Have You Played: Trap Runner

You are a ninja. Silently you stalk your prey, coming closer at every turn – soon you will be upon them. You clutch your sword tightly as you step forward. You will defeat your enemy, you will have your revenge. You see their back before you as you prepare for your killing strike – but something is wrong.

Your feet slip from beneath you and you are hurled back along the corridor by an invisible force. Your toes skid uselessly on the concrete as you are pitched into the darkness, eventually being thrown down a ramp and into a carefully prepared pit. A quiet 'click' is the last thing you hear before your screen is filled by a massive, all-consuming explosion. It seems that your family will go unavenged.

You may have been a ninja, but your opponent was a robot who shoots rockets from her underwear. The outcome was inevitable.

Welcome to the world of Trap Runner (Trap Gunner in the US), a lesser known PS1 game, but one I thoroughly recommend to anybody with a strong desire to spectacularly detonate their friends.

The game's main menu may offer you the single player option when you press start, but don't be fooled, it's certainly not what you're there for. The lonely route is still worth playing, but it's the multiplayer experience which really shines. The game's tense PvP battles offer you countless hours of strategic pyrotechnic fun, in which both traps and running are involved in abundance.

The players control their frantic skirmishes from a top-down perspective, somewhat reminiscent of Bomberman's similarly explosive combat. However, the scenery is appropriately more complex than simple crates, a number of ramps and bridges adding strategic, and literal, depth to the landscape.

Once placed in this concrete battleground, each player must do their utmost to eliminate their opposite number, using a variety of ignoble means. Although they both have a ranged attack and a close-combat move at their disposal, these are used less as a method of killing your opponent and more as a kind of shepherding tool for the real destructive power, the traps. These unsportsmanlike devices come in a number of flavours, and the available selection is decided by which character is chosen from Trap Runner's bizarre roster.

Strange though they are, the characters are a typical enough batch of Anime stereotypes, from the platinum-haired pretty boy Van Raily to the frankly disturbing genetic monstrosity Abdol Rerin. There is also, of course, a ninja. Each of the characters has different stats and weapons, and carries a different set of three traps, picked from a total of six, and these offer an excellent range of tactical variety. Timed gas traps, landmines and remote explosives can all do serious damage, and they can be cleverly combined with explosion-enhancing bombs, pitfalls, and my personal favourite, “Force Panels” (a device designed to launch opponents into other traps, or if the architect is feeling particularly cocky, walls).

By arranging different traps to interact with one another, more complex schemes can be attempted, and each character demands a different strategy based upon their individual armoury. Force panels and mines are an obvious combination, but pitfalls and gas traps are also a nasty pairing, and enhancing the blast of a remote bomb can produce an explosion that would make Bomberman hide in shame.

Fortunately, the players do have a defence against this flaming demise, namely the “search” function. Player's can enter search mode at any time, allowing them to both see and disarm enemy traps at the cost of movement speed. However, there are devious limitations which make this “search and defuse” tactic particularly hazardous. Should an opponent interrupt the disarming process for example, the trap will be triggered, raining carefully planned destruction upon the head of the saboteur. This is a great use for the ranged attacks, as a well placed shuriken can often mean the difference between an action-hero level of bomb disposal and a red mist where your torso used to be. The search mode also doesn't reveal the type of trap, a real problem when you find yourself creeping very slowly towards a remotely detonated explosive.

The game's clever combination of traps, attacks and detection creates an interesting and dynamic battlefield, and despite the level of strategy it can encourage, Trap Runner is still very accessible to the beginner. It's easy to pick up and enjoy the game, and players will quickly feel comfortable executing all manner of dastardly plans. The appeal of tricking your friends is a strong one, and you naturally find yourself developing complex arrangements, simply for a greater pay off when you succeed – if watching your friend explode is fun, watching them explode better is guaranteed to be even more so.

Even for a new player, the compelling blend of strategy and action makes for some fast paced and exciting battles, and you'll surely find yourself coming back to this game again and again. With such excellent mechanics and lasting appeal, it's a real shame that Trap Runner isn't more well known. As such, if you have any interest at all in gadget-assisted homicide, I firmly recommend that you give it a try.

Add Comment

You must log in to submit a comment.