This is the most powerful hardware you’ve worked on to date, but it can’t offer graphics on a par with other platforms; was it this that led to the game’s distinctive look?

I think graphics are actually something very hard to define. If you think of what the PS3 or the Xbox 360 delivers as ‘graphics’, then you will notice a gap. But if you consider Resident Evil 4 as perhaps the best that a GameCube can deliver, then you know that you can at least do the same on the Wii. That’s the functional side, but really graphics are about what you want to show in the game. My first vision of the game was Travis facing a number of opponents. That is one aspect I wanted to keep. Overall, I think we managed to deliver that vision with a good graphical representation. In that sense, I don’t see graphics as an issue in this game at all.

In the action part of the game, the moment when Travis finishes his adversaries is quite bloody in the American version. Was that always OK with Nintendo?

Indeed it was. But it’s an important point that the game is different in different territories. The Japanese and European versions have no blood and you simply kill those enemies. The US version is the closest to my initial vision of the game. The issue of having blood spilt is an interesting one. Today’s technology makes a very realistic visual experience possible, so does that mean blood has to be sprayed all around? I’m not sure. There is, in terms of videogames, almost a natural absence of blood: you kill an enemy and that’s all.

The opposite we’re now seeing, without going into too high a level of photorealism, is that you may feel the need to show blood on the screen to serve the action. Now, if you decide that action games as a whole can’t have blood on screen, from a user’s point of view that may make a particular game look quite unrealistic and actually harm the experience you are trying to deliver. It is still too early to see if the issues of graphic violence and blood are important because, in terms of fidelity, they are new – or if we’ll become accustomed to these sights as natural as technologies and minds move on. But I think that perhaps the bigger issue is shielding people from any form of violence.

No More Heroes is a new type of game for Grasshopper; did you feel a bit anxious about trying to create an action experience and blend it with city sections?

Samurai Champloo [a PS2 game for Bandai Namco] was our first try at a full-map game experience, and our first challenge in the sword action field. The feedback then was good and that told us we were on the right track. So we weren’t that concerned about our potential to deliver a true action experience. I was more concerned with how users will actually understand the use of the Wii Remote motions during the action sequence. Would they be able to do it naturally or would they do the wrong motion? But watching players at the TGS showed me it would be OK.

Are you happy with the bike?

I wanted to do more with it, but you need to set limits. In the game it is very much about transportation. But this is a small map, so what you can enjoy in GTA with cars and the opportunities to do what you want with them in different ways, the little surprises they hide for you, can’t really be reproduced at the same level on a much smaller map.

Genki Rockets [an otherwise anonymous band Tetsuya Mizuguchi is involved with] have been linked to No More Heroes. How did this come about?

I was invited to the Q Entertainment party, and that music was played in the background. It was actually one of my first encounters with Mizuguchi-san. And we were talking about a track playing in the background, I said it was cool and, just a throwaway remark, I told him it would be great if I could use it for one of my future games. Then he had a very cool reaction: “Yeah, no problem.” This is how I got the green light to use the first track from the Genki Rockets! There’s a friendship between us and I felt such collaboration would be really great.