny noise. Speaking of, there are lots of funny noises in this game. The jump kick makes a goofy noise, almost like Mario's jump, getting an extra life makes a whistle go off, and even shimmying into the building in the opening scene he makes a silly sound.

Now I've talked about all the ways you can deal with the threats, so its time to talk about them. I don't know if the spy agency told the hero, the whole place is full of enemy spies. I mean clown car packed full! Classic ones, wearing black hats and coats, coming out of unmarked blue doors. They all pack guns and will shoot you on sight! Fortunately they are kind of clumsy and sometimes fall to their doom, or get bored and go back in the blue doors you can't go into (and there are many). Unfortunately, there is an infinite amount, and they have tricks of their own you do not share.

The AI gets quite fiendish, but it starts out simple. Most of the first building's spies just stand there, some will duck and shoot. Then you get to the second building, ok now its harder, a lot of them are ducking, and they start ganging up on you. The third building, holy cow. They shoot even faster, and the dreaded machine gun fire comes out towards the bottom floors.  The fourth building, wow. Now they are lying on their stomachs, and are almost impossible to hit. Even more rapid fire. As soon as a spy is dealt with, another immediately comes to take his place!

I don't think there is an ending to this. And with the advantages of save states in emulation I've tried, but no, I cannot beat the 4th building. Its just too many enemies. One thing that often leads to your downfall is not just the spies, but timing. If you don't catch that elevator on its way down, you must wait. And that draws the enemies out to your location. If only you could keep moving downwards as fast as possible- but even this starts to work against you. By the fourth building I had them coming out of floors I had yet to pass in my elevator, and waiting in a crouched position to shoot me with the machine gun. So difficult!


Despite the lack of continues, tiny plot, the bland jazz muzak that plays in the buildings (curse you, elevators!), I never got mad at this game. Its fun! A lot more fun than it deserves to be. I would buy the arcade cabinet of this just because its just a really fun game. There is one little secret to be found, I believe it increases your score. You can shoot the light fixtures and kill an enemy with them. It also turns out the lights temporarily. This lights out aspect also seen on some of the floors, where the bad spies are just blue shadows.

I have some tips for would-be agents:
-Touching enemies doesn't kill you, only their bullets. Use that to your advantage and jump kick them if the suddenly pop out.
-The controls have to be precise when you try to go in the red doors or use the elevators. You have to be facing towards the door/escalator, and right on that small square on the ground. 
-When you see 4 or so enemies waiting for you, don't think you can take them all out. It might be a better idea to go back up some floors and make them disappear.
-Do not try to jump kick over the elevator shaft. You won't make it (but wouldn't it be awesome if you did?).
-If you just step in a red door and see a bad guy coming down to your floor, press any button to quickly leave the room to start your attack.
-The red doors are very useful to hide in for a bit. If you don't press a button, the hero will stay inside. Often a shooting enemy will get bored and go up an elevator or otherwise leave the scene. After a brief spell (maybe 5 seconds), the game will make you exit the room.

While its dated graphics, simple music are charming and super retro, Elevator Action overcomes these and has an addictive quality almost through the roof.  This is a clear mark of a game that  has low stats as far as depth/story, but yet is so fun you can't give it a bad score. 

endings :
Finally, a review of one of these great arcade game (Well....I play the gameboy version), I remember in my childhood that I used to play this as much as mario AND STILL haven't made it to stage 3 (wait....did I?).
Ahhh, the moment whenever I encounter an enemy, I immediately jump and empty my gun at him (just a metaphor, don't take it seriously), and sometime in the process I hit the light and enjoy seeing them face back and forth with no idea where I am (at least that's what I think). And, if I remember correctly, the stairs (or escalators) renders you invisible while you're on, so I think I spammed that to hide from enemies' bullets.

Anyway, thanks for reminding me of these great games, I would definitely buy this again if they remade it for the 3DS.

saldek :  Thanks to sites like Vizzed, the classic games we knew will never truly die.

DUDE! I totally remember this game! I used to play this soo many times as a kid. Just like what you said in your review, I totally remember how difficult this game was, even though the concept and the design is so simple. Thanks for reminding me this game with your review. I'll probably play it later.