1980 · Taito · Platformer · Puzzle

Steel Worker

Nintendo console exclusive

Steel Worker is a reflex game that combines OH&S with the Japanese practice of just in time manufacturing. Each level starts with a mindless worker moving steadily from one side of the factory to the other along an incomplete gantry. To prevent the worker from falling to his doom, the player must select another piece of the gantry to be erected by the time the worker reaches the end of the current one. The process is repeated until the worker makes it to safety at the platform at the other end of the screen, or four workers have died. Complicating matters are a pair of elevators in the centre of the screen whose touch will be fatal to the steel worker.

Released: 1 March 1980
Platforms: Arcade Nintendo Switch 2
Genres: Platformer Puzzle
Developers: Taito
Publishers: Taito
Modes: Single-player
Perspective: Side view
Themes: Action
Country: Japan

About

Steel Worker is a 1980 puzzle-strategy video game developed and published by Taito for arcades. It was released in Japan in March 1980 and Europe the same year. It is similar in gameplay to DMA Design's Lemmings which came 11 years later. Hamster Corporation released the game as part of their Arcade Archives series for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4, as well as their Arcade Archives 2 series for the Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in September 2025.

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The player must help a construction worker navigate through levels while he does high-altitude work to prevent him from falling to his death. The player can place scaffolding leading the worker in both directions, diagonal pathways or stairs. One platform helps connect the levels while obstacles such as falling girders must be avoided. Levels end when the worker reaches his destination, though causing him to fall three times will end the game.