Fellow What Happened fans: did you know that What Happened just turned five years old recently? The very first What Happened episode was posted on February 12th, 2018. Five years and over 170 episodes later, I'm glad to see that Matt's still giving us all the trademark magical What Happened goodness filled to the brim with troubled development tales that ended in either triumph or tragedy, great humor, brilliant editing, and more besides. It all keeps What Happened fans-myself included-coming back to check out the newest episodes and rewatch the old ones again and again. I, for one, am grateful that Matt has kept What Happened going for as long as he has, and how it remains a favorite UA-cam show for so many viewers. I hope that What Happened continues for many more years and episodes, as there are always plenty more fascinating tales of production woes to be told. Congratulations on five years' worth of What Happened goodness, and here's to the next five years-and beyond-of seeing even more exciting What Happened episodes! 😁
@@KadeemG61 Until i saw you said BMX i almost thought he'd made an episode on inFamous 1 on PS3, don't know if it had a troubled development, but i'd sure as hell watch that, i love that game!
@@killingtimeonline I was rather late to the party, as I didn't start watching What Happened religiously until the Mega Man Legends 3 episode came along. Within a month or so, I started catching up on all of the episodes Matt had made up to that point (I have watched every single What Happened episode at least twice) and proceeded to subscribe to his channel and become a member of his Patreon. Almost a year has passed since I started to become a more full-fledged Matt McMuscles fan, and it is a decision that I am only too happy to have made!
Some of the story here isn't quite accurate. For example, none of us were threatened with the sack when we moved from Zenith to Body Harvest. No fault of Matt, there's just so much misinformation out there about the creation of BH and GTA. I made a post here about it, but I don't think it's been accepted or processed.
Imagine a world where DMA and Big N actually got this game out on time for the 64's launch and it managed to sell enough to make a sequel viable, so instead of, like, GTA3 on PS2, we got Body Harvest 2 on the Gamecube, and THAT was the game that was remembered for pioneering open-world gameplay.
There are so many what ifs involving Nintendo that really would've changed course in gaming history. Like what if Nintendo decided to stuck with the Sony partnership. What if the N64 had a CD drive and that led to Squaresoft sticking with them for FFVII. And like you said, what if Nintendo stuck with DMA and Body Harvest 2 was the predominant open world game.
As cool as that is to think about, GTA3 delivered on the promise of exploring a modern and (then) realistic city at your own pace. A sequel to the game about a time-traveller waging war against space-aliens just wouldn't have captured the public attention the same way.
This was such a unique game. It had a weird charm to it that I can't really describe, and I played a lot of it for a brief period. Thanks for covering this, because I was aware it was pretty troubled during this development.
Agreed. It's not a game I'll remember randomly, but when brought up I have fond memories. It was quite dark, too. I recall playing this around the same time as Blast Corps. Both felt really unique after the slew of platform collection games I'd played before them.
Still one of my favorite games of all time. It may be rough around the edges and janky, but the underlying gameplay and atmosphere is fantastic. I think it deserves a remake
I'd say the same about my favorite N64 game, Space Station Silicon Valley, also made by DMA/Rockstar! Matt even used it's menu theme at the start of the video!
Body Harvest was my favorite N64 game. The open world and being able to drive any vehicle you found. The sun shield was my favorite weapon. Even the cheats were fun. You could get the mortar for any vehicle. It was a high powered level specific weapon, but would send smaller vehicles flying in recoil.
I played the hell out of this when I was a kid, it was challenging but pretty fun. But I feel like so few people played it at the time, which makes me feel like a member of an exclusive club
Body Harvest is so evocative to me of my early gaming life: getting consoles late and getting whatever games that the video rental shop was selling off cheap (this is how I genuinely came to own Superman 64). Never played Super Mario 64, Ocarina of Time, Lylat Wars or Smash Bros at the time; my N64 was Body Harvest, Blast Corps (borrowed) and single player Turok Rage Wars.
ua-cam.com/video/rCEJ7H4sHVs/v-deo.html Titan Games official they are still pretty early on the alpha phase of this but seeing this on the Unreal engine gives me a lot of hope
@@protocetid I’m thinking (And I’m not confirming or denying anything and this is probably a stupid proposition) if they could get a working beta or maybe even Alpha. Pitch it to Rockstar. They dn’t really have any games within this genre. This could potentially work into a publishing deal
As always a legendary episode.... and the 3D Lemmings OST on shuffle in the background pushes it to godlike status. So rare that game is even remembered. I did not know Nintendo to be this close to that game.
When I was a kid one of my friends brothers was playing this when I came over, and when I asked him what it was he told me "Harvest Moon". I was Very confused for years every time I heard people talking about Harvest Moon and how relaxing it was to play.
I randomly got this game one day around Christmas and have grown rather fond of it since then. Truly an underrated gem of a game, I'm kinda hoping an indie dev takes inspiration from it and creates some sort of spiritual successor some day.
not a spirit sequel, but if you look up titan games, or body harvest remastered, the channel has been posting progress updates of a unreal engine remake.
Fun fact: one of my friends conflated this game with Harvest Moon when I was in elementary school, which inadvertently led to me getting SUPER into HM. I played this eventually. It was p cool I guess
That was also the origin story of the Evil Farming Game myth, in a way - someone Mandela'd a Vinesauce joke about a game called "Body Harvest Moon" into a supposed actual game.
