So I bit the bullet and bought this thing, because playing Night Trap at sleepovers was a weirdly-outsized part of my childhood, and frankly I just had to know what the remaster was like. Now, I'm the type of person that generally has mixed feelings about remasters, because they tend to replace the originals in peoples' thoughts and their game libraries. So I generally think it's extra-important to be as faithful as possible to the original game when releasing a remaster.

That said... Night Trap is and was a terrible game, and Night Trap 25th Anniversary Edition is a higher resolution (but not HD) terrible game. Why choose this one particular instance to remain faithful to the original?

While I think any remastered release of Night Trap should absolutely include a "classic" mode that shows how the game originally played, I really think Night Trap can be transformed into a halfway enjoyable game if they would just include an alternate mode with a few small tweaks:

1. Multiple screens. Night Trap is a game that punishes you for watching its own content. As difficult as it is to tear yourself away from the fascinating story of Secret Agent Dana Plato going undercover at a slumber party to catch a family of trap-obsessed vampire people, if you want to get anywhere in Night Trap, you have to do just that. This was a technical necessity back in the days when it had to read the video off of a spinning disc, but nowadays there's no reason to limit the player to one screen. I should be catching augs on one screen, and watching Dana Plato and friends sing the Night Trap theme song on the other.
2. Open up the trap timing. I mean, I see the damn aug, he's right there. Why not let me queue up the trap a few seconds beforehand, so that I can get back to my sweet, beloved Dana Plato? Instead, I've got to sit there and jam on the button until the trap finally triggers, unless maybe it doesn't for arbitrary plot reasons? Look Night Trap, if I see an aug, I should be able to catch it. Sure, I know that conceptually I need to wait for the stuntman in his K-Mart pajamas to step on his mark before I can open up the floor and shoot steam into his stupid face before dropping him to his untimely death. But come on, why make me wait? I know he's going to step on that conspicuous square cut into the floor about eight seconds from now. Just let me hit the button now, he can die when I'm not looking.
3. Label the damn monitors. Like I said above, sometimes you can see an aug, but the game won't let you catch it. Why? Because you have to wait until he walks into a different room, and then you can trap it when he steps near the cabinet that awkwardly pushes him onto the bed which catapults him out of the house. The problem is that a lot of times you need to act fact, and there's no way to tell which monitor corresponds to which room on the map. Sure, I know the aug walked into the bedroom just left of the main hallway, but which fucking monitor is the left bedroom? Who the hell knows. Better yet, why not let me navigate around the house using the map itself? It'd be a lot easier to get your bearings that way, so I can spend less time frantically clicking random monitors, and more time with by future wife Dana Plato. What's that, you have bad news for me? Sorry, too busy frantically clicking random monitors to listen to that.

Based on the overall shoddiness of this re-release (even by Night Trap standards), I'm pretty sure I've given all of this far more thought than the developers did. But as bad as Night Trap is, it's undeniable that it's an important game, historically speaking. So why not try to fix some of its flaws, and make the game more playable?

I really do think there's a functional game buried under there somewhere, and this re-release was a missed opportunity to shape this ugly duckling into the beautiful swan that, deep in my heart, I know that it could be. Oh well. I guess my dreams of a kickass Slam City with Scottie Pippen remaster are out the window; launched by a catapult-bed into the pile of dead augers that is my hopes and dreams...

Night Trap! That's that awful game that encourages violence against women! Our government better step in and ban that game before it's too late.

Seriously though, it's crazy what our stupid politicians used to think about this stupid game.

I wonder if we're treated to a whole QL or if Jeff will show this on UPF.

How, why and ways it mutated:

Nice documentary that goes into things like compromises that makers had to make in order to get the original made.

@charlie_victor_bravo: That interview with Night Trap's director is packed into the remaster, as well.

@charlie_victor_bravo: Not only was that really interesting to watch, but Joe Redifer--the guy narrating the video that I embedded--was thanked in the credits. That's pretty cool.