Gremlin Interactive shipped Body Harvest in Europe, Midway Games in North America. DMA Design built it for the Nintendo 64, and it asks players to stop an alien harvest on foot, behind the wheel, and against a clock.
Adam Drake and the Alpha I
Aliens have harvested Earth’s population every 25 years for a century. By 2016, the last survivors live on the orbital station Omega. Adam Drake, a genetically engineered soldier, gets a time-travel device and takes the fight backward.
He hits five areas over a 100-year period: World War I–era Greece, World War II–era Indonesia in the 1940s, the United States in the 1960s, Russia in the 1990s, and 2016. Stop the first harvest in each period and every later one is saved.
Shields, Mutants, and the Casualty Meter
Each level drops the player inside a shield. Aliens teleport into towns and start killing civilians. A meter at the bottom of the screen tracks the dead. Let too many die and the area is lost.
Harvester aliens do the deliberate killing, but friendly fire counts. Shoot or run down a civilian and it is on the player. Let one wave take eight humans and a Mutant spawns, hunting the player wherever they are.
Vehicles Are the Real Weapon
Body Harvest is a driving game wearing an action game’s clothes. Vehicles take damage separately from Adam, can be repaired with pickups, and carry their own weapons. Most missions go better from inside one.
The map opens up between missions. Players can wander anywhere inside the boundaries.
A Launch Title That Missed the Launch
Nintendo originally published Body Harvest and planned it as a launch title for the Nintendo 64. The violent themes gave Nintendo pause, and the company dropped it. Gremlin Interactive picked up the rights and released it in Europe; Midway Games handled North America.
- Developed by DMA Design
- Published by Gremlin Interactive (Europe) and Midway Games (North America)
- Released 1998 for the Nintendo 64
- Five areas across a 100-year span
- Re-released in 2025 in a Polymega compilation with Burning Road, Dead in the Water and S.C.A.R.S.
What Holds Up
The casualty meter is the smartest thing here. It makes rescue a constraint, not a cutscene, and it punishes carelessness instead of rewarding it. The time-travel structure gives the five areas a reason to exist beyond variety.
The flaws are just as plain. The aliens warp in frequently, the Mutant punishes one bad wave, and the on-foot shooting never matches the vehicle combat.
Body Harvest is a flawed, strange game that pointed toward open-world console design before the industry caught up.
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