Elevator Action Returns | 1994 | Taito

Taito was an exceedingly prolific publisher and designer of arcade games in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. What with 163 games released between 1977 and 1983, Taito was a venerable king of arcade games. While the vast majority of these titles have been lost to time due to no real preservation practices being put in place until decades later, only the best of the best (i.e., bestselling) are remembered today. One of those games was a little action-platformer called Elevator Action, released in 1983.

Elevator Action is a vertical scrolling action-platformer that sees the protagonist, Agent 17, infiltrate a 30-floor building from the rooftop and ride a series of elevators down to his getaway car in the basement. Along the way Agent 17 must gather a set number of secret documents in red doors in order to clear the stage. While that sounds simple enough, Agent 17 must dodge the bullets of enemies that appear out of other doors on each floor who are out to stop you from collecting their secrets! Thankfully Agent 17 is equipped with a gun. While not the nimblest fellow, Agent 17 can shoot either left or right, and jump into enemies to knock them down or even take a shot while jumping.

The “Elevator Action” comes in to play as the main mode of transportation from floor to floor. The elevator in the center of the building moves up and down at set intervals when not riding, but the game gives you control over the direction of the elevator when you are riding, which is a nice touch. There are other ways to get from floor to floor, like a few escalators placed around each building, but elevators are where the action is, so to speak.

Elevator Action was an instant hit in Japan and eventually around the globe. Heck, even in 2022 you can still find working arcade cabinets in America. This classic game was ported to many home consoles and micro-computers of the day making it a somewhat household name by the mid-1980’s along with other classics like Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, and Galaxian. Despite strong sales and brand recognition, Taito let the IP sit dormant for almost 12 years until they surprised the world with a highly stylized successor in the form of Elevator Action Returns for their 32-bit arcade platform the F3.

Not exactly the immediate success Taito had hoped for, Elevator Action Returns saw middling sales and was mildly well received upon launch in late 1994. Japanese publications at the time rated the game as “fun, but you've been here before,” basically, and US magazines reviewing the import Saturn version said much of the same due to the game being a pretty bare bones port and expensive to import. Despite gamers recognizing the game’s brilliance today, it was released during the height of the versus fighting game boom where most other video game genres born in the arcade were seen as outdated. Today, though, Returns is seen as a critical darling, and one of Taito’s best games of the 90’s. So, what makes the Return to Elevator Action so brilliant? Let’s dig in.

Unlike the first game, the story in Elevator Action Returns revolves around a paramilitary group set out to stop the machinations of an evil crime syndicate beset on creating a new world order. Around the city they’ve placed bombs and documents in various buildings, and it is up to your crew to find the documents, disarm the bombs, and stop the syndicate from overthrowing the government…or something. Like most arcade games of the day, the story is somewhat nonsense but gives you a plotline to follow as you dive into some Elevator Action.

Each character isn’t terribly unique aside from their speed and stamina. Still, finding the character that works best with your playstyle is key to your enjoyment of the game. All three characters are viable, though, and there isn’t one that breaks the overall balance of the game. You can also play co-op with another player. While co-op is a lot of fun, I prefer the single-player experience as Returns is an exceedingly fair game for an arcade run-n-gun and is a fun one to try to 1cc (beat in a single credit).

While the general premise of Elevator Action Returns is the same as the 1983 release, Taito made a number of changes to increase the variety of play. The first level is set up much the same as the classic release with your character being dropped off at the top of a building and needing to work your way down. But beginning with stage two, levels become larger and more varied with horizontal scrolling added into the mix across the remaining five stages. There’s also quite a bit of variety in enemy types with at least one new type being introduced in each stage. While each new enemy type is generally harder to take down than what came before, you’ll see a mix of all enemies up to that point on each stage adding to the variety and strategy.

As you traverse the levels you will need to enter red doors to take care of your mission objectives. If you take too long to get to your next objective, though, a warning siren will go off to encourage you to hurry-up or pay the consequences. Along with the red objective doors, there are also blue doors you can duck into for cover from enemy fire, but also to collect points, food for life, and new weapons from a roulette wheel that appears once the door is closed. You can also find item pick-ups from crates and barrels you can destroy around each stage. Watch out, though, because enemies can come out of any door, even when you’re standing right next to one!

