The Simpsons Hit & Run it may not have been a perfect video game, but it still brings back wonderful memories to those who played it. Games Radar caught up with the game’s lead designer Joe McGinn as the game approaches its twentieth anniversary and very good interview. McGinn was asked about games that influenced him and of course Grand Theft Auto came up, but another game that influenced the development team was the iconic Super Mario 64. McGinn says Mario’s 3D adventure had a big impact on the team because was the best gaming platform at the time and that they were heavily influenced by the classic game’s control system and camera system. Here’s what he said:
“Two other big influences: one was Driver. The original Driver, on the PSOne, because the cars were so much fun to drive with the action movie style drifting they perfected. This was the driving physics we were aiming for and our physics and vehicle tuning team achieved just that. We knew we had a solid foundation to build on when the car was fun to drive on an empty, flat surface.”
“Another influence was Super Mario 64. It’s the ‘kids’ part… taking all the crap out of GTA and replacing it with platforming. And the mechanical Mario 64 was the best platformer that had been made up to that point, where we learned a lot about character control and the camera.”
