Night Trap, the controversial full-motion video horror game first released 25 years ago for the Sega CD, will be relaunched soon for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
As an FMV game, the bulk of the gameplay of Night Trap had players watching videos, with minimal input to shape the progress of the story. Developer Screaming Villains will be remastering these videos for the game's 25th Anniversary Edition.
What Is 'Night Trap' All About?
In Night Trap, players watched the events of a crazy night unfold as teenage girls are stuck in a house that is under attack from vampires. It is up to the player to prevent the vampires from draining the blood of the girls by switching between the different cameras placed in the house and activating traps.
Watching the videos in Night Trap will make players feel like they are watching a low-budget slasher film. The game may look like a tame one now, especially compared to recent titles such as Resident Evil 7 and Outlast 2. However, Night Trap was considered as a very violent game when it was first released, dipping it into major controversy.
'Night Trap': The Controversy
The suggestive live-action video of Night Trap and its mature themes were vastly different from the child-friendly games of its era that were headlined by Super Mario and Sonic. However, the controversy that enveloped Night Trap was more than just its uniqueness at the time.
Night Trap, along with the original Mortal Kombat and Doom, featured violent content that helped lead to the formation of the Entertainment Software Ratings Board and the age ratings that it applies to video games. The United States Congress held hearings in the 1990s to discuss violence in video games, and Night Trap was one of the major examples in the discussions.
The video game industry later adopted what is now known as the ESRB rating system to determine which titles are suitable for children and which ones can only be played by mature audiences.
'Night Trap' Relaunch
Screaming Villains will work with publisher Limited Run Games to relaunch Night Trap on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in the spring. However, only the PlayStation 4 will receive a physical version of the game.
According to Limited Run, there will be three different variants of the game's cover. Each of them will be based on the three versions released in 1992 for the Sega CD.
The original developers of Night Trap tried to raise enough funds through Kickstarter to release an HD remake of the game, but the campaign was well short of its goal. However, it seems the FMV game is destined to be relaunched, with the announcement that Screaming Villains is bringing back Night Trap for its 25th anniversary.
The price of Night Trap is still unknown. However, based on the previous releases by Limited Run, the physical version of Night Trap should not have a price tag more than $25. For fans of the game who could not wait to relive the nostalgia, the theme song of Night Trap can be downloaded for free on the Screaming Villains website.
