Night Trap

Sure Night Trap's gameplay could repel a sheer number of players, back in the early 90ies and now. You spy one room after the other, and try to activate the traps at the right moment to capture augers, vampires, and protect the babes. But what's the greatest element about this game is ? It's a time capsule, as it was shot in 1987, you've got that awesome "cheesy" 80ies vibe, the hairdo, musics, fashion, the lines of dialogues are delivered in a very campy way. It's so good you can just watch the game as a short movie. I've been trying to find a movie like Night Trap, and the sorority attack in Revenge of the Nerds (1984) sounds very similar, so I like to think that the game staff was inspired by it. I've got the chance to chat with the late John Rashad Kamal , I was wondering why he spoke french a few times in the english version of the game, it was his choice, as he was fluent in french, he told me this skill made him get many roles in other projects, right under the nose of the other actors. As a french I can tell he was fluent. There was a controversy in the US, politicians doing a crusade against the game cartoonish and tame violence , it was like the people who rate Night Trap to be one of the worst videogame ever, all of these people don't even know what they're talking about. It's so enjoyable to activate the cool traps , spy the gorgeous girls in the rooms ,God ! I love this game.

I heard about the game's controversy in which caused the video game industry to create ratings for video games and many many many years I finally got to play it and I didn't see what the fuss is about. It's about as tame as a PG 13 movie and in matter of fact the game is kind of funny. I played this game to get a perfect game over 20 times until I finally got it. It may be controversial back in the 90s but nowadays it's more funny than controversial.

Despite all the trouble this game caused for the gaming industry, it was still an excellent game, especially for those who appreicate the B-Movie Genre. Dana Plato was great as Kelli and it gives you the feel that you are inside the B-Movie. Most of it you didn't understand but that didn't take away the feel of the game. I hope this gets re-released as a DVD, so we can actually watch the movie inside of playing the video game. If you find it at a used store, buy it. It's worth it just to see the small movie within.

This is the game that introduced the ratings system in video games as we know it today. The depiction of blood sucking vampires chasing girls in skimpy outfits, along with the concept of the game, makes this one of the greatest games of all time. It is a great game even though Sega CD was a bomb as a video game system. Night Trap is a live action video game in which you decide what the outcome of the game. If you are good enough, then you can save the girls, otherwise the girls are a feast for the vampires (called Oggers). Plato's performance is nothing to brag about, but the game is very exciting and fun. A true classic in video game technology that spawned other Sega CD games like Ground Zero Texas, Double Switch, and Mad Dog McCree just to name a few, that uses real actors in the game play.

I still remember the rage in the early 90's about violence in video games. You couldn't watch CNN for more than an hour without seeing clips of Night Trap and Mortal Kombat spliced in with some mad ramblings from US senators. It was the first of many arguments to come against what belonged in video games and what didn't. It eventually lead to a ratings system and while mature and outright morally bad games have come and went Night Trap will forever be remembered as a partner in what created it all. Which in hindsight is pretty funny - the news and all. I didn't get to play Night Trap right away. The only things I knew about it is what the biased news told me and some naive misinformed senators spouted off. Needless to say I wrote it off as pure garbage having not even played it.

It wasn't until years later under the ownership of a brand new 3DO system did I get to experience the self-proclaimed redefining moment in video game history. Here we were in a time when FMV-based games were all the rage. Some people were tooting it as the future. Real actors, real sets. An overall sense of "real" and Night Trap had spawned it all. It had spawned an entirely new genre -- the FMV based game. To think if it hadn't been for some senators flapping their gums Night Trap would have failed and the genre would have never been born.

But what about Night Trap itself?

For me it was a fun, cheesy game that one can't look back on without a smile. Gaming wise it wasn't much. The story on display wasn't that great and it didn't carry nary a characteristic of any of the most popular and influential games of all time, but you had fun watching and playing it and most importantly it worked for what it was. It wasn't overly seriously. They played it for camp in parts and unlike what the television told you the "violence" was pretty tame. For it's time and place Night Trap was a ball and for those who experienced it you will never forget that feeling the game gave you.

Now time has moved on. The FMV video game genre is dead and Night Trap is old news, but no one has forgotten it. The world continues to debate what belongs in video games and video game producers continue to push the boundaries, but whatever comes our way in the future Night Trap has paved the way and has been forever immortalized.