I just finished playing Elevator Action! Returns. It's a very quick completion. I think I got through the first 3 levels on 3 credits, then had to start over again from the beginning. I used a title screen code to get 7 credits, and then completed the game on my very last life. It was an intense finish! Altogether, I probably put about 1h20 into the game?
It's an excellent game. The controls and premise are pretty simple. There are three characters, each with differences in speed, power, and tankiness. You have to move horizontally and vertically through levels, and you have to move vertically by taking elevators that move back and forth between levels on a timed basis, though once you are on an elevator, you are able to control it.
You have two buttons: jump and shoot. Pressing them both at the same time throws a grenade. Why there couldn't be a third button for grenade, I don't know. You can also press down to duck incoming bullets. The aim is to enter every red door in each of the 6 levels, and then to reach the end. You can get special weapons with limited ammo from drops. There aren't boss fights as such (except for the last level), but there are some pretty frantic enemy spam sections.
It's an excellent arcade game: easy to pick-up and play, and hard to master. Mistakes and deaths largely feel like they're your fault. Some sections do feel impossible to get through without getting hit, but apparently there's a longplay of the game without taking any hits. Impressive! Still, there are some sections that feel less like reaction or skill-based than memorizing exactly what to do and where to position yourself in certain areas.
The pixel art in the game is absolutely lovely. Excellent effects like smoke trails wisping away from the wall after you fire a bullet. It's a really gorgeous 2D game. And did I mention totally badass? In the second level, you crash a helicopter through a giant glass window, and it explodes, killing everyone nearby (except you). This is probably the most hell yeah moment in the whole game, but the rest of the game is plenty heck-yeah. The music is nice and arcade-y, too. It suits the game perfectly.
I find it strange that the game was a Japan-only release, considering that almost all of the text in-game is English. There's some fast, horizontal-scrolling Japanese text between levels, but I honestly didn't even recognize it at first. I'm not sure, but I think it's just translating the English text that's on the screen.
I figure that one of my favorite games of all time, Huntdown, took some heavy inspiration from this game.
9/10
