EX Cover

Dexter's Lab Cover

Elevator Action EX

Although masked with a new story, this game is a remake of sorts of the Gameboy game. It uses the graphics and slightly updated engine while tweaking little things to try and make this game seem new. The game starts with you choosing one of three characters: Sarah (the fast girl who is the weakest), Mike (the same sprite from the Gameboy Elevator Action and the average player) and Guy (the strong but slow character). Once you've chosen your spy, a story unfolds of your commander giving you orders to retrieve documents located in these buildings. As the story advances, it becomes a rescue mission, since the bad guys have kidnapped your female driver friend. Gameplay wise, the game plays just like the Gameboy version except much smoother. Everything moves much faster than the Gameboy version and makes controlling the character much better and precise. While the game uses the same graphics engine and each character looks simplistic, the detail in the buildings although tiny are incredible especially in Scene 2 - Level 2. The level design has also been improved, with more "?" doors to get different weapons (they are all back, including the still terribly useless grenades) and with more puzzle solving elements like trying to find which ventilation shaft to go in to get to the closed off room below or the breakable holes on some floors that will drop you in new areas that were previously inaccessible. Probably the best new feature is the addition of being able to continue, instead of having to start all the way back to the beginning when all three lives are expired. This alone makes EX better than the Gameboy original. Elevator Action EX was released in Japan and Europe, but for the North American release of Elevator Action EX, bam! Entertainment decided to bastardize the game with the Dexter's Laboratory license from Cartoon Network. The graphics are slightly different with enemy spies turned into robots, the building interiors' appearance changed to look like a laboratory, and instead of choosing from three different characters you are now able to select only Dexter, but wearing three different outfits, two being robotic suits. The scenes now show Mandark, Dexter's arch rival, taunting you about some nonsense about a code that Dexter is apparently trying to find. Other than that it's exactly the same game, right down to the level design.

Elevator Action EX Elevator Action EX

Elevator Action EX	Dexter's Laboratory

Elevator Action - Old & New - Gameboy Advance (2002)

Japanese Cover

Elevator Action - Old & New

Elevator Action - Old & New

Released only in Japan in limited quantities, Taito and MediaKite thought it was time to reintroduce the series for the portable system by giving them two versions of the game; an old version and a new version. They did this for both Bubble Bobble and Elevator Action. The old version is the arcade original and plays exactly the same as you'd expect, although you can't see as much of the playing field due to the small size of the handheld. The new version is the real meat of the cartridge and it's more of an enhancement of the arcade original with a new anime/chibi coat of paint. You select one of four characters (the ninja is hidden once you beat all eight areas with the three default characters) to traverse in various buildings and other locales under a timer now to once again retrieve documents for yet again reasons unknown. The game takes several elements from previous games and throws them together such as the heart health system from the Gameboy games and the multiple characters with different stats and Kart's hand grenade (everyone in this game has them as the subweapon) from Elevator Action II. However, several things were added to make the game feel somewhat new. Enemies include the return of the black suited agents from the original and the policemen in riot gear from Elevator Action II. What was added include security guards (who will not attack you but act like security cameras from Elevator Action II - once you've been spotted, they blow a whistle and leave from one of the doors, only to have a swarm of other agents come out to shoot you down), giant laser shooting robots (takes ten bullets to bring them down), and bizarrely puking zombies (although they can be knocked down, they never "die" and will get back up within four seconds). Taking them down is the same per usual with either shooting them, jump kicking them, crushing them with an elevator, or dropping the light bulb on them. While they will constantly chase you (save for the slow moving zombies), for some reason they will not chase you down escalators. Also added to the evading portion of the game is that now that when you shoot out a light bulb and the black out occurs, the enemies will not be able to see you for the time being making this absolutely critical tool to utilize when clearing areas. And due to the low ceiling, you can now just jump to shoot out the lights. This makes it extremely hard to jump over bullets however. The level design is hit or miss. Like the Gameboy games, you will most definitely have to backtrack to find where the red doors are. This is the first game in the series where you won't just be going up or down; you will have to traverse within buildings side to side to get through them. There are eight areas total with four stages in each level ranging from a laboratory, a high-tech building, and a secret base on an island. Some areas are big (especially Area 7) and makes you wish that the developers considered a map feature to be implemented. The blue doors are back as with the same items that can be obtained from these doors from Elevator Action II with four items: the machine gun (faster than your actual pistol and the only other weapon in the game), bullets (you no longer have infinite bullets; when you run out, you can only punch enemies, which isn't too useful in a gun fight), a watch (extends time), and sunglasses that disguises you into an enemy agent fooling all the others as you zip through the level. Something new to the formula is that now you can enter any door you want. Even if there is nothing in there, you can hide from enemies and pop out at the opportune moment, adding an even more stealth aspect to the game. Elevation Action News adds a multiplayer mode where it's a competition with another player (or with the computer AI) to find all the documents first. A compass on the upper left shows the location of your opponent as you rush to find all the documents before he or she. It adds more replay to the game, though it does become boring after a while. Compared to the original, the game is faster paced thanks to everyone's increased running speed and the constant onslaught of enemies thrown at you. But even with the added things to hinder the player like a timer and limited bullets, it's still incredibly easy. While it adds a lot to the classic formula, it's still the weakest of the series. On a side note, all the music in the new version is a remix of the original theme.

Elevator Action - Old & New Elevator Action - Old & New Elevator Action - Old & New Elevator Action - Old & New Elevator Action - Old & New