I'm one of the kids who asked for Body Harvest for Christmas instead of Legend Zelda OOT. I was very hype for it after reading a preview for it in N64 magazine. However, I don't think I regretted my choice. Absolutely loved Body Harvest. I found it too difficult to finish but still enjoyed it, and since then, thanks to its status as a classic and all of the ports and remakes it has gotten, I have had plenty of opportunities to play OOT since then, while Body Harvest would need to be emulated.
The cheats were cleverly done in Body Harvest - the buttons were all assigned as letters (d-pad: U, D, L, R; c-pad: N, E, S, W etc), so the cheats were formed from words - for example, "DUNDEE", which made him do a little Scottish jig
As a journalist and video game nerd, there are very few people doing actual journalistic work on video games on UA-cam. I feel like you take this very seriously while also moving with a bunch humor and humanity. I appreciate you
I never got to play it, but I remember wanting it after I read about it in Nintendo Power. Ahh... the days of my youth... like the scent of fresh lemon.
I remember the Body Harvest preview that was featured in Nintendo Power's 100th issue. At the time, it was predicted to be released by early 1998...needless to say, that prediction was off by over half a year!
Uniracers is a REALLY fun game. I rented it several times as a kid and eventually got my own copy as a reward for making headmaster's list for the term in school. I still have it, too.
How about a “What Happened?” on the disastrous development of Malice for PS2 and Xbox? It was one of the last games made by Argonaut Software before they were closed down in the middle of the 2000s.
Having played both this and the also mentioned Space Station Silicon Valley back in the day you just knew there was something special in those games. They were diamonds in the rough with such forward-thinking ideas and a knack for variety there was nothing else like it. Seeing the DMA Design logo when I first played GTA3 somewhat late made so much sense, and I often pondered as to what might have happened if Nintendo kept a strong relationship with DMA as well. This was a really fun watch and I hope more people get to know about this game, so thank you for that.
I remember this game back when I used to work at game gallery, it didn't sell much at my store and I did play it when we had down time at work but lost interest in it at the time, now seeing it here reminds me of better times
Dude I was legitimately convinced for a time that I was the only person aware of this game's existence. Thank you for covering it and proving that I wasn't losing my marbles.
I loved this game when I was a kid. It was the first N64 game we had when my parents bought it for my brother and I. I do think it holds up pretty well, but some extra checkpoints between bosses would really go a long way
I remember when this game came out. Me and my small friend group in elementary school loved this game. And I honestly though this was a huge game in pop culture. I was surprised when people didn't know about it. Turns out it was just me and my 2 friends.
Now that the Stadia has been dead for a whole month, a "What Happened?" on Google's failed venture would be a perfect way to document it - even collaborating with Shane from Rerez!
This was an interesting episode. I just love learning about these games. If I can recommend a "What Happened?" episode, I would like to recommend Travis Strikes Back: No More Heroes. It just felt like the red-headed step-child of the No More Heroes series.
One of my favourite and most well loved games of my N64 run, completed 100% of the challenges and had a great time in what in retrospect was my first open world game.
I played a lot of body harvest as a kid because my aunt mixed up harvest moon with body harvest. Never got too far in that game, it wasn't very user friendly in where to go and what to do
@@TheBusNinja That wasn't Vietnam lol it was Indonesia. Or technically speaking, the Dutch East Indies since the level takes place in 1941 when the Dutch still ruled the archipelago (but the Japanese had already destroyed the KNIL Royal Netherlands East Indies Army so it was basically under Japanese occupation at the time).
I think the main reason besides the visual that made body harvest not sell or review well, was that it was was just too difficult and unforgiving for the average consumer. I do believe it has a cult following though, since it's good parts are actually quite fantastic.
This game occupies a weird corner of my brain. I played it as a kid, and thought it was so so cool, but could never figure out what to do after about like 15 minutes, and even that was after figuring out what to do in the first five, a process that took weeks. I don't know if I was just exceptionally dull-witted or something, but, this is my reverse uno for hard games. If you can figure out what the hell to even do in this game, then you're truly one of the gamers of all time.
I followed Body Harvest very closely in Nintendo Power. It was something I was extremely hopeful for. I still feel its gameplay is not something we get a ton of these days. A remake of their original ideas with modern scope would be incredible.
Just had this game pop into my head earlier, typed it into YT to see what was up, and was joyfully rewarded with a What Happened? video. Very nice, thanks for the characteristically informative and enjoyable video!
I remember getting this game a kid after seeing the TV commercial that had a kid running away from the shadow of a giant insect and when I saw the box art. I never didn't realize just how interesting the story behind its creation was!
I had played this game with my cousin as a kid and for the life of me couldn’t remember the name of it for the life of me, just the unique visuals, thank you for reminding me of some good times
Body Harvest was a game I really enjoyed as a child. I still remember using that shield all the time in the first world once you got it, then when you get set to the next world, you lose it and you actually have to play the game again and that made me sad.
Same, i was so worried about running out of ammo on the other guns. I think I shot the green lazer gun thing twice because I though I'd save it for later mission
Awesome video, I like to see a video on the short lived Japan System Company. They made Chameleon Twist 1, 2 and two Chalvo 55 games. Sunsoft published them in the west.
