Night Trap

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.

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.

Night Trap is a hell of a game that keeps you in your toes from the start and it is one of the best games that you can get for the Sega CD. With the distinction of being a game that featured a hell of a murder theme and being one of the first games to spark a history making decision in the video game industry, there is plenty here that makes it worth having, simply because of the historical value. The story line, while cheesy with the dialog is still impressive and you can find enough here to keep your interest through all of the different scenes. if you're a collector, then this game is for you and even if you're a 32X/Sega CD owner, then this game is definitely for you.

Night trap was considered a cult classic on the Sega cd/mega CD. It was a FMV game in which you explore different rooms in the Martins home to capture the augars which are these people dressed in weird black suits. You are a member of Scat and the objective of the game is to go to these rooms and capture them with traps that are funny/stupid. It's very short in that it only takes 25 mins to finish if you know what are you are doing. This game is hard if you playing the oringnal versions in that you don't have the screens moving In real time. The only way to master it is too play it numerous times to know when they show up as well changeing the color codes at the right times. Good news is that there is a checkpoint half way through and doesn't take long to get to it. Also the game is the same everytime you play it so it's not random. The music is cheesy yet entertaining, the theme is catchy and well Done, the acting and writing are terrible but in a b movie kind of way which makes it more enjoyable. The characters are funny if undeveloped, the FMV was good at the time, the game has multiple endings, and if you pick up the 20th anniversary version there are options like a survivor mode which is where you try to capture as many augars as you can. The game is repiptive and doesn't have much variety either. But there is something enjoyable about trapping the augers, the campy acting and storyline, over the top music, interesting idea and challenge. But don't expect to be the best thing the Sega CD has to offer. I would give it a try if you like these kind of games and that you are patient. It's also good for a laugh to.

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.