Arthur DiBianca has made several popular limited parser games, including Grandma Bethlinda's Variety Box, Inside the Facility and The Wand.
Excelsior was their first attempt, and its player respons/reviews influenced the later games.
Excelsior restricts all action verbs to movement and 'USE'. Your goal is to reach the top of a tall tower.
I thought I had played through this whole game before, but I played through with the walkthrough, and I was surprised at how much there was. I think this game does not measure up to DiBianca's later games, as there is a great deal of "something changes somewhere that you can't see" devices here, that makes the game very complicated.