News story
Night Trap Revamped Kickstarter page

"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?

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@r_hjort

I'm a little disappointed. I really want Kris to review that poop.

@Shadowlink
Forcing him to play it in the process? Why do you hate Kris so?

@r_hjort

Well his review of Boogerman was priceless, as was Babysitting Mama. I think it could be gold.

@ludist210
Fine, if you guys want to be all serious about it, I'll admit I'd obviously love to read Kris's review of Night Trap.

@r_hjort

A small sacrifice for comedic awesomeness. Besides:

kriswright said:

I hate Shadowlink.

So yeah, it's fair that he should suffer

This would make a little more sense if Howard Lincoln were even still at the company, but a lot of the management has changed since then.

As far as other companies holding a grudge... nah, probably not. While that may have been a case for some of them during the SNES, N64, or GameCube days, I think there have been plenty of Nintendo's recent decisions that have driven off publishers.

@ludist210@r_hjort@Shadowlink

I will watch soft porn.

FOR THE FANS!

@kriswright

You're an inspiration to us all

It was a shitty game then and it's an even shittier game by today's standards. People are actually backing this?

Night Trap guys reiterate their stance on Nintendo.

A word about Nintendo. Twenty years ago Nintendo used Night Trap as a lightening rod to attract attention away from problems of its own regarding the game Mortal Combat. Their behavior was loutish and disingenuous, and hurt everyone in the gaming business. That was a long time ago, and many things have changed since then. We bear Nintendo no ill will, and certainly bear no ill will to anyone who owns a Nintendo system. But life is short and you have to pick your targets of opportunity. We simply have no interest in paying licensing fees to a company that once tried very hard to put us out of business.

It's funny, I usually hear the phrase "life is short" in reference to not holding a grudge...

I think I'm with Gui here. The publicity that the congressional hearings generated about this game likely helped it sell more copies than it should have. I played the game for about five minutes at a friend's house before I gave up. It's not a very good game.

Also, the publisher/developer (whatever they are) keeps misspelling Mortal Kombat. No C in there.

@Hinph

Not very many people are...it's not even 10% to its goal after three days. This is going the way of Cult County.

@Hinph Not many. There's no way this game hits its lofty Kickstarter goal.

Yeah, why should the audience fork over 300k for Night Trap to come back? It's ridiculous. Give the original video masters to some college students and I'm sure they could whip it together for the price of an affordable sedan with leather interior and power windows. Night Trap is a glorified DVD menu.

The fact that he keeps misspelling Mortal Kombat bothers me too, as well as the insinuation that Nintendo was in deep trouble with their weak port of the game - especially compared to Night Trap backers SEGA, with their bloody version of Mortal Kombat. It was not even developed in house.

I mean, I don't know if Howard Lincoln played hardball with Night Trap. I'm sure he was capable of it. But the reasons this guy cites are kind of puzzling. And that's before you confront Gui's question of whether Night Trap ultimately benefited from the notoriety. Is this dude really sitting around thinking FMV could have been more than a passing fad if it wasn't for the behavior of Howard Lincoln?

I'd also like to add that I don't care if it comes to Nintendo systems or not. I honestly don't care if it comes to any system. A game like Night Trap is notorious because it's so weird and bad and off-putting. Even moreso than Boogerman, it has no business being drummed up as some sort of legendary game that deserves support from the gaming community. I mean, they want it to be profitable before they even make the thing.

At least the Mad Dog McCree guys had the decency to rerelease their shitty game on their own dime.

Howard Lincoln may no longer be at Nintendo, but I still absolutely feel for Night Trap's developers. I think they're completely justified in choosing not to bring this to Nintendo systems; I would be pretty pissed if Nintendo tried that with my game as well.

@X-pert74

Is it their game though? The guys running the Kickstarter don't disclose who they are (EDIT: they do, but none of them were involved in the original game) or who they're paying a "low six-figures" to in order to develop the game. It reeks of a scam, and potential backers apparently see that.

@ludist210

They've said in an interview that they needed about 250k just to secure the rights to Night Trap, which makes me think it isn't the original creators. It also makes me think they're underestimating the cost of the game, if anything--250k is probably all that'll be there after the heavy chunk that taxes take out.

@TriforceBun

How the heck are the rights to Night Trap worth a quarter of a million dollars?

What am I doing with my life?

I had the same reaction. Hiroshi Yamauchi is dead and Howard Lincoln doesn't even work there anymore.

The funnier thing is that he thinks people care whether Night Trap is coming to Wii U. I mean, if anything, the hardware would benefit HIS game.

@kriswright

Yeah I'd figure Night Trap's rights would be worth roughly the amount of change you find in the sofa cushions.

@chrisbg99

Hmmmm.....I'd be happier with the dollar.