Night Trap, 1992 Hasbro/Digital Pictures/Sega (20 From Sega/Mega CD #10)
10A lightning rod for criticism among parents over violent content in video games, this is nevertheless pretty tame by today's standards. This is a full motion video game (FMV) and it's basically you interacting with a B-horror movie. As a member of a SWAT team-like group called S.C.A.T. (Sega Control Attack Team), you are trying to prevent the disappearance of young women in an estate owned by the Martin family, by way of activating traps within the house to dispose of intruders. The intruders (called "Augers"-- as well as the Martin family themselves) turn out to be vampires, who drain blood from their victims and store them for consumption later. You have control of cameras in 8 different rooms, and can press START to stop the timer on the game, allowing you time in-between trapping enemies. Not trapping enemies won't end your game unless A) you've let far too many go at a certain point in the game, or B) it will lead directly to the death of one of the girls. Speaking of the girls, one of them is undercover as a SCAT agent, and it's none other than Dana Plato of DIFF'RENT STROKES! She will directly address you from time to time, especially to encourage you to use the traps. To use one, you must simply be on the screen as an enemy appears, and wait for the "trap meter" to reach past yellow into red and then hit the B button. Very simple, fortunately (unlike the later, similar DOUBLE SWITCH). You'll need to get proficient at not watching the trap complete its expulsion of the enemy-- though it's satisfying indeed-- because often times you will have to quickly move to another room and trap another enemy quickly! Some folks criticized this for being yet another FMV game (I admit there were too many for the system), the game doesn't hint you as to where/when the enemies appear (you will need to look up the times on Google or write them down yourself through trial and error), or maybe the game was a bit too cheesy (it definitely is), or perhaps the action got repetitive.. I felt it was fun to play again after completion because there was so much you missed due to trying to catch all the enemies. There is almost always something going on in at least one of the rooms, at all times. Something going on in the story, an Auger/Martin family member to trap, or perhaps a code change-- your trap meter won't work if your color of code is not correct (listen at certain times for a Martin family member to announce what color). Originally this game was conceived in the 80s, but for a Sega console called NOMAD that didn't see the light of day, and eventually got made for the 90s console the Sega CD. Also ported to other platforms like the 3DO, Sega 32X, Windows, etc. Note that there are multiple sets of trap times, so play a bit and see which works for your game. If you like cheesy horror movies, then this really should be up your alley! Hope you have a great weekend and I'll see you someday with game number 9!