"Why won't there be Nintendo versions of the game?"
Ever hear the term "never burn bridges?" Well, Howard Lincoln, the former president of Nintendo US, made our lives miserable during the 1994 Senate Hearings on Video Game Violence. Not only did he quietly suggest to congressman, though the use of Nintendo-supplied and heavily edited footage, that they should demonize Night Trap rather than Nintendo's Mortal Combat, but he also declared publicly that Night Trap would never appear on a Nintendo system. And he was right: as much as Nintendo desperately needs publishers to support their third-place platform, we won't be one of them. There's just too much bad blood between us and them.
Well, there you have it. IMO, it sounds pretty bitter and childish, and it doesn't look like it's helping their campaign much. It does make me wonder, though, if other 3rd-parties still hold onto grudges from Nintendo's ruthless 80's/90's days. What do you guys think of this story?
This is one game I can't imagine anyone being terribly upset about missing out on. I could easily see some companies still holding an old grudge though.
Who really wants this? Sure there might be a certain strange charm to FMV games but when 99% of them (including Night Trap) were terrible in pretty much all regards, why bother?
It does sound childish, but I remember how "demonized" Night Trap was back when it came out. It was absolutely thrown under the bus. If Nintendo had a big part in that I sort of don't blame the developers' grudge.
That said, the game wasn't very good. More of a novelty of its time.
Howard Lincoln more or less latched onto Joe Lieberman's attacks on the game to make Nintendo look good. I'm pretty sure Lieberman completely misrepresented the game's goal (killing the girls rather than protecting them) and did so absolutely knowingly.
@Guillaume This. Seriously. It would be totally forgotten if not for the controversy. I could see how the rest of the industry could see Nintendo as traitors for tattling to the senators though.
[...]but he also declared publicly that Night Trap would never appear on a Nintendo system. And he was right: as much as Nintendo desperately needs publishers to support their third-place platform, we won't be one of them.
I have to wonder how many Wii U systems Night Trap would have moved...
I'll likely be picking up a copy when it's in the $10 range.
I'm one of the 12 people who owned a Sega CD and have fond memories of Night Trap (and Sewer Shark, Sonic CD, Texas Ground Zero...there was actually a lot of memorable titles for it).
Besides, Night Trap is like the MST3K of gaming. So schmaltzy and cornball.
I believe it got pulled from retailers because of that. Beyond that, I don't really subscribe to the idea there's no such thing as bad publicity. Look at the Xbox One's situation.
Yeah, I saw this, and this is one case where I'm not upset about a game not coming to Nintendo consoles. Night Trap wasn't a good game at all, before or after the controversy.
Heh, it was pulled for Sega CD, but came back the next year on several platforms.
I just think that in the "Mortal Kombat, Night Trap, Doom" listing, one of these is not like the others. The one that regularly shows up in "worst games of all time" lists.
I know it wasn't Nintendo's reason to throw the game under the bus. I'm saying Nintendo probably did the title more good than harm, which makes the developer's grudge even sillier. Which, as far as I know, is the topic.
@Guillaume Haha, fair enough. I was being a grump, sorry.
It is weird that this is happening. The 7th Guest 3 didn't have a successful Kickstarter. Did Boogerman? Does this title even have a big enough fan base for this?