Night Trap: 25th Anniversary Edition Headed To PlayStation 4
Night Trap, the early '90s CD-ROM game that freaked out parents and politicians alike, is getting a second lease on life thanks to publisher Screaming Villains.
As announced via a trailer on the PlayStation YouTube channel, Night Trap: 25th Anniversary Edition is headed to PlayStation 4 consoles this spring, bringing with it a new HD interface and remastered footage taken from the original game. Night Trap: 25th Anniversary Edition will be available digitally and will receive a small physical release courtesy of Limited Run Games, complete with packaging designed that invokes the Sega CD original. The game is currently set for a spring 2017 release.
A mix between an adventure game and an interactive movie, Night Trap made waves in 1992 for its use of full-motion video and (for the time) edgy content. In Night Trap, players switch between security feeds a la Five Nights at Freddy's, observing as a group of nubile young teenagers (who, as per horror movie tradition, are played by actresses well into their 20s) try to escape the clutches of vampiric creatures called Augers. While watching the action unfold in real-time, players can spring traps to stop the Augers' assault, and can pick up passwords and other necessary information by eavesdropping on the girls' conversations.
While the campy tone and over-the-top acting make Night Trap hard to take seriously, in the '90s, Night Trap was most famous for fueling the crusade against violent video games. In 1993, a Congressional committee accused Night Trap, as well as Mortal Kombat and DOOM, of promoting violence and objectifying women (one scene, in which a "teen" is attacked while starting to get ready for a shower, ended up being particularly controversial, although the game never shows any nudity or graphic violence).
As a result of the hearings, Night Trap was pulled from store shelves in 1993, although a censored version appeared in 1994. In response to the investigation, video game publishers founded the Electronic Software Rating Board (aka the ESRB), an industry-governed organization that hands out MPAA-like ratings to video games.
Historically, Night Trap is an important game, but it's also very much a product of its time. In fact, if politicians hadn't made such a fuss about the game, there's a good chance that Night Trap would've faded into obscurity, marking yet another time that attempts to censor video games totally backfired.