You may not know him, but you've most likely played his games. From the classic "Hang On" and "After Burner" to the more recent "Virtua Fighter 4," Yu Suzuki has been at the forefront of console and arcade game development for almost 20 years. We recently spoke to him about his latest title, the ambitious cinematic endeavor "Shenmue II."

"In 1994 I did research in China for 'Virtua Fighter,' and as my researched progressed, ideas started to percolate in my head," Yu Suzuki says. "At that point I wanted to create something story-based, so I began to have the story of 'Shenmue' in my head. It was later that I wanted to make it into a game."

"I didn't expect the story to become so vast and long, because I was thinking in terms of a movie as I wanted to create a very cinematic game. In the end the saga will span three installments," Yu Suzuki says.

How did Yu Suzuki decide on the main character of the "Shenmue" series?
"I personally chose a young man because I wanted to tell a fairly serious story in which people can get an idea, and a sense of the culture and spirit of Asia, in the embodiment of this young Japanese man," he explains.

Suzuki-san also talked about the improvements made for this Xbox version.
"Because the Xbox is a higher performer than the Dreamcast, we first made sure to improve the quality of the graphics. That included increasing the number of polygons wherever possible. You can also see further in terms of perspective. And we added a snapshot feature where you can take a photograph of your gameplay pretty much anywhere in the game. The US version was also released [with] 'Shenmue: The Movie,' so you can learn what happened before 'Shenmue II.'"

While the first "Shenmue" broke new ground in console gaming, part two has further improved the series by leaps and bounds. Not bad for a man who started in the industry with a bike game.