Elevator Action II / Elevator Action Returns - Arcade / Saturn / PC / PS2 / Xbox (1994)

Arcade Flyer

Elevator Action II

Elevator Action II

Unlike the other Elevator Action games, Elevator Action II only deals with taking documents in the first mission. All missions afterwards deal with you trying to defuse bombs within the buildings. The story tells of a psycho wearing a red suit placing bombs randomly in buildings to bring on a new order of society or some nonsense of a revolution, and it's your job as a spy to stop him. Unlike the original, this game features three characters from which to choose from: Kart Bradfield The speedy character of the game, Kart is able to run the quickest and jump the farthest. His subweapon is a Hand Grenade (which unlike the Gameboy version, are actually useful) that clears an entire floor of enemies. His gun is the Glog 18, a spoof off of a Glock 18. Incidently, a glog is a common misspelling for glogg, which is a Scandinavian version of mulled wine. However, there is no alcohol in this game so this is merely a coincidence. Edie Burret The experts in gun, she has the most fire power and can shoot at an incredibly fast speed. Her subweapon is a Fire Bomb which sets off a small fire that will instantly burn enemies to death once they foolishly walk into it. Her gun is the Berltta M92F, a spoof off of a Beretta M92F. Unlike the other two characters, she doesn't actually speak a line in the game, she just randomly groans from getting hit and yelling when she dies. Jad the Taff The stereotypical powerful character, he is the only one who can damage enemies just by running into them. His subweapon is the sensor bomb, which will set off a huge explosion when an enemy comes close within it's proximity. His gun is the Dessert Eagle, a hilariously named spoof of the Desert Eagle. Never mind the fact that his name is ridiculous - when he speaks, he sounds more like a butch woman then anything else. One thing you'll notice when you first play Elevation Action II is that it's much faster than it's predecessor. Your character can now run and make longer jumps then before (although now you can't jump and shoot at the same time). Something that was carried over from the Gameboy version is the ability to go in other doors for items. Instead of being "?" labeled doors, they are now just blue. While there aren't any weapons you can acquire from these doors, they can give out points, health (you have a life bar now instead of one hit kill), or more supplies of your characters subweapon, so getting to as many of these blue doors as possible is usually a good idea. There are other weapons you can acquire by finding and breaking boxes, such as the machine gun or the rocket launcher. They have limited ammo, so usually you have to be considerate of your shooting, as they aren't common to find. The game features more than one type of enemy now, and some take more than one hit to defeat. They range from guys in trench coats, suited businessmen, bio-hazard wearing men, punks in Hawaiian shirts, policemen with riot gear, and Doberman Pinschers. True to the nature of the game, they will come out of various doors and pursue you before you reach the bombs. Something added is the security camera that are usually placed near the red doors with the bombs. If the camera sees you, an alarm will go off and more enemies will show up where you are located, making it pivotal to shoot the camera before you blow your cover. The locales are different from the original, as your mission (six total) can take you from an airport terminal to the sewers to an oil rig located in the sea than just being in a building. The one thing this game really excels at is its presentation. The graphics look fairly realistic, but it never takes itself too seriously, much like any good 80s action game. The music is passive light jazz and can actually be considered elevator music, which is great if the developers made the music to pick on the theme of the game, but otherwise is unremarkable. However, Elevation Action II really rocks because you never know what will happen within the level. During the first mission, once you retrieve two documents, the upper part of the building implodes, while a helicopter flies by with a man in a red suit spouting something about a revolution. Or during the second mission right in the beginning when the bio-hazard suit wearing goons are patrolling the airport terminal. One happens to look out the window and notices something in the distances and calls the others to look to figure out what it is. Turns out it's your helicopter and you're flying right at them. They start to run away realizing what they're staring at only to be killed as you slam the helicopter into the glass window, effectively destroying your own means of transportation. It's always awesome and makes you wonder what will happen next with the game. While leaps and bounds better than the original, Elevation Action II didn't do so well. Whether you blame the fighting game popularity in arcades at the time or the waning popularity of arcades in general compared to the 1980's, one thing is for sure: the game was not timely, since it's a sequel to a game that was made eleven years prior. People who saw this in arcades probably never encountered the original and the people who played the original probably didn't know of it's existence due to the long time a sequel was produced, which is a shame. The game was ported to the Saturn in Japan by the company Ving and is apparently rare. It's an arcade perfect port where if you beat the game, you unlock the original Elevator Action to play. Elevator Action II would appear in Taito Legends 2 for the PC, PS2, and Xbox while Japan would see it on Taito Memories Vol. 1 for the PS2. The emulation on the American and European Taito Legends 2 pack for the PS2 is a bit off, since it nerfs the rapid fire on the machine gun and adds in a bit of extra slowdown. The Japanese Taito Memories Vol. 1 has a bit of slowdown, but otherwise does not suffer from these issues. MP3s Download Here Red After Image