I respect that your footage for the game is the original look of the game, whether its real hardware or emulation too many people don't really show what the N64 looked like at the time. Keep that up.
A reboot of Body Harvest in the Rockstar engine would be really cool. If Starship Troopers can make a comeback, then Body Harvest has a chance of Rockstar puts a little bit of marketing muscle behind it.
I'd love you to do a what happun'd for like a spooky game. I dont even mind what, possibly like the Fear games would be interesting. I just like how thorough you are and informative and entertaining
AVGN brought me here and I'm so glad it did! This is such an awesome channel to learn about the ups and down in games! I'm currently sick in bed and binge watching all your videos.
I have a strong love for this game. Me and my father spent hours and hours playing together. Figuring all the levels out, looking for secrets. He taught me history alongside playing it, bringing up the periods that you play in, the significance of the vehicles and areas. I play it once in awhile, I still have the old cartridge and console we played it on all those years ago. It certainly feels dated, control and performance is just terrible by modern standards but I have such a nostalgia for the game I put up with it. I often don't want to see remakes or remasters for stuff, I think products are best consumed in the original format, however this game just deserves at least a graphic and performance overhaul. The gameplay loop is great, but frustrating to deal with its serious chugging episodes when the action gets heavy.
Wasn't this that game Joel from Vinesauce was playing when he inadvertently started that urban legend about a Harvest Moon-esque game with the twist being that you're constantly hiding a dead body from authorities as you work on your farm?
He was playing Earth Defense Force, and someone in chat mentioned the similarities between it and Body Harvest, which prompted Joel's bit about Body Harvest Moon.
Your mentioning GameTek in this makes me think of my favorite game when growing up: Nomad, a 1993 game by GameTek. I'm sure there's an interesting story about that game's development, since it was originally going to be a licensed game for the Disneyland ride Space Mountain before that fell through for some reason. If there isn't a story you consider good enough for a full video in Nomad, then I would think a video on GameTek itself might be interesting.
Never played this one, but the box art is seared into my brain from perpetually seeing it at stores and rental places. Interesting to learn there was more drama behind it than I'd assumed.
Man, this was my absolute favorite game on the N64 right up there with Perfect Dark and Golden Eye. I can't even imagine how many hours I sunk into this game as a kid.
I've still got my cartridge of Body Harvest somewhere around here. Such a unique game for the time I played it so much. Interesting to see how DMA went on to make GTA 3 and some of the similarities with the vehicle heavy gameplay. Still wish we could see a remaster or return of Body Harvest.
Please do a What Happened? with The Legend of Dragoon. A PS1 game that only had one game but is still loved by fans of the game but left behind by Sony.
Used to play Body Harvest a lot back in the day when i was about 12. It was like nothing i had ever played before. There was one issue i could not get over though...the world felt empty and way too big for its own good. It would feel like forever between enemy spawn points and missions. Specially since you know? the ride between was literally the same textures over and over again and not much to look at. Many times i would even look at a point that looked interesting and explored it just to find out that there were no hidden secrets or anything. Just a huge plot of land with absolutely nothing to offer. Did still love the game though.
I’d love to see a Wha Happun on DOOM 3 (and maybe also its two expansions) at some point. It’s always interested me how it went from the adrenaline-filled shotgun pumping slaughterhouses of the first two and then to the horror Half-Life with a shotgun you shouldn’t even bother pumping. I know Romero left which likely impacted it deeply, but I’d love seeing if there was anything else to cause it!
had this when i was very small and didnt really know how games worked, deffo didnt know that horrible alien bugs were gonna spwan out of no where and start attacking me, gave me nightmares for years
I REALLY REALLY LOVE THIS GAME, that look with the giant insect made me want to play and I feel in love with killing giants insects, for this is the first "Earth Defense Force" or EDF is the spiritual sucessor of BH.
For me I remember reading about Body Harvest before the N64 was released and being pretty hyped for it. But by the time it was finally released there were so many other notable games out for the N64 it got completely forgotten about. Heck, I don't think I never knew it had been released until just before the GC launched!
Nice video, although some details are not quite right. Nobody was threatened with the sack when we were told we were all being moved from Zenith to Body Harvest, they were actually extremely apologetic as Zenith was a really cool game and a lot of work had gone into it. Such a shame. Those of us that left the company, which was 6 of us not 10, did so after our work obligations on Body Harvest were completed. We actually enjoyed working on Body Harvest and some of us were working on it from the start alongside working on Zenith and some work on GTA. FYI it was some of us working on Body Harvest who suggested that GTA should be a 3D 3rd person game like Body Harvest was. But management was pretty disorganized at times and seemed to be doing their best to make it as troublesome as possible. One of the biggest problems was when Gremlin took over, and although they promised not to change the way we worked, they tried to do exactly that, which included wanting to sack all of our game testers, simply because they never used any. We massively objected to that, and the decision was thankfully reversed. When Gremlin took over, all these suits started to appear, and often would just strut around, look over my shoulder and give naive suggestions, clearly with no idea about what we were doing or how it was done. To this day, I've no idea what some of their job titles actually were. I think Gremlin getting their claws into things was the start of the demise of DMA. Too many clueless cooks trying to pull things in too many directions. It was chaos. But we did our best to make a unique game, under awful conditions.
