Body Harvest

[SKTTR]

Before Rockstar North made games like GTA3, they were known as DMA Design. Their biggest hit before GTA3 was Lemmings.

They did a few collaborations with Nintendo. Unirally / Uniracers (SNES) was one of them. A fastpaced unique racing game (that is announced on VC).

After the Nintendo 64 was announced, Nintendo wanted Rockstar in their so-called Dream Team, a Team of Developers that make the best games that can be.



Body Harvest was the result. A truly atmospheric, very big action/adventure. It is unique in many ways...

When watching a speedrun of BODY HARVEST by Rockstar North (DMA Design) in the credits of that game was one of my favourite companies, Nintendo EAD mentioned twice. ^^

In Game Design and Special Thanks.

Nintendo's game designers instructed Rockstar North (developers of GTA3) to make BODY HARVEST more adventure like, much like GTA nowadays.

Indeed BODY HARVEST feels a bit like an early 3D-GTA with a different setting.

The first steps in Body Harvest are not that nice.
You'll notice the slow moving orange-spacesuit-soldier,
the fog in the distance and the overall somewhat blurry textures.



As you sluggishly control your little arkward man into one of over 60 vehicles (not only cars, motorcycles, tanks, airplanes, trains, boats, heli, missiles, ufo) the controls suddenly get perfect. the physics of each machine were just outrageous at that time.



So don't go by foot, travel with vehicles. And this is much needed in this game because waves of aliens are approaching and beaming. And then you can run!



The orange hero can swim for short distances, and use plenty of weapons and items. Most of the vehicles have weapons as well.



Every map (5 maps in total) is GIGANTIC. It's like having 5 low-detailed GTA maps, really. they are big. just after hours of playing when you think you've beaten a strong and hard boss you see that it was just only a very small part the map. The map and compass are very helpful in this game. You'll definately need them.



The first map is hard and big, Greece 1920. You can find only old cars and slow things. Things start easy.



The 2nd map is the Jungle in Java. 1940. This is already one of the hardest stages in the entire game. The rain, the trees, the swamp, the BUGS!



the third map now really is a reference to GTA, total Vice City feel.
it's USA in 1960, with many houses. and there's the trademark icecream-bus with the same jingle sound as the icecream-bus in GTA3 and you can even roll over people.



the fourth stage is Siberia 1980. With zombies this gives an instant Silent Hill feel.



Apart from the action with the aliens there's more to do: Talking to survivors. (This game give me mixed feelings)
The human race is nearly distinguished = Fallout
Everywhere fog and monsters, zombies, piano music = Silent Hill
Gameplay mechanics = GTA3



-Solving good adventure puzzles, all very neat and logic.
-Enter buildings, caves, windmills, etc.
-Using vehicles' unique powers to get across obstacles.



The story was quite good, you're from the future to travel back in time, when giant bugs come to eat all humans to prevent the earth from being body harvested. There was also a clone involved and you had a nice girl.
The people you could talk to also had the survivor feel.



It was great to see the aliens ramming houses until they blow. or the harvester aliens sucking up little screaming humans and munching them.
this game wasn't so bland at all.



But it also had a few let downs.

-The game is challenging but some things just make it harder.
If you lose a vehicle (accidently driving into the water) that you might need later you can start from the last checkpoint.
If you waste an item that you need in a particular point you can start from the last ceckpoint.
This makes the game more realistic but it's already open and mostly non-linear. So you might get frustrated at times.



You only can save at a checkpoint. A checkpoint is only available after much adventuring, racing, shooting, puzzling, and a MINIBOSS kill.
if the boss kills you, start from the last checkpoint.



Anyway, this is a little gem. Needs to be polished. Very underrated.
And I want to have it on VC.



Space Station Silicon Valley is the other Rockstar game for N64.
Keep an eye on this one, too. It's great, funny, unique!



DMA Design / Rockstar : They work on Bully, Table Tennis, Manhunt 2 for Wii. A good time to bring back not only Unirally, but also Body Harvest, Silicon Valley and Lemmings.

[Smylex]

I would love this game for VC, It was like a cross between gta and starship troopers anyone else remember this?

[retrogamer88]

Originally Posted by Smylex

I would love this game for VC, It was like a cross between gta and starship troopers anyone else remember this?

Nope. Do you have screenshots?

[Smylex]

Originally Posted by retrogamer88

Nope. Do you have screenshots?

http://uk.ign64.ign.com/objects/000/000405.html

here is a link to all the info you need, this game was seriously ahead of its time

[Mendez]

It does look like a pretty good game, I'll probably give it a try if we get a VC release.

[Boo!]

Looks very interesting. May get if it ever comes out.

[retrogamer88]

Same here!

[link64]

I have always found Body Havest to be far more enjoyable than any of the GTA titles.

[jackaroo]

Ive never played Body Harvest but ive seen it on youtube and it sounds good too. But this quote i loved :

Originally Posted by SKTTRBRUISE

They did a few collaborations with Nintendo. Unirally / Uniracers (SNES) was one of them. A fastpaced unique racing game (that is announced on VC).

I never noticied Uniracers on the Coming Soon list and ive looked lots. This game was completly insane and i loved it. Who wouldve thought the developers who made cute lemmings and dodgy unicycles would go on to create insane rampaging humans that kill people on the street for fun and blow there heads off with snipers .

But id still like to try this game body harvest. It looks cool. We need more games like that on the VC. But how much space will it take up. Also 5 maps as large as GTA. That sounds like alot of adventuring. Id love to get this if it came out.

EDIT : Oh yea and bringing back lemmings wont happen. Sony own the rights to it now so i cant see sony giving there rival a game they own. Its like Microsoft putting halo 3 on PS3 lol. Ok not that bad but still. Id love to see lemmings too but i cant see it happening.