Elevator Action Returns, known in some countries as Elevator Action II, is a 1994 video game made by Taito as an Arcade Game. It's later ported to the Sega Saturn by Ving. A rerelease was made in 2022 by City Connection. The game is included in the Taito Legends 2 compilation for the PlayStation 2, Windows and Xbox, released in 2006. An enhanced port, known as Elevator Action Returns S-Tribute, was released for Steam, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on December 1, 2022. The port include gameplay features such as Rewind, Slow Mode, Quick Save/Load, Unlimited Credits, Stage Select and Increased Healing.
The game takes place in modern times where the government has ordered the deployment of an specialist anti-terrorist unit known as D.E.F. to investigate and take down a terrorist known as Red Suit. The agents consist of Kart Bradfield, Edie Burret and Jad the Taff.
Elevator Action Returns provides examples of:
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer: The entirety of the fourth stage takes place in an underground sewer and subway.
- A.K.A.-47: The main characters' sidearms are identified as a "Glog 18," "Berltta M92F" and "Dessert Eagle."
- All There in the Manual: The soundtrack album for Returns features a narration that gives a slight background to the terrorists and the main characters. It also gives the name of the game's Big Bad: Red Suit.
- Ambiguous Ending: At the end, if you defeat Red Suit and destroy the door controls in time, the nuke still launches and everything goes white. Cue the credits playing over Red Suit's blimp in flames, followed by the Name Entry screen congratulating you for your good work. One could wonder if the heroes escaped or perished with the bomb.
- Anti-Frustration Features: The "S-Tribute" port adds a variety of options, including rewind, save states, a slow-motion mode, infinite continues, the ability to keep special weapons between stages, and the ability to skip to any stage.
- Ax-Crazy: Red Suit certainly has this vibe. Aside from him boasting about his revolution and his Evil Laugh, he cheers you on in the final battle while taking bullets from you.
- Badasses Wear Bandanas: Kart sports a headband.
- Big Bad: Red Suit, who doubles as the game's Final Boss.
- The Big Guy: Jad the Taff is the game's Mighty Glacier, and can even kill enemies by running into them.
- Bloodier and Gorier: Returns has enemies that go up in flames if they touch fire or are struck with explosive weapons, spill blood when shot, and leave behind a large pool of blood if they're Squashed Flat by the elevators. This only applies to humans, as attack dogs simply whimper and fade out when hit.
- Bomb Disposal: You're only looking for secret documents in the first stage behind the red doors. In the other stages, you're defusing bombs placed behind the red doors. Fortunately, all you have to do is enter the door and the agents will take care of the rest. Although the offshore drilling rig ends up blowing up anyway...
- Callback: The first stage is the only one designed like a stage from the original game, taking place in a completely vertical building, and ends with the characters escaping in a vehicle once they reach the basement. There are no escalators through.
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Blue for Kart, Pink for Edie (with some green), Green for Jad, and Red for Red Suit.
- Combat Sadomasochist: Red Suit. When you face him, he seems more thrilled at being shot at than achieving his goals.Red Suit (upon being shot): Yes! Yes! That's the way!
- Coming in Hot: The second stage opens with the players crashing a helicopter into an airport occupied by terrorists. They come out of it dizzy and even take out a few of the bad guys.
- Competitive Balance:
- Fragile Speedster: Kart and Edie both fall under this for different reasons. Kart has average gun speed and health, but is physically the fastest. Edie can shoot the fastest and her physical speed is above average, but can't take many hits.
- Mighty Glacier: Jad has the best health but is also the slowest, but his gun is faster than Kart's.
- The Cutie: Edie Burret. In the Saturn port, she even has a pose where she puts her hands behind her back and twiddles her feet around.
- Cutscene Power to the Max: In the opening for the fourth stage, the agents jump from a helicopter into a subway deep underground. At the end of the fifth stage, the characters fall into an escape boat. Both falls would easily kill them in gameplay.
- Darker and Edgier: Aside from the details in Bloodier and Gorier above, Red Suit is trying to ignite a revolution with a nuclear missile, and if you run out of time at the end, he successfully launches it and the mushroom cloud it creates isn't pretty.
- Disney Villain Death: Red Suit meets his end by falling down the platform he was on.
- Evil Is Hammy: Who else than our villain Red Suit?
- Evil Laugh: Red Suit does this every time he appears.
- Gratuitous Japanese: Returns has every character speak in English, although Edie speaks Japanese in one of her idle animations for some reason.Edie Burret: Bakamitai... translation
- Kill It with Fire: Enemies can be set ablaze with bombs or rocket launchers, and certain mooks even have flamethrowers.
- Market-Based Title: Known as Elevator Action II in North America.
- Nonstandard Game Over: Allowing time to run out in the final stage will end the game.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: The game's Big Bad is simply known as Red Suit.
- Palette Swap: Various enemies are re-colors of others. Red Suit is a red version of the other agent enemies, and has their moves.
- Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: Upon confronting Red Suit for the final time, he'll say, "Aim carefully..."
- The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: Red Suit's objective is to cause a revolution to build a new world, and attempts to achieve this by organizing a terrorist movement and obtain a nuclear weapon.Red Suit: Crush the old order and create a new society!
- Shield-Bearing Mook: Certain enemies are armed with a shield, but you can knock it out of their hands with one shot. Just don't forget to shoot them again.
- Shout-Out:
- One of the graffiti writings in the first stage reads "UFO or DIE", a side project from Yamatsuka Eye and Yoshimmy P-We of Boredoms.
- One of the planes in the 2nd stage has the word "Darius" written above the door.
- The briefing before the final stage includes the line "...may the power be with you."
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Some enemies wear open shirts that expose their chest, and another type of enemy doesn't wear a shirt at all.
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Red Suit does this periodically in the early stages, and only averts this in the final showdown with him.
I'll get you next time!
