Game description

Also known as Edward Randy in Japan, Cliffhanger—though originally promoted as an adventure game—is one of the classic beat-em-ups we all love. With the whip-wielding main protagonist, the game is a fun to play homage and caricature in-one to Indiana Jones franchise as well as to Buster Jones’s silent movies and works by Hayao Miyazaki. Throughout the game you take the role of a 1930’s adventurer, who is—along with a daughter of a renown scientist—on the run from steampunk-ish nazis who want the part of a secret weapon of mass destruction they possess. The combat takes place onboard various vehicles, ranging from boats to vintage cars and airplanes. You control Edward Randy, the main character, with an 8-way joystick (defaultly arrow keys in Mame32) and two buttons, one for attacking (defaultly left control) and one for jumping (left alt). The original arcade allows to launch the protagonist’s whip (no, not that one you little creep) in all eight directions transmitted by the joystick. In addition to that, you can also make Edward run by pushing the joystick both up and the way you want to go; pushing the joystick down while jumping will then let you stomp the enemies directly below you. It is rather hard, thougg, to achieve any of this with a keyboard only, and sadly, not all the USB controllers are supported by the 32-bit version of MAME. Still, the wonderful hand drawn graphics and entertaining gameplay makes for a pretty fun experience, even without a proper joystick. Just sit back and dazzle through Venice’s water canals on a speedboat, only to be chased by a steam train in the first stage. Battle steampunk nazis while riding a vintage car through greenish jungle and destroy the giant robot in the secret underground base in stage two. And battle even some more nazis while performing acrobatic stunts on the wings of flying airplanes in stage three, only to finally confront their leader himself in stage four. The Cliffhanger: Edward Randy is probably one of the most action packed videogames ever created, and as such shouldn’t be missed by any serious gamer.