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Braving earthquakes, blisteringly bright neon signs and giant fire-breathing lizards, the THQ-Games.com team recently found itself in the Land of the Rising Sun, as we visited WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008 developer Yukes in Tokyo.

While we there we caught up with WWE Smackdown vs. Raw veterans Taku Chihaya (senior director) and lead programmer Reiji Sato. Chihaya has worked on every WWE SmackDown game to date and Sato has been working on the series since the fourth title, so who better to ask about the development of the series and why WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008 is going to rock our worlds.

THQ-Games.com: What are the key developments within the game?
Chihaya: Last year we added ultimate control grapples, so now we're adding submissions as well. I felt that submission moves could be a little boring for the defending wrestler, as they just watched the animation play out, so this year we have made it more interactive, which we're very proud of.

THQ-Games.com: How has ECW been incorporated into the game?
Chihaya: We have added in new weapons and animations. In an actual WWE programme an ECW arena has a specific kind of atmosphere and we've been working hard to incorporate that into the game.

THQ-Games.com: How do you capture the look and feel of the real WWE in SmackDown vs. Raw 2008?
Chihaya: In America we have a wrestling ring, which the same size as a WWE ring, which we use in the studio for motion capture. We even have the same WWE ramp, so we can mo-cap the entrance scenes and capture them in their entirety. At first we used professional actors - they were very good but they don't have the same muscle mass as the wrestlers so now we use actual wrestlers.

THQ-Games.com: How have you taken advantage of the Wii's unique control system?
Chihaya: We've seen so many opportunities for the Wii - we're really excited about it but that is a nervous excitement to some degree. When we first started talking about it we had to decide whether to keep it consistent with other platforms or go all the way with Wii, so we decided to make the best possible use of the controllers and we're hoping it will become the standard for this type of game. One thing that worried us when we started working on this is whether these changes would affect strategic elements of the game but fortunately this wasn't the case. In so many games there are too many buttons to manage but now the Wii allows us to make things more interactive and immerse players more.

THQ-Games.com: And how about the added physical exertion?
Sato: My goal, as a programmer, is to make something that is fun to play and not get tired doing it! I'm very much excited to develop for Wii. We've been working on the smoothness of movement and made the control scheme very intuitive - there's a new kind of fun to be had from this kind of gameplay.

THQ-Games.com: Sato-san, who is your favourite wrestler?
Sato: Rey Mysterio's aerial moves make him one of my favourites but I remember seeing Undertaker at Wrestlemania 23 and was really impressed by him as well.

THQ-Games.com: Chihaya-san, what is your favourite move in the game?
Chihaya: The move I like the most is for players who employ the dirty fighting style - using the referee as a shield and then launching him at your opponent! I also like the submission moves and some very popular submission moves are now controlled with the analog submission system, which I hope people appreciate.

THQ-Games.com: How does wrestling differ in Japan compared to the US or Europe?
Chihaya: The biggest difference between wrestling in the US and Japan is the level of popularity. Whenever I see a WWE match on TV it's great to see kids in the crowd, which is very important because if children are watching it means there's a future. In Japan, however, it's aimed at an older audience