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Elevator Action EX / Dexter's Laboratory: Robot Rampage - Gameboy Color (2000)

EX Cover

Dexter's Lab Cover

Elevator Action II

Although masked with a new story, this game is a remake of sorts of the Gameboy game. It uses the graphics and slightly updated engine while tweaking little things to try and make this game seem new. The game starts with you choosing one of three characters: Sarah (the fast girl who is the weakest), Mike (the same sprite from the Gameboy Elevator Action and the average player) and Guy (the strong but slow character). Once you've chosen your spy, a story unfolds of your commander giving you orders to retrieve documents located in these buildings. As the story advances, it becomes a rescue mission, since the bad guys have kidnapped your female driver friend. Gameplay wise, the game plays just like the Gameboy version except much smoother. Everything moves much faster than the Gameboy version and makes controlling the character much better and precise. While the game uses the same graphics engine and each character looks simplistic, the detail in the buildings although tiny are incredible especially in Scene 2 - Level 2. The level design has also been improved, with more "?" doors to get different weapons (they are all back, including the still terribly useless grenades) and with more puzzle solving elements like trying to find which ventilation shaft to go in to get to the closed off room below or the breakable holes on some floors that will drop you in new areas that were previously inaccessible. Probably the best new feature is the addition of being able to continue, instead of having to start all the way back to the beginning when all three lives are expired. This alone makes EX better than the Gameboy original. Elevator Action EX was released in Japan and Europe, but for the North American release of Elevator Action EX, bam! Entertainment decided to bastardize the game with the Dexter's Laboratory license from Cartoon Network. The graphics are slightly different with enemy spies turned into robots, the building interiors' appearance changed to look like a laboratory, and instead of choosing from three different characters you are now able to select only Dexter, but wearing three different outfits, two being robotic suits. The scenes now show Mandark, Dexter's arch rival, taunting you about some nonsense about a code that Dexter is apparently trying to find. Other than that it's exactly the same game, right down to the level design.

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Elevator Action EX	Dexter's Laboratory

Elevator Action - Old & New - Gameboy Advance (2002)

Japanese Cover

Elevator Action - Old & New

Elevator Action - Old & New

Released only in Japan in limited quantities, Taito and MediaKite thought it was time to reintroduce the series for the portable system by giving them two versions of the game; an old version and a new version. They did this for both Bubble Bobble and Elevator Action. The old version is the arcade original and plays exactly the same as you'd expect, although you can't see as much of the playing field due to the small size of the handheld. The new version is the real meat of the cartridge and it's more of an enhancement of the arcade original with a new anime/chibi coat of paint. You select one of four characters (the ninja is hidden once you beat all eight areas with the three default characters) to traverse in various buildings and other locales under a timer now to once again retrieve documents for yet again reasons unknown. The game takes several elements from previous games and throws them together such as the heart health system from the Gameboy games and the multiple characters with different stats and Kart's hand grenade (everyone in this game has them as the subweapon) from Elevator Action II. However, several things were added to make the game feel somewhat new. Enemies include the return of the black suited agents from the original and the policemen in riot gear from Elevator Action II. What was added include security guards (who will not attack you but act like security cameras from Elevator Action II - once you've been spotted, they blow a whistle and leave from one of the doors, only to have a swarm of other agents come out to shoot you down), giant laser shooting robots (takes ten bullets to bring them down), and bizarrely puking zombies (although they can be knocked down, they never "die" and will get back up within four seconds). Taking them down is the same per usual with either shooting them, jump kicking them, crushing them with an elevator, or dropping the light bulb on them. While they will constantly chase you (save for the slow moving zombies), for some reason they will not chase you down escalators. Also added to the evading portion of the game is that now that when you shoot out a light bulb and the black out occurs, the enemies will not be able to see you for the time being making this absolutely critical tool to utilize when clearing areas. And due to the low ceiling, you can now just jump to shoot out the lights. This makes it extremely hard to jump over bullets however. The level design is hit or miss. Like the Gameboy games, you will most definitely have to backtrack to find where the red doors are. This is the first game in the series where you won't just be going up or down; you will have to traverse within buildings side to side to get through them. There are eight areas total with four stages in each level ranging from a laboratory, a high-tech building, and a secret base on an island. Some areas are big (especially Area 7) and makes you wish that the developers considered a map feature to be implemented. The blue doors are back as with the same items that can be obtained from these doors from Elevator Action II with four items: the machine gun (faster than your actual pistol and the only other weapon in the game), bullets (you no longer have infinite bullets; when you run out, you can only punch enemies, which isn't too useful in a gun fight), a watch (extends time), and sunglasses that disguises you into an enemy agent fooling all the others as you zip through the level. Something new to the formula is that now you can enter any door you want. Even if there is nothing in there, you can hide from enemies and pop out at the opportune moment, adding an even more stealth aspect to the game. Elevation Action News adds a multiplayer mode where it's a competition with another player (or with the computer AI) to find all the documents first. A compass on the upper left shows the location of your opponent as you rush to find all the documents before he or she. It adds more replay to the game, though it does become boring after a while. Compared to the original, the game is faster paced thanks to everyone's increased running speed and the constant onslaught of enemies thrown at you. But even with the added things to hinder the player like a timer and limited bullets, it's still incredibly easy. While it adds a lot to the classic formula, it's still the weakest of the series. On a side note, all the music in the new version is a remix of the original theme.

