Overall 8.5 Graphics 6.5 Sound 6 Addictive 9.5 Story 4 Depth 5.5 Difficulty 6
8.1
A brutal, difficult game I kept going back to. endings
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.
Graphics 6 Sound 3 Addictive 9 Story 2 Depth 2 Difficulty 9
Review Rating: 4.5/5
Submitted: 07-05-14
Review Replies: 3
9.9
C.O.D and Halo SUCK!!!1 Fattie54
Taito inc. just rocks my world. Bubble Bobble, Front Line, and more. The best game I can recall from the 8-bit era is Elevator Action. This game is lord to all shooters. Little 2000' kids, put down the controllers for a bit and use an emulator. Then they will see what they are missing out on. I don't even need to bring up how addictive this game is. Games back then were always addictive and this is one of those games. I'll start off with the depth. This game has a lot to offer...... to your enemies! You can crush them like a grape in between the elevator and the ceiling, give 'em a bad ass dropkick to the head by jumping at them, shooting a light and make it rain terror on them and simply shooting them. I would have given a 10, but I think they should have given you power ups such as a machine gun or grenades.
The story is rated higher then it really should be, because it is epic of many proportions. Kill the spy and watch him die!!! Wow, spies seem to be a theme in my reviews. HA HA HA. I also found out the name of your character. Otto. I always called him Elevator Joe and I'm sticking with it.
The graphics are impressive for the time with several colors and everything is easy to make out.
Even though the music does not have any other beats and is just rhythmical beeping, it is still an iconic tune and I always end up humming it all the time.
The game is not too hard, but can grow harder each level. I am also just rating it depending on how good I am at it.
The final score for this game is 9.9! I would have given a ten, but I really grow tired of my pistol. This is Fattie54 A.K.A the Hippie saying thanks for reading and...... peace, man.
Note: Thanks N00B for reading my reviews all the time and does anyone know if this game has an ending?
Graphics 7 Sound 9 Addictive 10 Story 6 Depth 9 Difficulty 3
Review Rating: 3/5
Submitted: 01-13-13
Review Replies: 7
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