Cliffhanger (NES)
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- This page is for the NES version of the game. For other versions of the game, see Cliffhanger.
Cliffhanger is an action-platformer game based on its movie counterpart, developed by Spidersoft and published by Sony Imagesoft. Due to its very late release in the NES library (November 1993), the game is rare and highly sought-after by collectors.
In the game, you play as Gabe (portrayed by Sylvester Stallone). A plane is on its way to San Fransisco with $100 million and while the terrorists attempt to get the money from the plane, an FBI agent shoots and destroys the lead terrorist Qualen's plane. After the crash, the terrorists survive and send out a false alarm, grabbing the attention of Gabe and Hal. When they get to Qualen and his men, they're held at gunpoint to go and find the money. Gabe escapes, but must find Qualen's money in order to save his friend Hal who is still held hostage by the terrorists.
The game mostly received negative reviews by critics. They cited the poor graphics, unorthodox controls, and said that the gameplay brought nothing new to the table. There are no checkpoints within the levels, so dying means you have to start each level from the beginning. However, some people have praised the game, citing that it does a great job of being based on the movie, the music consisting mainly of the film's score, and the game controls well enough.
A fun piece of trivia is that legendary game designer David Jaffe is credited as one of the game's testers.
Contents
Screenshots
Music
Cliffhanger features music directly from the movie by Trevor Jones, and was adapted to the NES by famed video game musician Mark Cooksey. The Game Gear, Game Boy, and Amiga versions also feature the same soundtracks, though Cooksey did not work on these titles. If there are any criticisms, it would be that there's only one stage theme throughout the whole game, as well as a boss theme. However, there's also music for the cutscenes, when the level starts, the game over and ending screen, so there's not much in the audio department. Most of the music takes advantage of octave arpeggios, possibly to simulate the strings section used in the film score.
Mark Cooksey used Notator on the Atari ST and converted his MIDI files to the NES using his own sound driver. The music was played back using a box from Spidersoft which connected from the Atari ST to the NES.
Cooksey said this about the music:
Recording
| # | Title | Composer | Arranger | Programmer | Length | Listen | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Title Screen | Trevor Jones | Mark Cooksey | Mark Cooksey | 0:17 | Download | |
| 02 | Cutscene | Trevor Jones | Mark Cooksey | Mark Cooksey | 1:42 | Download | |
| 03 | Stage Start | Trevor Jones | Mark Cooksey | Mark Cooksey | 0:04 | Download | |
| 04 | Stage Theme | Trevor Jones | Mark Cooksey | Mark Cooksey | 2:33 | Download | |
| 05 | Boss Theme | Trevor Jones | Mark Cooksey | Mark Cooksey | 1:30 | Download | |
| 06 | Game Over | Trevor Jones | Mark Cooksey | Mark Cooksey | 0:10 | Download | |
| 07 | Ending | Trevor Jones | Mark Cooksey | Mark Cooksey | 1:15 | Download |
Credits
- Ripper: Gil Galad
- Recorder: Doommaster1994
- Game Credits:
- Music By: Mark Cooksey
- Not Credited Composer: Trevor Jones
(Source)
The game's credits are shown after the ending cutscene.
Game Rip
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Download | 3 KB |
Ripping NES music is beyond the scope of this Wiki.
Audio Devices
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Releases
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Links
- mobygames.com/game/nes/cliffhanger_ - MobyGames.
- gamefaqs.gamespot.com/nes/587192-cliffhanger - GameFAQs.
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliffhanger_(video_game) - Wikipedia.
