Elevator Action

A stealth-action game ported by Taito from the arcade to the Famicom in 1985. Players take the role of Agent 17, infiltrating a 30-floor enemy high-rise from the rooftop, riding elevators and escalators floor by floor, slipping through red doors to steal classified documents, and finally escaping in a getaway car from the underground garage. Black-suited enemy agents pursue relentlessly; players can fight back with a pistol or kick chandelier fixtures down onto pursuers. The game's lean cat-and-mouse tension and vertically layered stage design made it a formative influence on the stealth genre and remain surprisingly satisfying today.