Night Trap
Night Trap is an FMV game created by Digital Pictures. It was created (well, more like filmed) in the mid 80's and was originally intended to be released on Hasbro's VHS tape based game console, the NEMO. However, the NEMO was never released, and the game was eventually ported to the Sega CD and 32X, the 3DO and the PC in the early 90's.
Groups of teenage girls have been disappearing after going to the house of the Martin family for a sleepover held by the family's daughter Sarah. As a member of a special task force known as SCAT (Sega/Special Control Attack Team), you are given control of the house's unusual security system, which consists of cameras and traps placed in most of the rooms in the house, in order to help the field agent Kelly (played by Dana Plato) protect the latest group of girls that have been invited over.
The game is most well known for the undue controversy that it caused when it was released along with its less-than-stellar gameplay and cheesy acting. It has also made several "Worst Games Ever" lists.
Followed by a Spiritual Successor titled Double Switch in 1993.
- Affably Evil: The reason people are going missing is because the Martins run a charity wherein they provide blood for augers (see below). Since augers cannot drain their victims themselves without the help of some goofy looking devices.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Danny, Lisa's brother.
- Attract Mode
- Benevolent Architecture: Who the hell puts false walls and smoke traps with bottomless pits in their house?
- Vampires, and people who are serious about their security most likely.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Characters frequently speak to you via the cameras.
- Continue Your Mission, Dammit!: In Part 2 of Taco-Man Plays Night Trap, (see below for link), Taco-Man gets to continue, even though he screwed up (also, you can view the clip).
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Megan gets dropped into the trap that was meant for the augers. |
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- Dummied Out: One of the Game Over scenes.
- The Eighties: Painfully so... But not surprising, since the footage was shot during that time.
- Everything Sounds Sexier in French: Mr. Martin, who tries to come off as a charming gentleman.
- Face Heel Turn: The player has the option of doing this. If you get the perfect ending, you can decide to kill Kelly with a trap for... the meter turning red.
- Family-Friendly Firearms: "Weird Eddie", one of the Martin's neighbors, invented a laser gun in order to combat them and the augers. Interestingly, the SCAT team has real guns (though no one is shown being shot on-screen).
- Frickin' Laser Beams: Subverted.
- Full Motion Video
- Fun with Acronyms: SCAT...
- Genki Girl: Megan.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: Sarah (if you're fast enough to see her in the bedroom at the start of the game) and Tony. All of the other vampires have them as well, but only when they show their fangs.
- Gratuitous French: Mr. Martin says a couple of these phrases, natch.
- Have a Nice Death: Either you get berated by Simms for screwing up and kicked off the mission. Or later in the game when the SCAT moves in, and you fail, Jeff personally tells you how much you missed up before sending you down one of the traps.
- I Know You Know I Know: Combined into one big trope in Taco-Man Plays Night Trap:
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Enter Tony. |
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- Jive Turkey: Collins, the sole black member of SCAT. He pretends to be a Jamaican who's lost his boat as a cover story so he can ask everyone in the house (including SCAT's field agent Kelly) if they're doing all right. When he talks like himself, he sounds relatively normal.
- Kaizo Trap: It's possible to get a Game Over during the intro.
- And to get it, simply by doing nothing. This was actually quite common with a lot of Sega CD FMV games back then.
- Large Ham:
- The guy playing Lt. Simms is deadly serious and is not above disconnecting your controller if you screw up or don't start the game fast enough.
- Also, Mr. Martin ("THE WALL TRAP! AAAAAAAAAAAH!").
- Let's Play: In Taco-Man Plays A Video Game, Taco Man plays this game. The plot is as follows: Taco-Man is hired by Simms to protect Dana (who is taking the role of Kelly) and the girls, just like in the game (although at first, he does not do so, so Simms broke the contact, but do not be fooled by Taco-Man's quote, for it is not the end yet). After the title, when the scene finishes, the game starts, and Taco-Man's quest begins. Along the way though, he breaks the fourth wall by speaking to you about the game. Also, he sometimes goes to many rooms.
- New Media Are Evil: This game is one of the reasons why the ESRB exists today. The game caused controversy and was pulled from store shelves due to its "violent content" and its gameplay being centered around "capturing and torturing young women." It's a good thing that none of the senators involved in the hearing actually played the game. Otherwise, they would have found out that none of these things happen, and they would have had to rely more on the content in Mortal Kombat to get the ruling that they wanted.
- Our Vampires Are Different: Vampires can teleport, make their eyes glow, have super strength, are unharmed by bullets, and can shoot lightning from their hands. Other vampires are created by completely draining a mortal of blood. However, if not enough blood is taken, an auger is created. Augers look like limping burglars due to the fact that they cover themselves completely in black clothing because their skin falls off of their bones due to their hunger.
- Rich Bitch: Lisa, though she's more vain than bitchy.
- Sunglasses at Night: Tony.
- Surprise Slide Staircase: The game uses this as a trap.
- Also, in Taco-Man Plays Night Trap, Taco-Man wants to use it badly:
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Taco-Man: Uh, you know, there is a back door and a door in the living room area. |
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- The other time is this:
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Taco-Man: Again, too bad I can't use the stair trap... |
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- Title Theme Tune: The characters lipsync to it at one point.
- Token Good Teammate: Tony.
- Token Minority: SCAT has both a token black guy and a token woman (if you don't count Kelly).
- Too Dumb to Live: Despite Kelly screaming at the player to use the traps, often in obvious earshot of whoever is chasing her, the bad guys ignore this and blunder into them anyway.
- Tragic Keepsake: Tony has a locket with a picture of his former girlfriend (who looks just like Ashley, one of the girls at the sleepover) in it. We never find out what happened to her.
- Trap Door: One of the possible traps you can use on the augers; other traps include catapulting the augers out the window, for example.
- Unfortunate Names: SCAT again.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Used in Taco-Man Plays Night Trap:
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Kelly runs upstairs, but is stopped by augers. |
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- A Winner Is You: All you get for winning the game is Kelly congratulating you on your success. However, if you get a perfect game (all bad guys captured, all innocents saved), you get to trap her right afterward.