Play Elevator Action Returns Online

Summary

Elevator Action Returns (often called Elevator Action II) drops you into a gritty, paramilitary world where a small team must infiltrate high‑rise complexes and steal hidden computer data. The core loop revolves around riding the building’s elevators, blasting through enemy guards, and hunting down every red‑marked door that guards the intel before racing to the exit.

The arcade cabinet uses an eight‑way stick, a shoot button and a jump button, letting you fire a semi‑automatic handgun by default, upgrade to missiles or an automatic rifle, and even combine shoot‑plus‑jump for character‑specific explosives. Blue doors spin a roulette that can hand you health packs, sub‑weapons or bonus points, while a health gauge and a strict time limit keep the pressure on. Falling more than two stories, getting crushed by an elevator, or letting the timer run out all cost a life.

Environmental tricks add a layer of strategy: you can crush foes with moving elevators, detonate oil drums for fire trails, and later dodge electric barriers that zap anyone nearby. The game supports two‑player co‑op, letting friends coordinate attacks and share the chaos. In Japan it ranked ninth on Game Machine’s arcade chart in May 1995, and reviewers praised its frantic shooting despite giving it a mixed overall rating.

Storyline

Elevator Action Returns follows the elite counter‑terrorist unit DEF, formed to stop a new global terrorist organization that threatens world order. The team consists of three specially chosen operatives—Kart Bradfield, a fast and agile blond shooter; Edie Burret, a quick‑firing brown‑haired woman; and Jad the Taff, a strong, muscle‑bound veteran—each equipped with a primary gun that can be upgraded and a unique sub‑weapon. Their mission takes them into six high‑rise buildings where they must locate hidden computer data behind red‑marked doors while racing against a timer that will detonate the structure if it expires.

Players can ride elevators between floors, destroy cameras that trigger alarms, and blast barrels, drums, and a variety of enemies such as lackeys, zombie soldiers, karate agents, trench‑coat goons, and guard dogs. Blue doors contain a spinning wheel that awards items like points, health packs, machine guns, or rocket launchers when the fire button is pressed. The game’s fast‑paced action and limited time pressure force the agents to clear each building before it blows up, securing the data and thwarting the terrorist leader known only as Red Suit.