Streets of Rage 2
One my favorite beat 'em ups of all time. Round seven is the mandatory factory stage. It had conveyor belt floors mixed in with a freight elevator sequence, only to end with a fight against a pair of killer robots. The final stage in the game is also an elevator ride where you engage most of the earlier bosses. The elevator comes to a screeching halt in Mr. X's 'throne room'. Unlike earlier in the game, you are not offered the chance to join the crime syndicate this time around. Ahh, the good ol' days when beat-em-ups were the definition of video games.
Resident Evil II
Resident Evil 2's elevator battle was one hell of a boss fight. Throw in a 10 ft genetically engineered monster, a train elevator, and the fight of your life and what do you get? A fitting end to arguably the best of chapter in the series. Side Note: Was Leon's character the most pathetic in the history of side-characters/love interests? He goes the entire game fulfilling every single request from Ada. Meanwhile, the whole time she's just leading him on. Hell, at one point he takes a bullet for her. Does she repay him with the obligatory blowjob for taking said bullet? Nope. He gets nothing. I assume she knows her pussy tastes like Oreos, otherwise there's no explaining it.
Half-Life 2: Episode 1
The infamous elevator sequence that either made you go crying to your mama, or force you to resort to God Mode. That portion of the game was definitely a test of patience as it provided plenty of fuel for anger and frustration. I had a buddy of mine call me daily saying, "I'm still trying to get past those fucking zombies dude!" Thankfully, I was smart enough to use flares to set them all on fire. Bonus time! In the original Half-Life, there was also a quite magnificent elevator sequence. It centered around this one elevator shaft you had to ascend. You would walk up to the shaft and the doors would open. Then suddenly the elevator crashes down to the ground from the top floor, with a bunch of screaming scientists inside. You then have to go in and climb up the shaft, slowly, using ladders. While you're climbing to the top you see this poor scientist dangling from a loose beam at the top of the shaft. And just as you get up to him to save him he plummets to his death.
Silent Hill 3
You're probably saying, "Duder, there were elevators in all of them." To which I would say, "Duder, you're right, but you're wrong as well." Silent Hill 4 took place in a house, and well everyone knows that was a darn shame. Silent Hill gives us elevators with buttons that mysteriously appear and disappear, elevators that descend into hell, flesh-like elevators, demonic carousel-elevator looking things and lastly elevators with word puzzles in them. Sometimes I wonder why they didn't just call the series Silent Demonic Elevator In A Hill.
Metal Gear Solid
This one goes out to my homies: the invisible ninjas in that fucking elevator. A simple stealth device could have come in handy, but that is not the case. After all, what would a stealth game be if it had too much stealth in it. When that alarm first goes off you're thinking to yourself, "what the fuck did I just do?" But no, it wasn't you dude. It's the goddamn squad of deadly invisible ninja-assholes. This is easily one of the greatest elevator sequences of all time and provided yet another "oh shit that didn't just happen" moment in the history of gaming.
TMNT 4: Turtles In Time
It has been widely dubbed as, "The Elevator to Shredder." You're damn right its the elevator to Shredder. It also happens to be the most ultimately bad ass elevator level of all time. When you think about elevators in video games, the elevator to Shredder should be the first thing that comes to mind. From the best music ever in a video game to the appearance of liquid Foot Ninja, and well you get the point. This is clearly the benchmark for all elevator sequences in video games for the rest of time. Cowabunga dude!
Aliens
The only video game I can think of where the baddies actually affected the elevator ride. In Aliens, the second stage, when aliens hit the elevator, they are able to damage the cables. And for those of you who know if those blasted Aliens manage to snap all three cables, the elevator plummets to the bottom. Which of course causes you to lose a life. Thankfully the intelligent designers of Aliens kept us in mind, and chose to give us the opportunity to continue playing as if nothing happened. As opposed to, you know, regular games where if you failed the mission you would just start over. Thanks a lot Konami. You dicks.
Perfect Dark
The only game on this list with the most aestheticlaly pleasing elevators in a game. Who wouldn't want to step into those elevators just to ride them up or down? Okay, okay, fine - I give up. The only reason I included this game was because I feel as though every video game article ever written should reference the coolest fucking weapon of all time: Laptop Gun. Yep, a laptop that turns into a gun. How awesomely ridiculous is that?! And going back to the elevators in Perfect Dark, the alien elevators were actually kinda cool - you know, for an N64 game.
Feel like I'm leaving one out? Comment below!
