Cliff Hanger (video game)

Cliff Hanger is a laserdisc video game from Stern Electronics, released in 1983. It functions as an interactive movie, pulling animation from two Lupin III films—primarily *The Castle of Cagliostro* (1979), with additional footage from *The Mystery of Mamo* (1978). Players must respond to quick time events to advance the story.

The plot loosely adapts *The Castle of Cagliostro*, following the character Cliff as he tries to rescue Clarissa from Count Draco (also spelled "Dreyco" or "Dragoe" in different materials), who intends to marry her. Cliff receives help from Jeff (Dan Dunn) and Samurai.

The game was edited at Associated Audio Visual, Inc., in Evanston, Illinois, with Jack Bornoff as editor and Paul Rubenstein as editorial supervisor. Segments from *The Mystery of Mamo* use the original Toho/Frontier Enterprises English dub, while those from *The Castle of Cagliostro* use a dub created specifically for the game by an unknown voice cast. A feedback loop reads frame details from the laserdisc, keeping gameplay and video in sync. The original version shows Cliff being hanged if a quick time event is failed, but a setting on the cabinet’s logic board let operators disable that sequence.

The game was considered for Discotek Media’s American Blu-ray release of *The Castle of Cagliostro*, but was left out when the original contracts could not be found. The TV show *Starcade* aired a special episode where contestants played three rounds of *Cliff Hanger* instead of the usual three games; winner Mark Walsh received a cabinet. The game introduced many Americans in the 1980s to Lupin III, Hayao Miyazaki, and Japanese anime, since it arrived in the U.S. before any official theatrical or home video releases of those works.