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Elevator Action 3D - Cellphone Game (2006)

Elevator Action 3D

Elevator Action 3D

Elevator Action 3D

Normally, HG101 tends to shy from covering cell phone games, because the games available for phones usually suck, and are available only in limited markets anyway. But this one has to be mentioned. Taito decided to update their classic game once again, but decided to put a new spin to the game - it is now a first person shooter and changed the mood/tone to be a lot darker then any of the games before. Other than the new perspective, it's apparently the same game. Infiltrate a building by snatching up top-secret documents while either mowing down other agents whose appearance look like Agent Smith or avoiding them. One new addition to the formula is the addition of the power-up "Nanosense" which is essentially bullet-time to slow enemies' movement and whatnot to gain the advantage, making the connection to The Matrix even more apparent. A map feature was also added that shows the floor plans such as where all the documents can be found and where all the elevators are located.

Elevator Action 3D

Elevator Action Death Parade - Arcade (2008)

Elevator Action Death Parade

Elevator Action Death Parade

Elevator Action Death Parade

After the cell phone revival, Taito decided to stick with the first person perspective, but at the same time trying to lead the series back to its arcade roots. What genre would be better suited to combine both aims than light gun shooters? Unfortunately, having suitcases, elevators, agents, and a skyscraper to end all skyscrapers doesn't necessarily make an Elevator Action, which is true to Death Parade. As awesome as the subtitle is, the game itself is fairly standard genre fare that could easily pass as an obscure Virtua Cop episode. Two agents and their trusty handguns are all that stand between life and doom for the planet as another madman longs for a new world order, so they shoot down denizens of goons, soldiers, hat-wearing agents, dogs and even mutants of all kinds, all while keeping an eye peeled for suitcases that contain health or points granting documents...and, of course, aiming off-screen to reload. There is no cover system or any other intricate gameplay mechanic to make Death Parade stand out of the crowd of competitors apart from one neat feature. In between exploring the 100 stories of the skyscraper, the agents will every now and then enter elevators either at a normal pace or hurriedly, for example shaking off an invincible creature, strong enough to open up the metal doors of your refuge. In the latter case you quickly need to pound the close button found on the front of the arcade machine, right between the guns. Otherwise you simply decide whether to head for a story above or below you by pressing the corresponding button, allowing for some variation in your progression. The elevator aspect doesn't end there yet, though. Between the player and the screen lies a mechanical elevator door that opens and shuts whenever it is supposed to (be it by your button presses or the aforementioned monsters) and a monitor above reveals the perspective of a surveillance camera within the lift. What this all adds up to is a cookie cutter albeit not terrible light gun shooter, with strangely artificial looking and plain outdated visuals. It only seems to remember select elements of what once used to define the Elevator Action series. because it needs to add some gimmicks without truly altering the gameplay experience, disappointing both series fans and genre fans alike.

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Rip-offs: Mission Elevator - Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1987)

Clearly inspired by Elevator Action, in Mission Elevator you play as a newly hired agent to find codes for a bomb located inside a building. The action is practically the same as Elevator Action, as you can shoot enemies, jump kick them, or avoid them all together. It is weird though, for not only can you not jump over elevator shafts, you can't even walk pass the shaft to get to the other side of the hallway with out the actual elevator being in it's place. The game adds puzzle solving into the mix with being able to examine every item from chairs to candles to pictures on the wall, making the game seem like an arcade adventure then just being an arcade title. Also, the game has one of the funniest moments in history with it's skill of putting down players:

Mission Elevator

Cancelled Game: Elevator Action DS

In 2008, artist Harvey James submitted some concept artwork for a new Elevator Action game intended for release on the Nintendo DS. The wildly designed characters are a stark contrast to all of the previous games, taking elements from Asian street culture rather than 80s action and spy movies. The project was eventually cancelled, but James has released his artwork on the Internet. Read more at Boing Boing.net.

Elevator Action DS Concept Artwork

Links Atari Protos In depth look at the Atari 2600 prototype, including glitches. Gamespite Review of Elevator Action: Old & New.

Elevator Action (Arcade)