GR: No More Heroes is coming to the Wii and we were wondering why you chose this platform? Nintendo has a kind of a juvenile image, but your game is very mature. 

S5: I'm friends with Mr. Wada from [the publisher] Marvelous and we were talking about our next project, making a game for the Wii. And this whole idea is that in the past, Nintendo hardware has been - you know - there have been a lot of games for a younger audience. However, we feel that with Nintendo Wii, it's going to bring a lot of adults similar to the way the way [Nintendo has] in the handheld market as well. So we're kind of banking on this fact that it's kind of a universal hardware, where I think that Nintendo is going in a different direction, where a lot of adults will be playing too.

GR: Is the Wii's unique control also a factor in deciding on the platform, or was the decision made based on the audience?

S5: At first I didn't really know about the controller. But from the very beginning I had this idea of having sword based gameplay, so it actually fit perfectly with what Nintendo was doing with the controller. So there's also Mr. Sakurai from [our Japanese publisher] Spike - he likes these mature violent games as well, so it fit really well with the concept of No More Heroes.

GR: Even though your prior game, Killer 7, was not a heavily promoted game in the US, it briefly became notorious for its content. I'm curious to hear your reaction to the US response.

S5: For me, up until Killer 7, the only reactions I've been getting were from Japanese players because all of my titles have been released only in Japan. So, more so than worrying about the bad press, it all came down to the fact that I was just excited to be able to hear people talking about my game outside of Japan.

GR: It's not even a question for filmmakers; violence is an essential part of narrative. But in games, it's kind of a debate and I'm interested in hearing your thoughts on it.

S5: Compared to comics or movies, games are special because they're interactive and you're actually experiencing these things. So when you're actually experiencing the violence, it kind of affects you in a different way, more so than with a movie or with a comic book. So maybe there will be more acceptance of it in the future, but for right now, it's an easy target because you do experience those emotions.