Howard Lincoln, former chairman of Nintendo of America, once stated that the 1993 exploitation title Night Trap will never appear on a Nintendo system. Well, 25 years later, Night Trap is scheduled for release on the Nintendo Switch.
Limited Run Games announced on Twitter that they and developer Screaming Villains are bringing Night Trap to the Nintendo Switch sometime this summer. They even have a little fun with Lincoln’s quote by stating “Never say never” in both the tweet and the game’s Switch announcement trailer.
There’s no word on what special features or enhancements the Switch version of Night Trap might feature, but if previous re-releases of the game are any indication, then you shouldn’t expect much more from the game’s Switch version than the opportunity to play Night Trap. Instead, this game’s impending release is notable solely because Night Trap will finally appear on a Nintendo system.
Is this the first time you’ve ever heard of Night Trap, and you’re suddenly wondering what the big deal is? Oh, have we got a story to share with you.
Night Trap was released at the outset of the great debate regarding violence in videogames that took place in the early 90s. The game itself wasn’t much of a game at all: it took in a series of live-action scenes that featured scantily clad women, vampires, special operatives, and some truly awful acting. What little gameplay there is in Night Trap mostly consists of activating trap doors and switching between cameras.
At the time of its release, Night Trap was considered to be one of the most deplorable videogames ever made. While outright tame by today’s standards, Night Trap‘s use of live-action footage made it a prime target for anyone who thought that videogames inspired real-life violence. Indeed, Howard Lincoln once called the game out for promoting “violence against women” and said that the title “has no place in our society.”
Most of the people decrying Night Trap at the time seemed to have missed the point that the player’s supposed to save the characters in the game, not kill them. Still, the game’s voyeurism and sheer tackiness make it a sleazy product of its time, and together with Mortal Kombat, helped bring about the age ratings systems we still have around today. If nothing else, Night Trap‘s certainly an important bit of gaming history.