Night Trap

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.

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.

This was the first video game that actually gave the player a feeling of really being "inside" a movie. It was modeled after b-movies of the 1970s and 1980s so it has everything you can ask for in a cheeseball film. Vampires, scantily clad women, and gallons of blood and gore! All this in a video game FOR KIDS! Yeah they dont make 'em like they used to. This game caused a scandal when people realised just how sleazy it was. The fact it had a woman showing her breasts didnt really help things either. Sega eventually pulled the game after a bunch of toy store chains refused to carry it. Cool game, hope it gets re-released sometime.

I loved this game so much + it was one of the first FMV games. it's a shame that they don't make this stuff anymore, i mean games like Dragon Lair,MadDog Mcgree,Double Switch,Ground Zero. I know this games had a very litle gameplay compare to games this days but it was fun to play them. Does anyone remember Capcom's Fox Hunt for PSX :) , one of the last FMV games , that game was cool.

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.