Has it, or was it ever considered that using an EnvShake controller to make a pit like stage ala Mortal Kombat? I found this character, which uses envshake to scroll up the screen to reveal Kung Fu Man's stage, with a Kung Fu Man lying down the floor below. Except that at the end, it scrolls back up. Interestingly enough it seems to work on any stage.
It kind of gave me an idea that maybe EnvShake could be used to give a similar effect. But instead of the envshake to scroll back up, to force the camera to say below when needed.
You know, it doesn't have to be a spike pit stage. Envshake could act as a way to screen scroll to another part of the stage. Like how in Mortal Kombat where you uppercut someone, and it takes them up to another stage location. Instead of using envshake to scroll down, you could use it to make the screen scroll up to another floor.

I think what is happening is, that the freq and/or phase settings are so low, it gives the appearance of scrolling up or down. Also, I think the ampl setting needs to be high to give the right effect.

I don't know if this is the right spot to post about it, but it kind of gave me a thought when I saw what was going on when I was experimenting with the character.