Night Trap

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Description

Five girls go to a party in a nice house on a lakeside. Five girls disappear without a trace... Now another five girls go there in order to spend their vacation with the Martins, the owners of the house, in particular with the lovely Ms. Martin. This time, you should not let them die a gruesome death! Because "nice people" can sometimes turn out to be... yes, that's right - vampires.

The whole house is full of traps that are intended to catch the poor innocent girls so that the vampires can suck their blood. Luckily, the brave adventurer is there in order to cease to be hunted and to become a hunter instead! Set the traps so that they capture the villains themselves, using precise timing and good organization.

Night Trap was the very first game that used FMV (full-motion video) technology with live actors. Although it doesn't contain nudity or particularly gory scenes, it was considered one of the first games to have mature content.

Screenshots

Promo Images

Alternate Titles

• "Scene of the Crime" -- Working title
• "Night Trap: The Director's Cut" -- PC title
• "ナイト トラップ" -- Japanese spelling

Part of the Following Groups

• Games made into comics
• Games referenced in movies
• Live action cut-scenes
• Night Trap series
• Theme: Vampires

User Reviews

You are trapped in a cheesy '80s horror movie...	SEGA CD	Dr.Bedlam (56)
Night Trap: Yuppie Vampires and Hidden Cameras	DOS	ETJB (450)
Reviewed Congress to establish Video Game Ratings.	SEGA CD	Nick Seafort (22)
I looove Night Trap ;D	SEGA CD	Juan Ramirez (91)

Critic Reviews

The Video Game Critic	3DO	Feb 18, 2002	A-	91
Oldies Rising	SEGA CD	Mar 07, 2010	18 out of 20	90
Video Games	SEGA CD	Aug, 1993	72 out of 100	72
Video Games & Computer Entertainment	SEGA 32X	May, 1995	7 out of 10	70
Digitiser	SEGA CD	Apr 18, 1993	3.5 out of 5	70
Just Games Retro	SEGA CD	Oct 29, 2006		60
HonestGamers (Staff reviews only)	DOS	Oct 31, 2006	6 out of 10	60
Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM)	SEGA CD	Dec, 1992	24 out of 40	60
GamePro (US)	3DO	Mar, 1994	2.5 out of 5	50
3DO Magazine (UK)	3DO	Dec, 1994		20

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Trivia

Controversy

Night Trap along with Mortal Kombat (both uncut games on SEGA systems) were two of the mainstream games that brought about a lot of controversy in North America during the mid 90's. Because of this and a push by people like Sen. Joseph Lieberman, the supreme court got involved. A law was passed in 1994 to make a game rating system for all video games in the market. The system became the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board).

Ironically, Night Trap's controversy, that led to its part in the creation of the ESRB, was due to misinformation. The news reported that the object of the game was to kill the girls. This is incorrect. The object is to protect the girls and assist the soldiers who enter later. If you lose a girl or soldier, you lose a life.

Despite the hearings, the case also showed the industry that controversy sells. The SEGA CD version was lifted from poor sales to more than 50,000 copies per week in the US. Despite that, SEGA stopped the distribution of the game by January 1994 because of what it did for its public image. During the hearings retail chains such as Toys R US and Kay-Bee Toys had already stopped stocking the title. Distribution of Mortal Kombat was never discontinued.

Dana Plato

Night Trap actually made a name (sort of) for actress Dana Plato (remember her from Diff'rent Strokes?). To this day, everyone still remembers her from this game.

Development

This game, along with Sewer Shark, were originally made for Isix's ill-fated Control-Vision console (the console was to use VHS tapes for the games), but after Isix's console project (code-named NEMO) got the axe, this game and Sewer Shark (both made by Digital Pictures) were 'saved' by being ported over to the Sega CD.

Awards

• Computer Gaming World
  • November 1996 (15th anniversary issue) – #6 Worst Game of All Time

Information also contributed by Captain Canuck, LepricahnsGold Sciere and The Ring Hawk

Related Web Sites

• Night Trap - Wikipedia (article about the game in the open encyclopedia)
• Video review of the system (WARNING: Language) (The Angry Video Game Nerd, James Rolfe, reviews the Sega CD and gives brief reviews of some games, including Night Trap for Sega CD.)