Video Games

Body Harvest: The Game Nintendo Walked Away From

Are you familiar with DMA design? A great development studio in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded in 1987 by gaming industry icon David Jones. You may not know some of the first games for the Commodore 64, Amiga, and Atari ST, but you’ve heard about his breakthrough hit, Lemmings. Or maybe the SNES racer Uniracers? i think i’m forgetting something…

The studio is still around and has some games you know, but never mind them. I want to take you back to his 1998 and introduce you to a forgotten gem called Body Harvest for the Nintendo 64. Body Harvest is a 3D shooter that dates back to 1916 and lets players battle an invading army of space worms across multiple time zones. Until the bitter ending of the alien homeworld in 2046.

flawed gem

Let’s get this out of the way. Not all gems shine brightly. Sleeping in the attic he has an N64 and if you find a working Body Harvest cartridge, it’s your attention not how well that game plays or how well it holds up over the years You will find a game that draws. It’s not and it wasn’t. Body Harvest is still fun to play thanks to everything it tried in the early days of 3D gaming. That’s when Super Mario 64 rocked and awakened the game development community that it was time to put 2D SHMUP and side-scrolling on hold for a bit. try something new. This is a playable piece of history with some really sophisticated ideas and compelling moments.

A certain level of junk has to be overcome when revisiting Body Harvest. From his colorful Robotron-esque hero to blurry graphics, framerate lag and simple quest structure. But Body Harvest must have done something right. Many years later, I still remember the exhilaration of discovering your first tank and tipping the balance of power against the alien invaders.

“Hahaha, we got a tank.” – Me in 1998


To be perfectly clear, I reviewed Body Harvest in 1998 and gave it an 8.4 out of 10. In retrospect, this was a generous assessment. Because if you look at this game with modern eyes, it’s not just the technical aspects that matter. But there was something fresh and unique about being able to explore 3D landscapes and pilot the vehicles you see. Mind you, they might apply this idea to modern games. They might steal your car or commit a crime. Or you can play against drug lords. something like that.

British magazine ad for Body Harvest.

British magazine ad for Body Harvest.

open world war

Body Harvest was the first draft of a vehicle-based 3D open world game. Wander around on foot, enter buildings and dungeons, talk to the occasional NPC character, pull some switches, blow up a dynamite-blocked corridor, and most importantly, discover new vehicles and their Wreak mayhem using special attributes and abilities. DMA Design had just experimented with his vehicle-focused top-down game a year ago, but was concerned that US audiences wouldn’t be interested in playing his 2D game. was But while Body Harvest departed from the comforting familiarity of 2D, including the blissfully innocence of not having to deal with in-game camera issues, it was very much in line with DMA’s design philosophy. was

Studio head David Jones said in a 1997 interview: For me, the ultimate game is one that takes real-world physics, models them perfectly, gives them an open environment, lets them go, and just messes with the laws of physics. That’s what a game is. “

Body Harvest divides the open world into different zones (Greece, Java, America, Siberia, Alien Homeworld), but the world is littered with over 60 vehicles that are just puzzles. It’s not a key, it’s just fun to operate. mess it up You can climb to high places using a ladder truck. You can fly planes and helicopters, repair and spin swamp boats, or steal fire trucks to save a burning town. All the while, you’ll have to keep running away, dodging surprise attacks from alien dragonflies and spiders, managing your health and vehicle fuel before finally fighting off your enemies.

“To me, the ultimate game is one that takes real-world physics, models them perfectly, gives them an open environment, releases them, and just messes with the laws of physics.” – David Jones, 1997


DMA knew how to make a toy box. By the end of the game, players thought he couldn’t do more than launch missiles from his VTOL. Then Body Harvest jumps into the future and unleashes a hovertank. That escalation of power creates a steady, relentless forward thrust, slowly building out of the simple pleasure of being able to drive anything in the game—anything… jets into a knife fight. I was.

In-development art for Body Harvest's toy box.

In-development art for Body Harvest’s toy box.

I still remember the eerie strings and piano piece composed by Alan Walker and Stuart Ross. They, along with the game’s project lead, programmer John White, will have some pretty big hits at the studio in the future. I also remember some cheesy one-liners that were clearly ripped from popular movies of the time. “Poor fool, you’ll understand at the end,” was the line read during the final battle.

Body harvesting is largely forgotten today. Most notably, the N64 launch was developed under a publishing deal with Nintendo as his title, but the deal was eventually scrapped and Gremlins and Midway decided to publish the game instead. became.

DMA design is no Forgotten today. Called Rockstar North, they created Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption. It’s like Body Harvest for gangs and cowboys.

“Poor fool, now you know!” – Body Harvest


Where can I play Body Harvest today?

Body Harvest is not available digitally at this time. And while I wish Rockstar would recreate the alien invasion in his GTA VI engine, your best bet would be to plug his old Nintendo 64 into Grandpa’s CRT and put that cartridge into his Buy it for his $25 on eBay.

Pier Schneider (@PeerIGN on Twitter) is one of the founders of IGN Entertainment and attributes his love of open world and sandbox games to DMA Design. He is currently lost in the skies of Hyrule.

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