In a carryover from the first Elevator Action, some objects in the play area can be used to strategically take out enemies or even groups of them. Some barrels can explode when shot, leaving a burning field on the floor that will instantly kill any enemy that runs into it. While other barrels can roll across the floor, trampling an enemy that comes into contact with them. Overhead lights and cameras can be shot down...you get the idea. These elements do no harm to you (even fire!), so have fun exploring and shooting everything you see. There’s a lot of fun interactions to discover and clever ways to dispatch your foes.

Unlike the first game where you die after a single hit, Elevator Action Returns adopts a much more forgiving life-bar. On default settings you get two lives per credit, and as mentioned before, your stamina is determined by the weight of the character you choose. You have plenty of ways to defend yourself, though. Your main pistol never runs out of bullets, which is nice, and you can perform melee attacks if you are directly next to an enemy. In addition, there is a rocket launcher and machine gun you can equip that greatly increases your fire power. The machine gun (M icon) is great for consecutive strikes, but the rocket launcher (the L icon) pierces foes along its path and kills everything it touches in one hit before it explodes. Each character has a limited number of grenades they can throw that have a wide area of effect, and you can find some bombs that set the entire floor on fire as well. 

Elevator Action Returns is a highly deliberate game. Every move you make must be intentional or you will put yourself at risk, much like a classic Castlevania game (pre-Symphony of the Night). Actually, the characters move about as fast as Simon Belmont, complete with zero control over your jump arcs once you commit to a jump. You can sprint with a double tap of left or right on the controller, which is quite handy, but be careful not to fall down an elevator shaft! Because of the precision controls, though, the characters will stop on a dime at the end of a sprint rather than skid to a halt – they even crafted little animation sequences that make this transition from running to full-stop nice and fluid. 

While many gamers would categorize Elevator Action Returns in the run-n-gun genre, it plays much, much slower and deliberate than its contemporaries of the day like Contra, Gun Force and others. Like those other run-n-gun games, though, shooting is the main mechanic. Though, you cannot shoot while jumping and you can only shoot vertically at a 45-degree angle aside from shooting left and right. While this seems restrictive, the game is designed around these restrictions adding to the deliberate and intentional feel of the gameplay loop.

At six stages, Elevator Actions Returns sounds like a short adventure, but that’s not the case. The pacing of the game is slower than other arcade action games, but that does not mean that the pacing of the gameplay is poor. Rather, the game has a methodical structure to its pacing that matches the deliberate and intentional control and action the game presents. Once you have a general idea of the layout of each stage, it should take you about 30 minutes to beat which is on par with most other arcade games of the era.

I’ve come to refer to Elevator Action Returns as a “Contravania” as it has the intentionality of classic Castlevania games while retaining the heart pounding run-n-gun action of Contra. The pace of the game is highly unique, and even later sequels and remakes of the first Elevator Action that would come out in subsequent years feels quite different than the direction of Returns. There really is nothing quite like it (a theme with games on the F3).

Being designed for Taito’s mighty F3 arcade hardware, a 2D powerhouse, Elevator Action Returns is a beautiful game full of color, vibrant animation, and small details that make the pixel art aficionado smile from ear to ear. The animation is especially fluid with an almost rotoscoped feel much like the cinematic platforming classics Flashback and Out of This World. The pixel artists added stylish flourishes to each character’s unique animation sets, making their personality shine through in even the smallest of actions. For example, if you are sprinting toward a door and do a full stop in front of it with Kart, he’ll very quickly and seamlessly throw his arm behind him to open the door and step backward into the room with a suave confidence that is only rivaled by James Bond. These moments are plentiful and make the game a joy to watch as much as it is to play.

