Elevator Action Returns

Sega console exclusive

Elevator Action Returns, also known as Elevator Action II, is a 1994 run and gun arcade game developed and published by Taito. It is the sequel to Elevator Action (1983), featuring a much more gritty and realistic setting. Returns retains the elevator-based gimmick from the original, but expands the gameplay system and replaces the spy motif with a new scenario involving a paramilitary team fighting against a terrorist group.

Released: 1994
Platforms: Arcade Sega Saturn
Genres: Action Science Shooter
Developers: Taito
Publishers: —
Series: Elevator Action
Modes: Multiplayer Single-player
Perspective: Side view
Themes: Action Science fiction
Country: Japan
Entry: #2 in Elevator Action

About

Elevator Action Returns, also known as Elevator Action II, is a 1994 run and gun video game developed for arcades and published by Taito. It is the sequel to Elevator Action (1983), and expands upon its elevator-based gameplay mechanics. It also replaces the spy motif with a new scenario involving a paramilitary team fighting against a terrorist group.

The mostly well-received game was ported to the Sega Saturn and released in Japan only in 1997, and later included in Taito Legends 2 compilation release for the PlayStation 2, Windows, and Xbox in 2006. In 2022, it was included as one of the built-in games on the Taito Egret II Mini arcade cabinet.

›Story

Elevator Action Returns is Taito's sequel to their 1983 game. At the start of the game, you choose one of three characters, Kart Bradfield, Edie Burrett, and Jad the Taff. Each of them has their strengths and weaknesses, as well as different primary and secondary weapons. Your mission is to obtain the computer data that are hidden behind specially marked doors (colored red) in six buildings.

Entering blue-colored doors during the game will trigger a spinning wheel that contains various items, and when you hit the fire button, what it stops on is what you get. These include point items, health items, machine guns, and rocket launchers. As with the original game, you can use elevators to travel between floors.

You can shoot various objects to destroy them, including barrels and drums, which can help defeat various enemies that include lackeys, zombie soldiers, karate agents, trench-coat goons, guard dogs, and more. Avoid being shot by these enemies. There are cameras scattered throughout each building, which can be destroyed. If you are sighted by one of these cameras, a brief siren goes off.

You have limited time to clear each building. When time runs out, the building blows up and you lose a life.

Keywords

helicopter
anime
gravity
high score
airplane
nuclear bomb
dark second act

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The game is controlled with an eight-way joystick and two action buttons (shoot and jump). The objective of the game is to enter all the red-colored doors in each stage and then proceed to the exit. If players miss a door, they will not be allowed to go any further after a certain point. Each player has a health gauge that shows the amount of damage that the playable character is allowed to sustain; when the gauge reaches zero, the player will lose a life. Many additions have also been made to the play mechanics such as four-way scrolling (the original could only scroll vertically), new moves and weapons, multiple characters and a two-player cooperative mode.

The player can uncover items by destroying objects in the scenery such as trash cans, garbage piles, sandbags and crates. There are also blue-colored doors that will give the player a random item through a roulette drawing system. Items include health refills, special firearms, sub-weapons and bonus points. Like in the original game, the player's default weapon is a semi-automatic handgun with unlimited ammunition.

Story

In the late half of the 1990s, a new terrorist group has made its move throughout the world, able to conduct its activities while overwhelming official investigations by government law agencies. An elite counter-terrorist unit, the DEF, has been formed to foil their plans. Composed of three elite paramilitary warriors scouted for their aptitude in urban combat, Kart Bradfield, Edie Burret, and Jad the Taff, only the DEF may be able to foil the terrorist's leader, Red Suit, and his plans to destroy global society and reign in his own new world order.

Reception

In Japan, Game Machine listed Elevator Action Returns in their May 1, 1995 issue as being the ninth most popular arcade game during the previous two weeks. Next Generation reviewed the arcade version of the game, rating it three stars out of five, and stated that "Elevator Action 2 brings out the impulsive, frenzied, shooting psychopath in you, and in that, it's fun. But if this side of your personality is already spent, and ours certainly is, then you'll pass this classic shooter right up".

A 1997 import review by GameSpot gave it a score of 5.2/10, opining: "Elevator Action Returns is not a bad game, per se. But compared to what's out there, it's simply not worth the price of admission (around $60, on average, for an import). If it ever hits the States, it will be the perfect rental". Seventeen years later, Jeremy Parish of USgamer wrote "Elevator Action II was a game out of time. But it was well-made, if conceptually somewhat baffling, and like so many projects clearly borne of misguided enthusiasm it managed to be a lot of fun".