@@mrpiccionedivino5598 Ah, not to worry. I didn't find this post until about a month after the release anyway. I enjoyed, it's very well made. I actually made another post with a link to info on the game Zenith, but it got deleted, possibly because it had a link. Sorry, if that was the case, Matt, ( if you read this,) no disrespect intended. But you can find it if you trawl through my profile links, ( the Juicy Game Review interview,) it has some previously unseen images from the game. But sadly, most of what existed from Zenith is gone, we didn't really have very many means to save our work back then. What I did post here only covers a small amount of what happened back then, including why Zenith, Body Harvest and GTA, have important connections. Some of it is pretty volatile that I don't think has ever been made public, which is partially why all of these, the making of videos, And I do mean all of them, particularly about GTA, are riddled with untruths. But I can't stress enough, this is not down to the vid creators who do very good jobs, such as this one here, but there is so much BS out there about it all, often by folks who, to be very kind to them, exaggerate their involvement in it all. If you're interested in knowing anything, Matt, ( again if you read this,) reach out. It's probably all long overdue.
@@PaulReev i just went on a really deep dive on everything you said and I find it pretty insightful. I grew up reading about body harvest on Nintendo Power and then since the 00s the rumor mill online about how BH was the foundation for GTA and all the rumors about it. Now a 33 year old adult, I can understand appreciate the insights you’ve posted here much better. It’s a shame the algorithm didn’t ever push this comment and I just managed to pic this comment out of curiosity. What a dive! Thank you for shedding some light into all of this.
Cheers, man! Yeah, like I said, what I covered here is just a very small part of it all. It was an interesting time. Every so often I get asked about those days, and I've usually been quite reserved about what I've said, and many of those devs don't talk about that period at all. But in some interviews what I've said has been distorted for whatever reason or ignored, and the usual bs mongers re-write history, which is weird and frustrating. So I promised myself that I won't be sugar coating anything in the future, which would probably send a shiver down the spine of many. It was a fun and chaotic time.
He needs to do “the day before”, it was in development in 2019 and now there’s employees THAT ARE WORKING FOR FREE saying the game is STILL not ready to be released, which is on March 1
Fellow What Happened fans: did you know that What Happened just turned five years old recently? The very first What Happened episode was posted on February 12th, 2018. Five years and over 170 episodes later, I'm glad to see that Matt's still giving us all the trademark magical What Happened goodness filled to the brim with troubled development tales that ended in either triumph or tragedy, great humor, brilliant editing, and more besides. It all keeps What Happened fans-myself included-coming back to check out the newest episodes and rewatch the old ones again and again. I, for one, am grateful that Matt has kept What Happened going for as long as he has, and how it remains a favorite UA-cam show for so many viewers. I hope that What Happened continues for many more years and episodes, as there are always plenty more fascinating tales of production woes to be told. Congratulations on five years' worth of What Happened goodness, and here's to the next five years-and beyond-of seeing even more exciting What Happened episodes! 😁
@@KadeemG61 Until i saw you said BMX i almost thought he'd made an episode on inFamous 1 on PS3, don't know if it had a troubled development, but i'd sure as hell watch that, i love that game!
Thats kinda crazy to think, I started watching this show when there were only 3 episodes
Wait, it's been 5 years? God...that's so fucking COOL!
@@killingtimeonline I was rather late to the party, as I didn't start watching What Happened religiously until the Mega Man Legends 3 episode came along. Within a month or so, I started catching up on all of the episodes Matt had made up to that point (I have watched every single What Happened episode at least twice) and proceeded to subscribe to his channel and become a member of his Patreon. Almost a year has passed since I started to become a more full-fledged Matt McMuscles fan, and it is a decision that I am only too happy to have made!
But why did he stop saying "wha happun!" shortly after the start of the series?
As someone who recently played through Body Harvest, I'm surprised to see that there's such a story behind this forgotten N64 title!
Some of the story here isn't quite accurate. For example, none of us were threatened with the sack when we moved from Zenith to Body Harvest. No fault of Matt, there's just so much misinformation out there about the creation of BH and GTA. I made a post here about it, but I don't think it's been accepted or processed.
Imagine a world where DMA and Big N actually got this game out on time for the 64's launch and it managed to sell enough to make a sequel viable, so instead of, like, GTA3 on PS2, we got Body Harvest 2 on the Gamecube, and THAT was the game that was remembered for pioneering open-world gameplay.
There are so many what ifs involving Nintendo that really would've changed course in gaming history. Like what if Nintendo decided to stuck with the Sony partnership. What if the N64 had a CD drive and that led to Squaresoft sticking with them for FFVII. And like you said, what if Nintendo stuck with DMA and Body Harvest 2 was the predominant open world game.
As cool as that is to think about, GTA3 delivered on the promise of exploring a modern and (then) realistic city at your own pace. A sequel to the game about a time-traveller waging war against space-aliens just wouldn't have captured the public attention the same way.
This was such a unique game. It had a weird charm to it that I can't really describe, and I played a lot of it for a brief period. Thanks for covering this, because I was aware it was pretty troubled during this development.
P.S. YES Uniracers when?! I LOVE that game! Lol
Agreed. It's not a game I'll remember randomly, but when brought up I have fond memories. It was quite dark, too. I recall playing this around the same time as Blast Corps. Both felt really unique after the slew of platform collection games I'd played before them.
