Elevator Action

Title screen makes it look like a Western.

Introduced in 1983 by Taito, the next game in my playthroughs is Elevator Action.  As with many of the games I've been playing, I have a long history with this one.  When I was a kid, my allowance was 50¢ a week and, when I'd receive my 2 quarters, I would head to the corner market to spend them on a couple of arcade games near the front.  I got pretty good at this particular game and it even got me in trouble once when I was out too long.  As I headed to the market, my Dad told me to come right back when I was done.  Over an hour later, he showed up looking for me because I hadn't returned and was still in the middle of my second game.  Thanks a lot, Taito!

Rappelling to the roof.

The basic idea of the game is that you are a spy infiltrating an enemy building.  Inside are enemy agents and an increasingly complex system of elevators.  You make your way from top to bottom, avoiding or eliminating spies, collecting secret documents from the red doorways, eventually reaching the garage level where you jump into your car and escape.  It's sort of a side-scroller on it's end (a vertical-scroller?).  Once you complete the level, the color palette shifts and you do it again with faster, more agile enemy spies.

The different stages of each level.

The first section is a simple elevator down the center.  The second makes to exit the elevator to use escalators on the sides of the screen.  The third is a section with no lights but the final section is where the real elevator action begins.  There are 5 separate elevators to use with some tied together vertically.  The enemies can also use the elevators and will shoot at you whenever they see you.  You can dispose of them by shooting them, jump-kicking them in the head, shooting a light out above them (which them falls on them) or, more rarely, squashing them under an elevator.  If you miss one of the red doorways on the way down, you'll perform an jumping animation with "!!" marks then teleport to the door you missed.  You must then travel back down the tower to the bottom.

The escape!

On my first play I did fairly well, getting to level 3 and around 38,000 points.  I decided that beating level 4 and getting at least 50,000 would be a good stopping point.  While doing this, however, I discovered that level 5 had the same colors as level 1 so I wondered if that was the point where it repeated.  After a few (a lot) more tries, I managed to get to level 6 (same as level 2) and, finally, level 7.  Yep, it was the same as level 3.  Good enough for me!  Game complete!

Levels 2, 3, 4 and 5.

There's no real end, I assume, so you could just play it until you're tired of it, but the action is enjoyable and the music is catchy.  There's a satisfying thud when you jump-kick the baddies and the escape at the bottom of each level is fun.  I also enjoyed the extra challenge of trying to kill enemy spies with the light drops and squashing them with the elevators.

My unfortunate demise.

Overall, I still enjoyed the game after all this time.  I was able to get fairly good at it again after a short time and I could definitely see myself coming back occasionally to play it.  It's easy to pick up and play for short periods of time (unless you play for an hour and your Dad gets upset).  The repetition is the biggest problem with the game since it's the same building, level after level.  It feels different since the enemies get smarter and faster, but you don't see anything new once the colors cycle.  Still not sure about a number score for these playthroughs, but let's go for a 7.  Play it... it's good.