Around this time last year, I did a blog about Night Trap making it to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One to commemorate it's 25th anniversary. (https://sullivanentertainment.blogspot.com/2017/04/night-trap-another-sega-cd-release.html) The cult full motion video game has made it onto Nintendo. It's set to come out sometime this year on the Switch with Limited Run games at the helm of physical and digital copies. For many gamers, it is interesting considering the Congressional hearings in December 1993.
Senators started complaints about video games becoming violent. Night Trap appeared on their shit list. Sega and Nintendo did testify to Congress. For Nintendo, Howard Lincoln testified. The following he said and I quote about the game: "And let me say that for the record, I want to state that Night Trap will never appear on a Nintendo system. Obviously it would not pass our guidelines. This game... which promotes violence against women, simply has no place in our society." Now, the game would not have been possible on the SNES. However, I see Lincoln trying to do whatever it is necessary to make Sega look putrid and make Nintendo, known at the time for their illegal monopoly a few years prior and squeaky clean image (the latter they still attempt to do), look like angels. I don't know if it was purely him saying that or Japan saying he had to say that.
Either way, this was in a pre-Mortal Kombat II era of Nintendo. By the fall of 94, Nintendo lessened their strictness to a point with MK II, leaving it uncensored, showing that the company could deal with content that wasn't G-rated. Their struggles with M-rated and sometimes T-rated games are still a thing today. Back to Night Trap, I doubt Lincoln tried the game, and I wonder if he really regrets even saying that. When you look at the game, it's very tame, but the live action material you could say was enough to cause controversy. Add in the fact that you were saving girls, not hitting or killing them. Saving them from bad guys that were about as stupid as the Wet Bandits, though as I said, this was filmed a few years before Home Alone. (Night Trap around 1987, Home Alone 89-90)
There's not much that I've already said in last year's blog. It would be nice to see other Sega CD games come out, but stuff that is in limbo or have a superior arcade release make it impossible. In the end however, it's another game for the Switch that sees the light of day on Nintendo. This is something Lincoln should not have feared and he should be ashamed of himself if this was all on him and not just Japan talking to him.
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