As a 53-year old gamer it’s no surprise that I was around for (and played) Night Trap when it first appeared in 1992. I was a huge fan when CD-based media came to consoles. I had the Turbo Grafx CD and one of the first SEGA CD’s and even the Panasonic 3DO. CD’s gave birth to the flood of FMV (full-motion video) games that would soon dominate the gaming culture throughout the 90’s. While some games (like Night Trap) relied on raw video clips other games like Wing Commander used FMV to far greater effect by blending video and CG. By the time the FMV fad was over the use of real video was pretty much despised by gamers; usually a sign of an instantly short, linear, and shoddily produced cash grab of a game.
But for those who want to relive a bit of gaming history, Night Trap – 25th Anniversary Edition has finally arrived for the PC and it’s everything I remember…and a bit more. Night Trap, along with Mortal Kombat were responsible for a great deal of hoopla back in its day; generating comical levels of panic with parents and senators who were certain that anyone who played this game was going to be raping or killing (or maybe both) young girls. Never mind that the game actually has you SAVING girls from pathetically gimped vampires; but then again, everyone who was against the game never actually played it. All of this rabid panic actually led to the creation of the ESRB and the first Mature rated titles. Considering that same game – now presented with much cleaner high-res video – is only rated Teen shows how times have changed. You can see more violent content on the Disney Channel.
Night Trap is basically about the Martins, a family of vampires who regularly invite guests into their home then trap them one by one and drain and bottle their blood for the neighboring Augers. While never clearly explained, the Augers are less civilized vampires who hobble around in head-to-toe ninja garb with giant cattle prod-like devices that clamp around your neck to drain your blood – because having them actually bite somebody was considered too violent in 1992 even though Bela Lugosi was doing the very same thing in 1931.
You play as the “new guy” assigned to SCAT, appropriately named since they are a crappier version of SWAT. SCAT has hacked into the house security system giving you access to eight camera feeds and all sorts of traps that you can use to trap the Augers before they can capture all the pretty guests. Lending a bit of star power to the game is Dana Plato (Kimberly from TV’s Different Strokes) who plays an undercover agent blending in with the girls – at least when she’s not talking directly into the camera.
The game is just over 25 minutes long and during that time you will need to dutifully scan the thumbnail images of the eight camera feeds for any sign of Auger or other suspicious activity then quickly switch to that feed on the main monitor and wait for the red light that signals you can trap an enemy. To make things a bit more challenging the traps are locked with a multi-colored code system and the game will periodically reset the code, so you must be watching the proper screen at the exact time to hear when the Martins actually speak the new code color. This is the only part of the game that is truly random. The rest of the Auger (and Martin) captures tick off like clockwork, which basically turns the entire game into a lengthy exercise of trial and error while you note locations and times, so you are more efficient the next time you try.
The very design of the game goes against everything you WANT to do as a voyeuristic gamer. Obviously, it’s easy to get caught up eavesdropping on the Martins in the kitchen or watching the girls have an impromptu dance party, but doing so guarantees that Augers are coming and going in other rooms, and when too many escape it’s Game Over. For those with limited patience there are numerous guides already on the Internet that detail every minute and second of the game, telling you when and where to be for captures and color code change alerts. This turns the game into an unexpectedly fun co-op experience where one person is calling out locations and time codes and the other is actually trying to get all 100 captures.
Perhaps more entertaining than the game is the awesome collection of documentary videos found in the Theater mode, but even then, these are cleverly locked away behind gameplay challenges that will require multiple playthroughs of Night Trap and the included original prototype game, Scene of the Crime. Perhaps the biggest incentive for getting the perfect 100 captures is that it unlocks the ability to watch all of the story elements outside of the game, so you can finally hear all the dialogue and watch that dance party as many times as you want. I particularly enjoyed all the behind-the-scenes footage, interviews, and actual video from the senate hearings.
I was also impressed at the quality of the voice and audio for a game that was created in the days of the VCR. More importantly, the camera feed thumbnails actually show live video, so you know when something is going on in another room and can switch over. The only hiccup in the presentation is when the Martins call out a color code swap in an obviously dubbed moment of conversation.
Night Trap – 25th Anniversary Edition is a fun trip down memory lane – just make sure you don’t stop at the Martin’s, or you may just die laughing. The acting is as comically bad as the game is linear and short. With its trial-and-error core design that may have worked back in 1992, most modern-day gamers will likely try this a few times before heading online to find that cheat sheet. Nostalgic gamers like me can probably justify the $15 price of admission to this laughably bad, interactive B-movie, but casual gamers might want to wait for a Steam sale.
