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Night Trap Revamped not on Nintendo, devs still bitter about 1994 snub [roundtable]
 
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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08/12/14, 18:07  
 
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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.
08/12/14, 18:18   
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?
08/12/14, 18:21   
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.
08/12/14, 18:33   
@ploot

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.
08/12/14, 18:38   
Sounds like a pretty shitty thing for Nintendo to do. This is like 20 years ago now though, surely amends can be made.
08/12/14, 18:45   
Was Night Trap notable BEFORE the hearings? Seems to me the dev should be thankful for the free publicity it got back then.
08/12/14, 19:14   
@Guillaume

Do you seriously believe that?
08/12/14, 19:23   
@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.
08/12/14, 19:23   
Night Trap, LLC said:
[...]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...
08/12/14, 19:31   
Edited: 08/12/14, 19:33
@Stephen

I could see how being mentioned in the same breath as Doom and Mortal Kombat might actually help sales. No?

Given that the hearings led to self-regulation, ratings, and not censorship, how was Night Trap hurt by being constantly name-dropped?
08/12/14, 19:41   
Edited: 08/12/14, 19:43
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.
08/12/14, 19:42   
@Guillaume

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.
08/12/14, 19:44   
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.
08/12/14, 19:49   
@Stephen

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.
08/12/14, 19:54   
@Guillaume
Regardless, that wasn't Nintendo's reason to throw it under the bus. We're off topic here a bit.
08/12/14, 20:19   
@ploot

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.
08/12/14, 20:23   
@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?
08/12/14, 21:33   
I feel like someone just angrily told me they wouldn't poop in my mailbox and expected me to look disappointed about it.
08/12/14, 21:56   
Imagine that. The maker of Night Trap is being childish.
08/12/14, 23:13   
A tad ironic that they/he chose the phrase "don't burn bridges". I would imagine over 2 decades later he is doing just that.
08/12/14, 23:25   
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