Retro Reflections - Elevator Action

Elevator Action was an arcade game by Taito that came out in 1983, and was one of my favorite early arcade titles. Basically you are a spy who grapples to the top of a building to collect secret documents while surviving enemy agents. You use a series of elevators to descend the building until you can reach the bottom and escape.

Elevator Action for the NES

Document rooms are behind marked doors - and enemies can come out of them and try to shoot you. They become more evasive the further you get in. I recall however that I really liked the variety in game play - you could shoot an agent, jump-kick him, crush him with an elevator, shoot out overhead lights that could not only crush them but also make the hallway dark which gives you bonus points as well.

I spent way too much time standing in front of one of these.

It was largely the same on the NES when it released as well. This title was one of my first two NES games, and one my dad no doubt had a part in selecting. See, when I was younger, he would take me to the arcade and he would play pinball and I would play cabinets. No doubt he recognized this as a title I played quite a bit back then. How does it hold up today? Not remarkably well, as you would guess, but playing it did have me grinning from ear to ear all the same.

This just made me grin

I found this video on Youtube of the arcade game