"Take that, Dana Plato's career!"

First things first, everybody knows that this was featured with Mortal Kombat as one of the big games used in assigning the ESRB the task of rating games by congress. However, this game is also almost universally trashed by most publications as one of the greatest travesties to have ever existed. When it's time to get on the bashing FMV games bandwagon, this is the first punch in the stomach. Wanna know why?

Story: 7.
Yes, it plays out poorly, but it's not THAT bad... or is it? Kelli Medd sneaks into a home with several other teenage girls for the weekend for some unexplained getaway to a place notorious for the disappearance of teenage girls. Yes!!! Shakespeare could have written this... maybe his reanimated corpse did... The family who owns the house is working to harvest blood for the "Augers"... If you really wanna know, you'll have to look. It's flawed from the get go, but I have to say I was entertained...

Gameplay: 1.
This is where the bashing begins. You simply scroll through security cameras to set off traps to kill the would be assailants of those poor helpless, singing, dancing teens and get them through the night until the SCAT team can rush in and save the day. You also use these cameras to watch the story unfold. Unfortunately, if you want to see all of the story, you'll lose the game, because too many Augers will run amok (No, not the lousy Saturn game...). You have to take it in microscopic bits and hope for the best. You basically just watch, activate traps with the push of a button, and try to figure out if the security code's gonna change so you won't get locked out. Seriously, you watch and occasionally hit a button. It doesn't get much worse.

Graphics: 9.
What? Good? Well, for the technology of the time, the FMV looks really good for what it is. That doesn't mean this is a good game... It just means that for early FMV, it's not bad at all. It's fairly clear, doesn't skip about... Hey, it's better than Double Switch... shut up!

Sound: 8.
Seriously, there's some PHENOMENAL camp appeal here. I love the cheesy as can be '80s music, coupled with flourescent colored clothes and big hair... yeah! Plus, the "bad guy" music fits perfectly, like a bad horror movie crossed with a Saturday morning cartoon. Given the poor concept of the material, this is actually very fitting, for real.

Intangibles: 4.
Bad, but not awful. There's just the one game, so no real replay value, but they do mix up the color coding of the security, so it's never the same. The reason I sound almost positive about this game is that there is some very real cheese appeal to be found here. If you like bad horror movies and can stomach films like Hell Comes to Frogtown or Legend of the Rollerblade 7, this game will at least give you a good laugh. The death sequences are so bad that they're funny, and the '80s, early '90s flavor here is off the chart. As a video game, it's awful, but that's not to say it's entirely devoid of entertainment! It's way better than Double Switch, which plays EXACTLY the same, but it (Double Switch) had Debbie Harry from Blondie instead of Dana Plato from Diff'rent Strokes. This game is great if you and your friends are the type to sit and watch campy B movies. If not, stay away, or you'll just feel dirty inside. :)

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 10/14/04