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For most people, life is a bummer - except for those sickening all-American girls with their shiny white teeth and permanent rose-coloured glasses. But for the five bimbos in Night Trap a serious kick up the butt is well on the way when a slumber party turns into their worst nightmare...

The five females in question were wetting their panties when they were invited to a slumber party at the estate of their new pal, Sarah Martin. However, on arrival at the sprawling mansion, the general consensus of opinion was that Sarah's folks were "kinda weird" but since they disappeared shortly after the girls arrived, they decided not to worry about it - especially when there was Sarah's cousin, Tony, to drool over.

However, the Martins' home has been under observation by the SCAT (Sega Control Attack Team) since five other beauties disappeared without trace from that area. Had they checked out the wine cellar, the mystery would have been solved since the Martins are in fact vampires with a penchant for bimbo blood - and now Sarah has brought some particularly tasty specimens home for tea!

SCAT agents have searched the house and found surveillance cameras and clever traps in eight sections of the house,, all run through a control unit in the basement and are protected by an access code. The agents have secretly spliced an override cable into the system allowing you as the internal SCAT operative to hide yourself in the house and remotely control the camera and trap units.

Your mission is to protect the lovelies by trapping the horrific, blood-sucking Oggers - servants of the Martins - who are overrunning the house, and foil the Martins' evil plot by constantly surveying all the rooms and keeping your wits about you. Good luck, you'll need it!

Never before seen on a video game system but does star Kimberly from Diff'rent Strokes (How the mighty have fallen!)

Save the teenyboppers by tracking ghouls via security cameras and ensnaring them when they walk over the preset traps.

When your mission begins, the access code that allows you to operate the traps is set at blue. The cunning Martins can, and frequently do, change the code throughout the game to red, green, yellow, orange or purple. There's no warning that it's changing unless you happen to be eavesdropping on the Martins in the right place at the right time. Change the code pronto otherwise Access Denied flashes up, the traps won't open and you're up a certain creek without a certain paddle.

To help you in your quest at the house of horror are a number of undercover SCAT agents, including the luscious Kelli (aka Kimberly from Diff'rent Strokes) posing as one of the brainless bints. These agents throughout the game provide diversions, give clues or get themselves captured.

One agent in particular, who looks like CD's version of Rambo, dives into the house fully armed, crawls around a bit and promptly gets himself captured by the bloodthirsty Oggers. The Ogger's method of capture is to surround the hapless victim, insert a drill into the neck and hang him or her upside down in a cupboard with yards of tubes sucking the life blood out and bottling it - yum yum!

Your progress is constantly being checked by the Sega Control Attack Team (SCAT) HQ and if you let things get too out of control and the number of possible captives heavily outweighs the number actually nabbed (keeping the number of captured at roughly above half of the possibles seems a fairly safe ratio), or one of the bimbos gets captured or, heaven forbid, accidentally trapped by you, your commanding officer gives you a serious dressing down, contact is broken and you're thrown off the case - presumably to end your days issuing parking tickets.

All the traps have a built-in sensor which detects when something is within range. When the sensor bar moves into the red zone, immediately press B to capture the perpetrator. It's not possible to trap every single Ogger either because they don't go near a trap or they get wise when they see their mate wasted and purposely step round it. Each of the eight rooms has one or two traps, and to make things easier for you, here's a list of where the traps are, and what they do:

1. Bedroom: Yet another trapdoor under the window next to the entrance to the bathroom and one of my faves - the cupboard moves out and pushes leeches onto the bed which in turn swings up and launches them into the wall.
2. Kitchen: This trapdoor is in the floor next to the large dresser which drags the enemy down into oblivion then closes up again.
3. Hall One: This is quite an elaborate affair just inside the back door which, once triggered, opens up one wall while the wall opposite pushes the victim into the ensuing crevice.
4. Living Room: The first trap is another trap door just in front of the settee while the second is triggered by the book case which swings out and traps the enemy behind.
5. Entry Way: One of the traps is set off on the stairs and involves the whole staircase turning into a slide and swallowing any poor unfortunate at the bottom. There's also a trapdoor by the window.
6. Bathroom: The wall next to the shower opens up and swings round to ensnare victims and there's another trapdoor a few feet away.
7. Hall Two: Quelle surprise, another trapdoor by the top of the stairs and a groovy glass enclosure which drops down by the bedroom entrance and appears to spray those trapped with some noxious substance.
8. Driveway: There's a great one on the roof which catapults nasties through the air and into nearby bushes while another on the roof just drags the perpetrator off to its doom.

Recent Mega-CD releases had lowered my expectations of the machine, but Night Trap has proved to be a stunning surprise. the exquisite presentation of the game more than earns it the label 'interactive' movie, as it has the appearance of a proper film yet offers a lot of interactive opportunities. I love the brilliant 'teen horror flick' atmosphere, created by some suitably cheesy dialogue and corny plot. This is all deliberate, as the actual directing of the scenes is well-accomplished, making the scenario both easy to follow, and convincing to play.

The most impressive aspect of the game, however, is the programming which tags the sequences together. I was blown away by the illusion the game creates of all the events happening at once, in lots of different places. For instance, you can watch the girls arrive in the driveway, or go to the kitchen and hear Sarah announce their arrival from the lobby, or even watch Sarah see them arriving from the front door!

This is aided by lightning fast disc access. Cleverly, the game manages itself up to a climax that is confusing, exciting and challenging to deal with. Because the game follows a set pattern, it can be mapped quite quickly, but it's going to take a long time to trap every Ogger, and the game has some cunning ways of distracting you from vital events.

This is a bit of a showpiece rather than a serious game, but it's ace for parties, and people not normally turned on by video games will absolutely love it!

Night Trap is certainly revolutionary in the console world. It's just so different to anything I've ever seen before and gives me hope that the Mega-CD won't be as sad as some of the games I've seen so far would seem to indicate.

It's not a game that will appeal to everyone - there seems to be a big divide in the office; some love it (like me!) and others think it's pointless and boring. But the way there's so much going on in different rooms at the same time and the way there are so many different outcomes depending on how successful you are demonstrates some magical programming and certainly keeps you busy.

It can be enormously frustrating, especially when you think you're getting the hang of the situation then your commanding officer throws you off the case for not catching enough of the vermin. The only way to combat this, unless you have a photographic memory, is to write down the best route.

This is definitely one of the best Mega-CD games I've seen yet, and the sort that will appeal to all - definitely worth a look.

Presentation 93%
P. The update between the rooms is really fast. The intro sequence is stunning.
N. Listen to the intro for too long and it's game over because everything happens in real time.

Graphics 92%
P. Superb - the motion is smooth and works really well. The trap sequences are really imaginative.
N. It's not a full-screen picture.

Sound 94%
P. Absolutely perfect quality speech - you can hear every word so there's no problem eavesdropping. The music also serves its purpose admirably.

Playability 90%
P. Extremely playable, easy to control and very addictive. It certainly demands your attention all the time.

Lastability 81%
P. There's a lot of action...
N. ... But it's a very mappable game so the end won't be too long in coming. Having to listen to the same dialogue again and again is very tedious.

Overall 89%
Definitely the most advanced and innovative Mega-CD game seen yet. It's not everybody's cup of tea but if you enjoy a challenge and have good reflexes it'll make a great party piece.