Night Trap

The Good
This game, along with Mortal Kombat and several other more "gory" titles were reviewed by the US Congress in order to determine the video game ratings system as we know it today.

The idea here is that kids have been disappearing from this mansion, which happens to have a security system connected to video systems, and an elaborate trapdoor system. You've been "plugged in" to that network, and it's your job to protect the girls from would-be predators.

The particular scene that the Congress was interested in was the part where a girl comes out of the shower and is attacked by masked assailants.

The Bad
The acting. Okay, look at the box cover up there. Does that look like good acting? Yeah, that's basically the whole game. It's a gaggle of teen girls screaming and running away from guys dressed all in black. Let's face it, though.. we're not playing this game for the acting now are we?

The Bottom Line
This game is hilarious. Not just to play, but to watch. It's one of those games that is full motion video, and then the decisions you make cause different portions of video to play. You basically just wait till the right moment and push a button.

It's not as easy as it sounds, especially when you're laughing so hard at the dialogue.

This thing is a riot, especially when you have a large group watching. Try it out if you can find it!

The Good
Night Trap is the game that is famous for being famous. Parents and politicians, on the political left and right, used it as the poster child of an industry that (they felt) was out of control. Its place in gaming history is reason enough to give it a try. Compared to the original Sega CD version, the DOS version features superior graphics, an on-screen map, the ability to pause the game and a nice little documentary about the controversy that Night Trap generated.

The Bad
Night Trap follows a certain format that became all too common with these "interactive movies". Success depends on your ability to memorize the right order required to switch between a series of hidden cameras. If you trap enough yuppie vampires, protect the sexy co-eds and switch to the proper the security code you will save the day. Little free time exists to follow the B-minus, 1980's storyline and if you memorized the order on the Sega CD version, then you will find little challenge on the DOS.

The Bottom Line
Night Trap is famous for being famous. While the full motion video never went beyond a PG or PG-13 content rating, the technology was so advanced, for its day, that it became used as a scapegoat by a laundry list of parents, teachers, media critics and politicians. The game is worth playing for its history, especially if you enjoy these type of full motion video games. However, the game is not really that scary and its replay value is limited.

The Good
The game DOES capture that horrible eighties slasher movie feel... because, in many ways, that's exactly what it is. It even declares on the box that it contains an hour and a half, almost, of real video footage... which is about how long most bad eighties slasher movies WERE.

Oh, and it has Dana Plato in it, which most eighties horror movies did not, but could have. It does bolster that "cheesy eighties" feel.

This could be a personal problem on my part... but the acting REALLY began to grate on me after a while. I mean, MOST bad eighties horror movies didn't have Laurence Olivier or Katharine Hepburn in them, but these actors make those bad slasher movie actors SEEM like they should be getting knighthoods from the Queen or something... I mean, they're BAD!

The Bad
This game, in many ways, exemplifies what's worst about full-motion-video computer games -- its lack of interactivity. In many ways, it feels like being stuck in a Motel 6 somewhere, with a TV set, and only eight channels. Seven of these channels are in fact hooked up to security monitors showing empty rooms elsewhere in the Motel 6, and one channel is showing the WORST sorority massacre slumber party movie you've ever seen.... and there's no way to speed things up. Much of the game is simply... waiting. This is NOT a winning recipe for a game.

The Bottom Line
The game sets you up as a member of a vampire hunters' organization. You are watching secret monitors set up at a house where a slumber party is going on.

The house actually belongs to a mob of vampires, who have set up the cameras and a series of traps, to catch the teen girls and drain them for later consumption... but YOU have hacked into their system, and will now use those monitors to track the VAMPIRES... and the traps to catch them!

Basically, you switch through a series of eight monitors, trying to catch that exact moment on any given monitor when a vampire will wander by so you can spring a trap on him. To win, catch all the vampires. To lose... simply let ONE coed get shellacked, and that's it.