Elevator Action

Elevator Action is a platform shooter. The player assumes the role of Agent 17, codename: "Otto", a secret agent. Otto enters a 30-story building at roof level with a goal of exiting at the ground floor, collecting secret documents (500 points per) whose locations are marked by red doors. Along the way, he must use the building's elevator and escalator systems to move from floor to floor and avoid or kill the enemy agents trying to stop him.

After picking up all the documents, Otto can escape to the basement and drive away in a waiting car to end the level (1,000 points times level cleared, up to 10,000). Otto can move left and right, jump, duck, and fire up to three shots at a time from his pistol. While Otto is in an elevator, the player can push up or down to send him to a higher or lower floor. He can jump across an empty shaft as long as the elevator is above him, and can ride on its roof but not control its motion or cross to the other side.

Elevator Action quickly became a commercial success for Taito. In Japan, Game Machine listed it as the most successful new table arcade unit of July 1983; it then topped the magazine's table arcade cabinet charts from September through October to November 1983, and persisted on their charts up until March 1984.

In the first month of the North American release, the game was said to have "surpassed all expectations" in terms of popularity and sales by Keith Egging, the vice president of product development at Taito America. The game was reportedly popular with patrons at the 1983 Amusement Expo. Conversion kits for the game were also popular, and the number of kits sold set an "enviable record" for the company. It was among the top five highest-grossing arcade games of 1984 in American street/route locations.

In 1991, a version of Elevator Action was made for the Game Boy, developed and published by Taito. While it retains the gameplay of the original arcade version otherwise, it includes new gameplay elements like power-ups and new weapons. A port of the game for EZweb mobile phones was released on April 15, 2004. This mobile version was later published in North America by Sony Pictures Digital around 2006.

A sequel, Elevator Action Returns, was released in arcades in 1994. Elevator Action EX is an updated version of the game released for the Game Boy Color in 2000. Elevator Action Old & New is a further update for the Game Boy Advance, published in 2002. A later remake of the game, titled Elevator Action Deluxe, was released on PlayStation Network on August 31, 2011. The game contains single player and multiplayer modes, as well as the original arcade game.