This fluid animation is paired with incredibly detailed sprite work and easy to detect interactive objects in the game world compared to background elements. You are never confused as to where you should go or what you can/can’t interact with. While Returns does not utilize the F3’s sprite rotation and other effects as well as other games on the hardware, that’s hardly the point here. Any more bombast in graphical effects would detract from the intentional setting and control scheme and work to the game’s detriment.

In another callback to Castlevania, the sprites wouldn’t look out of place in a game like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night or Rondo of Blood as they look vaguely reminiscent of the “house-style” Konami used in their character sprites at this time. It doesn’t look like there were any ex-Konami staff working on Returns or at Taito at the time, but it’s an interesting observation regardless.

Not only is the presentation on point in Elevator Action Returns, the musical score brings everything together in a tightly knit cohesive package. Yasuhisa Watanabe and the Zuntata in-house band at Taito created a rich tapestry of Jazz inspired spy tunes that provide the perfect backdrop for a game all about infiltration and espionage. It really is a stellar soundtrack and is worth a listen outside of the game when you need something cool and catchy without vocals playing in the background. Sound effects are well recorded, and voices are clear and plentiful with each character’s personality coming out in their quips and quotes through the six-stage adventure. The enemy grunts and yells are also fantastic, even a little funny, which helps to bring some levity in the more serious tone of the game.

There are some F3 games that received an "Extra Version" like Darius Gaiden and Bubble Memories. These Extra Version games remix the level designs, enemy placement, and bosses while also tweaking the overall difficulty and mechanics. I mention this only because it's a dire shame Elevator Action Returns never received an Extra Version. The game is over in 6 stages, and after mastering the game you are left salivating for more Elevator Action. The painstakingly detailed and deliberately drawn backgrounds would have been hard to remix, so I understand why it's not there, but Returns would have been a perfect candidate for this "extra" treatment and given this addictive formula even more life.

Elevator Action Returns really is in a class of its own. The addictive gameplay loop, stellar presentation, and amazing sound design make this game standout as a class-act from Taito. Returns is a fair but challenging arcade game that doesn’t penalize you for playing and keeps you coming back for more. It’s a game that invites you back into its world for “one more go,” and you’re happy to jump back in every time. For what it is and what it represents, I have no criticism - I can't find one thing wrong with the game. Elevator Action Returns, to me, is an underrated masterpiece of arcade game design and I feel that all action game fans should give it at least one chance.

So, how can you play it these days? Well, that’s a tough one. While the Taito F3 arcade cartridge isn’t too hard to find, it is well over $400 along with needing the F3 motherboard and various devices to make arcade hardware work with modern display technology (a minimum of $700 for a set up). You could also source the Japanese Import Sega Saturn release, as it is a nigh-arcade perfect port. Sadly, it’s over $250 in today’s market making it an elusive collectible for retro-game enthusiasts. Taito did include the game on their Egret II Mini arcade console, but that is still an expensive ask for most folks and, again, marketed for retro-game enthusiasts and only widely available in Japan.

If you don’t want to pay big bucks, though, and want a physical copy, the Taito Legends 2 arcade collection on PS2 has an emulated version of the game that is better than nothing, but a number of drawbacks make it the worst way to experience this classic. Chief among them being running the game at the incorrect resolution resulting in an obnoxious amount of shimmering while playing. What's worse, the developers also implemented a soft filter over the screen making the sprites look like a layer of Vaseline was spread over them. It's not great...

For most folks, the best way to get your hands on this game is via Mame or other popular PC arcade emulators. For co-op play, though, and solid rollback netcode, check out the free Fightcade client on PC. As of the time of this writing, there is no FPGA solution for the Taito F3 hardware. So, unless you’re playing on the F3 arcade board, there really isn’t a “perfect” way to experience this game in the modern era. I’ve played every version of this game and the original release is definitely the recommended way to experience this masterpiece (marginally so over the excellent Saturn port, though).

To my knowledge there is nothing else on the market today or in the past quite like Elevator Action Returns. This unique experience demonstrates the brilliance of the Taito development teams when firing on all cylinders and stands tall with the other masterpiece titles on the F3 hardware like RayForce and Darius Gaiden.

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