are out, making it harder to see approaching enemies. On other floors, Otto can temporarily disable the lights by shooting one of the overhead fixtures. Otto is trained in shooting as well as karate. Otto can kill enemy agents by shooting them, jump-kicking them at close range, dropping a light fixture on their heads, or crushing them with an elevator. If he is shot or crushed, or if he falls down an open shaft, the player loses one life. Release During the game's test phase in North America, Mike Von Kennel, marketing manager of Taito America, called the game a "top test piece" and held high expectations. It was released by in Japan on May 23, 1983, and in North America during October of that same year. In North America, while also sold as a dedicated cabinet, it was Taito's first game to be sold as a conversion kit in that territory. It was available in Europe by January 1984. Ports Elevator Action was first ported to the Family Computer by Micronics, and this version was published by Taito in Japan on June 28, 1985. The Famicom version was later released in North America on the Nintendo Entertainment System around 1987. Taito later made and published their own port of the game for the MSX around 1985. Around that same time, under license from Taito, Sega made and published a version of the game for the SG-1000. It was later ported to the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, and Commodore 64. A port was in development for the Atari 2600, but was cancelled. The Famicom/NES version of Elevator Action was re-released for the Wii Virtual Console in Japan on April 3, 2007, and in North America on March 5 later that year. It was later re-released exclusively in Japan for the Wii U Virtual Console on February 19, 2014, and for the 3DS Virtual Console on March 12 of that same year. The arcade version was later re-released on the PlayStation 4 on October 26, 2017, and later on the Nintendo Switch on March 14, 2019, by Hamster Corporation as part of their Arcade Archives series. Elevator Action is included in the compilations Taito Legends, Taito Memories Gekan, Taito Memories Pocket, and Taito Legends Power Up. The game is also included in Elevator Action Returns S-Tribute as a hidden game, which players can unlock by clearing every stage. Reception Elevator Action