Is Elevator Action one of the hardest games on the NES to beat legitimately?

[Kid Dracula 126]

I never would have imagined this game was so hard. It never seems to be talked about. It has 4 levels and takes a total of 12-13 minutes to complete before it starts looping so how bad could it be?  The first two levels are pretty easy but the AI steps it up bigtime in level 3 and is downright unfair in level 4. The bad guys get incredibly aggressive and your character jumps very slowly so it gets very hard very quick. There is a strategy I came across (I think that came from somebody on Nintendo Age) where you group the bad guys near a wall and wait 15 + minutes for the AI to calm down. But that isn't fun at all and not a legitimate completion. Who has done it legit?

[mbd39 1,768]

It took the Mexican Runner over 12 hours to beat Elevator Action and I think he finally had to resort to using the enemy AI exploit.

Of course it's a Micronics port.

 

[Sumez 2,292]

I had no problems beating 4 levels on the original version, and the NES one looks surprisingly faithful all things considered (like @mbd39 said, Micronics), but I wouldn't be surprised if they somehow managed to mess it up and make it play much more frustrating than it should.

I'll have to give this one a try some time, I can't believe I still don't have it.