I find the whole 64 era had a weird charm to it haha. Like space station silicone valley? Donkey kong? Lol
Still one of my favorite games of all time. It may be rough around the edges and janky, but the underlying gameplay and atmosphere is fantastic. I think it deserves a remake
I'd say the same about my favorite N64 game, Space Station Silicon Valley, also made by DMA/Rockstar! Matt even used it's menu theme at the start of the video!
💯
good news! look up titan games, or body harvest remastered, the channel has been posting progress updates when they're dun.
Would advise to try out EDF series. It's all about B-movies of alien invasion and insects play major part of it too.
Came here to say remake as well.
Body Harvest was my favorite N64 game. The open world and being able to drive any vehicle you found.
The sun shield was my favorite weapon.
Even the cheats were fun. You could get the mortar for any vehicle. It was a high powered level specific weapon, but would send smaller vehicles flying in recoil.
I played the hell out of this when I was a kid, it was challenging but pretty fun. But I feel like so few people played it at the time, which makes me feel like a member of an exclusive club
Body Harvest is so evocative to me of my early gaming life: getting consoles late and getting whatever games that the video rental shop was selling off cheap (this is how I genuinely came to own Superman 64). Never played Super Mario 64, Ocarina of Time, Lylat Wars or Smash Bros at the time; my N64 was Body Harvest, Blast Corps (borrowed) and single player Turok Rage Wars.
As I kid, I used to confuse this game with Blast Corps for some reason so it's funny that you mentioned the Rareware similarity
There’s actually an indie group who is remastering this game as of a year ago. Looks really good stoked to see it finally come out
ua-cam.com/video/rCEJ7H4sHVs/v-deo.html
Titan Games official they are still pretty early on the alpha phase of this but seeing this on the Unreal engine gives me a lot of hope
@@protocetid I’m thinking (And I’m not confirming or denying anything and this is probably a stupid proposition) if they could get a working beta or maybe even Alpha. Pitch it to Rockstar. They dn’t really have any games within this genre. This could potentially work into a publishing deal
I NEED THAT
@@allanbroady2970 Is this game not Owed By Rockstar anymore?
I do believe they still own the IP. I just think they haven't done anything with it since this game.
As always a legendary episode....
and the 3D Lemmings OST on shuffle in the background pushes it to godlike status.
So rare that game is even remembered.
I did not know Nintendo to be this close to that game.
I absolutely loved this game. It was so hard and often even cryptic, but there really wasn't anything else this ambitious at the time.
I think this game needs to be talked about as much as Re2 is talked about. One of the most incredible ports that can run on a cartridge
When I was a kid one of my friends brothers was playing this when I came over, and when I asked him what it was he told me "Harvest Moon".
I was Very confused for years every time I heard people talking about Harvest Moon and how relaxing it was to play.
I randomly got this game one day around Christmas and have grown rather fond of it since then. Truly an underrated gem of a game, I'm kinda hoping an indie dev takes inspiration from it and creates some sort of spiritual successor some day.
While not an indie franchise the earth defense force games are pretty similar in terms of premise tone and gameplay.
not a spirit sequel, but if you look up titan games, or body harvest remastered, the channel has been posting progress updates of a unreal engine remake.
Fun fact: one of my friends conflated this game with Harvest Moon when I was in elementary school, which inadvertently led to me getting SUPER into HM.
I played this eventually. It was p cool I guess
And nothing of value was lost, only gained
That was also the origin story of the Evil Farming Game myth, in a way - someone Mandela'd a Vinesauce joke about a game called "Body Harvest Moon" into a supposed actual game.
I'm one of the kids who asked for Body Harvest for Christmas instead of Legend Zelda OOT. I was very hype for it after reading a preview for it in N64 magazine. However, I don't think I regretted my choice. Absolutely loved Body Harvest. I found it too difficult to finish but still enjoyed it, and since then, thanks to its status as a classic and all of the ports and remakes it has gotten, I have had plenty of opportunities to play OOT since then, while Body Harvest would need to be emulated.
WE'RE DEVELOPING BODY HARVEST REMASTERED!
The cheats were cleverly done in Body Harvest - the buttons were all assigned as letters (d-pad: U, D, L, R; c-pad: N, E, S, W etc), so the cheats were formed from words - for example, "DUNDEE", which made him do a little Scottish jig
Out of all of this kind of content i watch your narration/commentary is the best and most entertaining.
I loved this game as a kid. the soundtrack was fantastic, and honestly the most memorable soundtrack i've ever heard in a game
Search Body harvest remastered soundtrack, and let the memories flow
As a journalist and video game nerd, there are very few people doing actual journalistic work on video games on UA-cam. I feel like you take this very seriously while also moving with a bunch humor and humanity. I appreciate you
Loving all of the Space Station Silicon Valley music in this video. It's fitting given DMA worked on it too!
Omg. I still have this game and never could get past the first level, but I've never got frustrated by this because of how interesting Body Harvest.
WE'RE DEVELOPING BODY HARVEST REMASTERED!
I never got to play it, but I remember wanting it after I read about it in Nintendo Power. Ahh... the days of my youth... like the scent of fresh lemon.
I remember the Body Harvest preview that was featured in Nintendo Power's 100th issue. At the time, it was predicted to be released by early 1998...needless to say, that prediction was off by over half a year!
