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Arcade Longplay #55: The Cliffhanger: Edward Randy

1,024 views · Published 16 May 2016 · 22:59 · Indexed 25 September 2026

Channel: HIDEFACES · 2016 · Gaming

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The Cliffhanger: Edward Randy, known in Japan simply as Edward Randy (エドワードランディ edowādo randi?), is a side-scrolling action-adventure arcade game only released in Japan by Data East in 1990; however, several world revisions in English exist.

The game is set in a steampunk (or, rather, dieselpunk) worldview, where many scenes and settings are directly modeled after Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, including a whip-wielding main character, Nazi-like enemy army, and battles that take place on biplanes, as well as boats in a Venice-like location. The game also contains parodies or homages to works by Hayao Miyazaki and Buster Keaton. The game also uses a movie-like effect where upcoming in-game events are previewed in the game's background. Unlike some of the other comedic, non-sensical Data East games like Trio The Punch or Chelnov, Cliffhanger is quite serious in its design and plot-line. However, it is still possible to complete almost all of the scenes by only using the spinning attack, so the game system is not too complex. As the game's slogan Ikinari climax (いきなりクライマックス ikinari kuraimakkusu?, lit. "Immediate climax") suggests, the emphasis lies in the game's exciting visual properties rather than difficulty or complexity in gameplay.

The player controls the main character using an 8-way joystick and 2 buttons, one for attacking and one for jumping. The main character attacks using a whip, and he can attack in 8 different directions depending on the direction pressed on the joystick. He can also slide on the ground when the jump button is pressed while the joystick is pressed to the side or diagonally downwards. Pressing the joystick diagonally upwards causes the character to run quickly, and pressing down on the joystick while the character is in the air allows him to stomp on enemies on the ground. The character can also do a spin-attack by looping their whip on other objects and holding left or right on the joystick. The character is invincible while they are spinning, but can only spin 4 times per attack.

The game is completed when the player finishes all 7 levels, and up to 2 players can play together at a time. There are no lives in the game, and the main character's remaining health is directly linked to the number of points gained by the player on each level. The player can revive the main character's health by killing more enemies, and they lose points along with health when they are hit by enemy attacks. The player is taken to the game over screen when their points (health) reaches 0. Therefore, the high score is calculated as the highest number of points the player had at any point in the game rather than the number of points they have at the end of the game.
The game's story-line is explained in demo screens that appear in-between levels. The level's subtitle is displayed before the start of each level.

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