It's always fun to interview Tecmo's Tomonobu Itagaki when he visits the United States. The man is currently hard at work finishing up the Xbox 360's beach extravaganza Dead or Alive Xtreme 2, but recently took some time off to travel to Hawaii to show off the title.

Videogame magazine writers quickly learn that interviews with game makers are more or less the equivalent of a slog through the Mojave wearing a suit of armor: an extended lesson in suffering. Developers are often prompted as to what they can and cannot say, and are so carefully schooled and monitored by the public relations folks who often sit in on interviews, that no real personality (let alone information not approved by a committee) escapes.

With Itagaki, I've always gotten the sense I was interviewing a man with his own quirks and ideas rather than sitting down with a mouthpiece who was reciting from a press release. And that alone is highly refreshing.

So. Itagaki and I talked about real important stuff in Hawaii...

Me: Tell us all about tanlines in Dead or Alive Xtreme 2...

Tomonobu Itagaki: Obviously, you on an island, and the sun is very strong, so the girls wearing the swimsuits are going to get a tan. And then, if you change the swimsuit that you wear, of course, you?re going to see the contrast of the tanlines from the swimsuit you had been wearing. You know, it?s a very realistic system...

Me: What's the one thing everyone should know about this game?

Him: There aren?t a lot of games like this out there. It?s almost unthinkable that there is someone out there that will use this much effort, this many staff members, and this much money, to create a game that?s just about having fun and being happy. So I hope everyone will get a chance to take a ride on this rollercoaster.