Uniracers is a REALLY fun game. I rented it several times as a kid and eventually got my own copy as a reward for making headmaster's list for the term in school. I still have it, too.
How about a “What Happened?” on the disastrous development of Malice for PS2 and Xbox? It was one of the last games made by Argonaut Software before they were closed down in the middle of the 2000s.
Having played both this and the also mentioned Space Station Silicon Valley back in the day you just knew there was something special in those games. They were diamonds in the rough with such forward-thinking ideas and a knack for variety there was nothing else like it. Seeing the DMA Design logo when I first played GTA3 somewhat late made so much sense, and I often pondered as to what might have happened if Nintendo kept a strong relationship with DMA as well. This was a really fun watch and I hope more people get to know about this game, so thank you for that.
I remember this game back when I used to work at game gallery, it didn't sell much at my store and I did play it when we had down time at work but lost interest in it at the time, now seeing it here reminds me of better times
Dude I was legitimately convinced for a time that I was the only person aware of this game's existence. Thank you for covering it and proving that I wasn't losing my marbles.
I loved this game when I was a kid. It was the first N64 game we had when my parents bought it for my brother and I. I do think it holds up pretty well, but some extra checkpoints between bosses would really go a long way
I remember when this game came out. Me and my small friend group in elementary school loved this game. And I honestly though this was a huge game in pop culture. I was surprised when people didn't know about it. Turns out it was just me and my 2 friends.
Every chance I get, I am telling someone about Body Harvest on N64, not enough people were scarred as a child by this game 🤣
Now that the Stadia has been dead for a whole month, a "What Happened?" on Google's failed venture would be a perfect way to document it - even collaborating with Shane from Rerez!
Not even 30 seconds in and I'm already losing it over the Space Station Silicon Valley theme being used! One of my faves as a kid!
This game when I was kid I loved it. It was my o.g. gta in a way. The exploring and mystery to it had me sunk in.
This was an interesting episode. I just love learning about these games. If I can recommend a "What Happened?" episode, I would like to recommend Travis Strikes Back: No More Heroes. It just felt like the red-headed step-child of the No More Heroes series.
There’s a video about it from GhenryPerez. It’s really interesting.
put respect on TSB name, its the best written No More Heroes game in the series lol
@@majormelthesackboy I think so to but it’s not appreciated like the other games.
Can I play the 3rd one without playing 1 and 2? I saw it on ps store.
@@thegamingprozone1941 Technically yes but I would recommend looking up a plot summary of the first few games to learn about the characters.
This seriously needs a remade
One of my favourite and most well loved games of my N64 run, completed 100% of the challenges and had a great time in what in retrospect was my first open world game.
Aw damn, with the Space Ghost Coast to Coast intro. Slick. Well-done.
As the editor, I’m glad to hear you liked my choice of footage there!
I played a lot of body harvest as a kid because my aunt mixed up harvest moon with body harvest. Never got too far in that game, it wasn't very user friendly in where to go and what to do
As a kid I couldnt finish it the vietnam mission was way to dark and scary for me. The only game I never finished.
@@TheBusNinja That wasn't Vietnam lol it was Indonesia. Or technically speaking, the Dutch East Indies since the level takes place in 1941 when the Dutch still ruled the archipelago (but the Japanese had already destroyed the KNIL Royal Netherlands East Indies Army so it was basically under Japanese occupation at the time).
I think the main reason besides the visual that made body harvest not sell or review well, was that it was was just too difficult and unforgiving for the average consumer. I do believe it has a cult following though, since it's good parts are actually quite fantastic.
It might have been before its time too
Loved this game as a kid, I still regularly listen to the music while working, such great tracks. Never knew of its interesting backstory, great vid!
This game occupies a weird corner of my brain. I played it as a kid, and thought it was so so cool, but could never figure out what to do after about like 15 minutes, and even that was after figuring out what to do in the first five, a process that took weeks.
I don't know if I was just exceptionally dull-witted or something, but, this is my reverse uno for hard games. If you can figure out what the hell to even do in this game, then you're truly one of the gamers of all time.
I remember my older brother got this for his birthday and watching him play it. I recall it being pretty spooky
Especially when the little green blobs would carry the people back to be eaten. The sound the dying people made unsettled me as a kid.
I followed Body Harvest very closely in Nintendo Power. It was something I was extremely hopeful for. I still feel its gameplay is not something we get a ton of these days. A remake of their original ideas with modern scope would be incredible.
I feel like the closest we got was the earth defence force series
good news! look up titan games official, or body harvest remastered, the channel has been posting progress updates in a unreal engine remake.
I loved Uniracers, please do a deep dive into that game
Just had this game pop into my head earlier, typed it into YT to see what was up, and was joyfully rewarded with a What Happened? video. Very nice, thanks for the characteristically informative and enjoyable video!
I loved this game when I was a kid. Finding a new vehicle was exciting!
I so want to play this game again. It was part of my childhood.
I loved Body Harvest! I wish it kept going. Hope it comes to N64 Online
I remember getting this game a kid after seeing the TV commercial that had a kid running away from the shadow of a giant insect and when I saw the box art. I never didn't realize just how interesting the story behind its creation was!
This is my all time favorite video game title. It’s so fricken cool.
