"Still not bad by today's standards..."

Elevator Action is a fond memory of a bygone era. I remember playing the game as a child and feeling a dreadful chill as I watched for an opening to escape the building I had infiltrated. It really isn't the same today as it was back then, but the game is still fun if you have a functioning NES to play it on.

Essentially, Elevator Action is a game where your characters enters at the top of a tall building, then works his way downwards through the building using elevators, goes into red doors to gather "intelligence," and then has to escape through the bottom parking lot of the building. It's a very simple concept; however, the game is quite challenging.

You start by entering a building through the roof. Usually there are two elevators, one on each side of the screen, that you can move up and down. Your object is to work your way downwards through the building while avoiding enemies that can shoot you if you are seen. Of course, you can shoot back, and also take out lights on a particular floor so your enemies cannot see where you are to shoot you. Meanwhile, there are doors on each floor that the enemies appear out of to surprise you. You can hide in these doors, to, but for very short periods of time (so you can get away from enemies).

A few floors have doors that are red, and you must get into those. They are generally heavily guarded and require a bit of stealth to sneak into. After getting the intelligence documents from several red doors, you continue to work your way to the bottom of the building. At that point, only one elevator actually reaches the bottom, where you have a car waiting. By then, there will be more than just two elevators to go through. Instead, there can be a couple more; meaning that you might be riding the wrong one that you need to get to that allows you to reach your car. You may end up having to go back up the building to get to the elevator you need.

After you escape, you start over on a different building, but the gameplay remains the same. The real fun in the game comes when you finally sneak into a room to gather intelligence and a swarm of enemies come out of adjacent doors and you can't get out of the room you are in. You have to wait for them to leave, which they don't always do, so you can sneak away; or, you can try to jump out and shoot several of 'em and hide inside another door before you get shot. Like I said, really simple gameplay that is done quite well.

The game does have its drawbacks, of course. The buildings are all basically the same. The doors are in different places and that elevator layouts may be different, but you are really just doing the same thing over and over. There is little story. You are Agent 17 and you are gathering intelligence on the enemy. There isn't any "story" portions after each building you clear to push a story along. Too bad, too, as that would increase the playability of the game. Finally, the graphics aren't great, even by NES standards -- but this game was an eary NES title, and very few of the early NES titles can really be said to have anything above "decent" graphics.

Most NES games are cheap nowadays. That being the case, if you have a functioning NES to play, there is no reason not to include Elevator Action into your library of games. You probably won't get a ton of replay value out of the game, but taking into consideration how many NES games you still really get much replay value out of (except RPG's), you are getting a decent value for your buck. And when I say "your buck," that just what I mean. This game can be found for a dollar in used stores. Go pick it up!

Overall Score: 7.3.

Peace.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 02/09/07