The player assumes the role of a secret agent infiltrating a 30-story building from the roof, then descending to ground level via elevators and stairways.

[2] Otto enters a 30-story building at roof level with a goal of exiting at the ground floor, collecting secret documents whose locations are marked by red doors.

[3][2] He can run or jump across an empty shaft as long as the elevator is above him, and can ride on its roof but not control its motion or cross to the other side.

[4] If Otto tries to leave the building without collecting all the documents, he will be transported to the highest floor that still has an unopened red door and must work his way back down.

[4] In addition, if he takes too long to clear a level, an alarm will sound; the enemy agents then become more aggressive, and the elevators will be slower to respond to the player's joystick movements.

[8] 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.

[8] Elevator Action was first ported to the Family Computer by Micronics, and this version was published by Taito in Japan on June 28, 1985.

[18] 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 earlier that year.

In Japan, Game Machine listed Elevator Action in their August 1983 issues as the most-successful new table arcade unit of the month.

[36] In the first month of the North American release, the game was said to have "surpassed all expectations" in terms of popularity and sales by Keith Egging, the vice president of product development at Taito America.

[3] Reviewing the Taito Egret II mini-arcade version in March 2022, Metro said it is "simple stuff but enjoyable" and not as "ridiculously" hard.

They also praised the "unusually deliberate action" and said it has elements found in the later games Impossible Mission, Rolling Thunder and Shinobi.