Dudeeee yess
So happy you're making a video about this game
Really wish they (Rockstar) do something with this
I had played this game with my cousin as a kid and for the life of me couldn’t remember the name of it for the life of me, just the unique visuals, thank you for reminding me of some good times
One of my Fav. N64 titles, this might be nostalgia speaking, but damn I love me some Body Harvest, thanks for another great episode!
Body Harvest was a game I really enjoyed as a child. I still remember using that shield all the time in the first world once you got it, then when you get set to the next world, you lose it and you actually have to play the game again and that made me sad.
Same, i was so worried about running out of ammo on the other guns.
I think I shot the green lazer gun thing twice because I though I'd save it for later mission
wow, been asking for you to do Body Harvest . Great video
Discovered it today in a gaming bar. We were amazed by how much this felt ahead of its time.
Never been able to finish the game. To unlock the last map having to play it on hard mode was tough
Awesome video, I like to see a video on the short lived Japan System Company. They made Chameleon Twist 1, 2 and two Chalvo 55 games. Sunsoft published them in the west.
Gotta love the Buck Bumble title screen theme you used at the end.
I respect that your footage for the game is the original look of the game, whether its real hardware or emulation too many people don't really show what the N64 looked like at the time. Keep that up.
I'm so happy you covered this game!!! I remember this game from my childhood...
That Angry Nintendo Plane cracked me up for some reason. 😂😂😂😂
A reboot of Body Harvest in the Rockstar engine would be really cool. If Starship Troopers can make a comeback, then Body Harvest has a chance of Rockstar puts a little bit of marketing muscle behind it.
I'd love you to do a what happun'd for like a spooky game. I dont even mind what, possibly like the Fear games would be interesting. I just like how thorough you are and informative and entertaining
I did 5 back to back in October, but glad you like them.
@@MattMcMuscles i know i know I guess I'm asking for more xD aha thanks for replying dude
AVGN brought me here and I'm so glad it did! This is such an awesome channel to learn about the ups and down in games! I'm currently sick in bed and binge watching all your videos.
I have a strong love for this game. Me and my father spent hours and hours playing together. Figuring all the levels out, looking for secrets. He taught me history alongside playing it, bringing up the periods that you play in, the significance of the vehicles and areas. I play it once in awhile, I still have the old cartridge and console we played it on all those years ago. It certainly feels dated, control and performance is just terrible by modern standards but I have such a nostalgia for the game I put up with it. I often don't want to see remakes or remasters for stuff, I think products are best consumed in the original format, however this game just deserves at least a graphic and performance overhaul. The gameplay loop is great, but frustrating to deal with its serious chugging episodes when the action gets heavy.
WE'RE DEVELOPING BODY HARVEST REMASTERED!
Wasn't this that game Joel from Vinesauce was playing when he inadvertently started that urban legend about a Harvest Moon-esque game with the twist being that you're constantly hiding a dead body from authorities as you work on your farm?
He was playing Earth Defense Force, and someone in chat mentioned the similarities between it and Body Harvest, which prompted Joel's bit about Body Harvest Moon.
@@AzraelReaperX Oooh, I was close.
Your mentioning GameTek in this makes me think of my favorite game when growing up: Nomad, a 1993 game by GameTek. I'm sure there's an interesting story about that game's development, since it was originally going to be a licensed game for the Disneyland ride Space Mountain before that fell through for some reason.
If there isn't a story you consider good enough for a full video in Nomad, then I would think a video on GameTek itself might be interesting.
2:19 Uniracers reference! Holy hell I loved that game as a kid!
I sorta know the story of the game, since it is somewhat intertwined with the history of GTA and Rockstar North/DMA Design as a whole
This was hands down one of my top five N-64 games.
Kudos for the Space Station Silicon Valley songs and name drop, another DMA forgotten gem 👍🏼
I think it's one of the most underappreciated titles ever in video gaming. Probably my favourite N64 release and an extravaganza of creativity.
This is a game that needs to be remastered by Nightdive Studios
RAH, that'd be sick. Hopefully, they will.
WE'RE DEVELOPING BODY HARVEST REMASTERED!
Never played this one, but the box art is seared into my brain from perpetually seeing it at stores and rental places. Interesting to learn there was more drama behind it than I'd assumed.
Man, this was my absolute favorite game on the N64 right up there with Perfect Dark and Golden Eye. I can't even imagine how many hours I sunk into this game as a kid.
I've still got my cartridge of Body Harvest somewhere around here. Such a unique game for the time I played it so much. Interesting to see how DMA went on to make GTA 3 and some of the similarities with the vehicle heavy gameplay. Still wish we could see a remaster or return of Body Harvest.
Please do a What Happened? with The Legend of Dragoon. A PS1 game that only had one game but is still loved by fans of the game but left behind by Sony.
Used to play Body Harvest a lot back in the day when i was about 12. It was like nothing i had ever played before. There was one issue i could not get over though...the world felt empty and way too big for its own good. It would feel like forever between enemy spawn points and missions. Specially since you know? the ride between was literally the same textures over and over again and not much to look at. Many times i would even look at a point that looked interesting and explored it just to find out that there were no hidden secrets or anything. Just a huge plot of land with absolutely nothing to offer. Did still love the game though.
I still believe that Lab Zero Games is perfect for the What Happed, or at leasts episodes on Skullgirls and Indivisible
Ending with the Buck Bumble theme shows a person of class and taste.
I’d love to see a Wha Happun on DOOM 3 (and maybe also its two expansions) at some point. It’s always interested me how it went from the adrenaline-filled shotgun pumping slaughterhouses of the first two and then to the horror Half-Life with a shotgun you shouldn’t even bother pumping. I know Romero left which likely impacted it deeply, but I’d love seeing if there was anything else to cause it!
Great game, would have loved to see it properly fleshed out! Also i'm upset you didn't mention the killer soundtrack!
Thank you. I loved this game when I was younger, had no idea there were any behind the scenes issues.
had this when i was very small and didnt really know how games worked, deffo didnt know that horrible alien bugs were gonna spwan out of no where and start attacking me, gave me nightmares for years
I've reached a point where hearing Ultra64 is just natural, like that has always been the name of the console. Thanks (?) Matt
I loved this game growing up ❤️
0:16 I hear that music. When we gettin a What Happened? for SpaceStation Silicon Valley?
Oh hey, I had this one. I remember having a real good time with it but never got around to actually finishing it.
I REALLY REALLY LOVE THIS GAME, that look with the giant insect made me want to play and I feel in love with killing giants insects, for this is the first "Earth Defense Force" or EDF is the spiritual sucessor of BH.
Body Harvest had a lot of charm to it. My buddy and I used to always rent it. Body Harvest, Turok Rage War, Hybrid Heaven, and Win Back.
everything you described about this game sounded like a precursor to the earth defence force series
For me I remember reading about Body Harvest before the N64 was released and being pretty hyped for it. But by the time it was finally released there were so many other notable games out for the N64 it got completely forgotten about. Heck, I don't think I never knew it had been released until just before the GC launched!
Bought it on release. Could never go too far. I have it now in my collection and will eventually play it again.
There’s a guy who’s working on a remastered version. It’s neat following the progress, which he updates on UA-cam
Nice video, although some details are not quite right. Nobody was threatened with the sack when we were told we were all being moved from Zenith to Body Harvest, they were actually extremely apologetic as Zenith was a really cool game and a lot of work had gone into it. Such a shame. Those of us that left the company, which was 6 of us not 10, did so after our work obligations on Body Harvest were completed. We actually enjoyed working on Body Harvest and some of us were working on it from the start alongside working on Zenith and some work on GTA. FYI it was some of us working on Body Harvest who suggested that GTA should be a 3D 3rd person game like Body Harvest was. But management was pretty disorganized at times and seemed to be doing their best to make it as troublesome as possible. One of the biggest problems was when Gremlin took over, and although they promised not to change the way we worked, they tried to do exactly that, which included wanting to sack all of our game testers, simply because they never used any. We massively objected to that, and the decision was thankfully reversed. When Gremlin took over, all these suits started to appear, and often would just strut around, look over my shoulder and give naive suggestions, clearly with no idea about what we were doing or how it was done. To this day, I've no idea what some of their job titles actually were. I think Gremlin getting their claws into things was the start of the demise of DMA. Too many clueless cooks trying to pull things in too many directions. It was chaos. But we did our best to make a unique game, under awful conditions.
Rip that this comment was lost in the shuffle,not even a single like until now
@@mrpiccionedivino5598 Ah, not to worry. I didn't find this post until about a month after the release anyway. I enjoyed, it's very well made. I actually made another post with a link to info on the game Zenith, but it got deleted, possibly because it had a link. Sorry, if that was the case, Matt, ( if you read this,) no disrespect intended. But you can find it if you trawl through my profile links, ( the Juicy Game Review interview,) it has some previously unseen images from the game. But sadly, most of what existed from Zenith is gone, we didn't really have very many means to save our work back then.
What I did post here only covers a small amount of what happened back then, including why Zenith, Body Harvest and GTA, have important connections. Some of it is pretty volatile that I don't think has ever been made public, which is partially why all of these, the making of videos, And I do mean all of them, particularly about GTA, are riddled with untruths. But I can't stress enough, this is not down to the vid creators who do very good jobs, such as this one here, but there is so much BS out there about it all, often by folks who, to be very kind to them, exaggerate their involvement in it all. If you're interested in knowing anything, Matt, ( again if you read this,) reach out. It's probably all long overdue.
@@PaulReev i just went on a really deep dive on everything you said and I find it pretty insightful. I grew up reading about body harvest on Nintendo Power and then since the 00s the rumor mill online about how BH was the foundation for GTA and all the rumors about it. Now a 33 year old adult, I can understand appreciate the insights you’ve posted here much better. It’s a shame the algorithm didn’t ever push this comment and I just managed to pic this comment out of curiosity. What a dive! Thank you for shedding some light into all of this.
Cheers, man! Yeah, like I said, what I covered here is just a very small part of it all. It was an interesting time. Every so often I get asked about those days, and I've usually been quite reserved about what I've said, and many of those devs don't talk about that period at all. But in some interviews what I've said has been distorted for whatever reason or ignored, and the usual bs mongers re-write history, which is weird and frustrating. So I promised myself that I won't be sugar coating anything in the future, which would probably send a shiver down the spine of many. It was a fun and chaotic time.
He needs to do “the day before”, it was in development in 2019 and now there’s employees THAT ARE WORKING FOR FREE saying the game is STILL not ready to be released, which is on March 1