YUKE'S Interview on SmackDown and SmackDown 2 (2025)

Full interview - https://b.link/yukes-interview-sd1-sd2

This year 2025 marks the 25th anniversary since the release of the original SmackDown games for PlayStation. To celebrate that, I interviewed YUKE'S, the developers of the SmackDown games, and asked them a lot of questions on the development process and their experience working on those games.

The interview covers the first two games developed by YUKE'S and published by THQ: WWF SmackDown! and WWF SmackDown! 2: Know Your Role.

On behalf of YUKE'S, our questions will be answered by Osamu Hashimoto who has been with the company for 26 years and worked as a game designer on both SmackDown and SmackDown 2.

Big thank you to Osamu for answering the questions and to Derek Kessler from YUKE’S for facilitating the interview and translating Osamu’s answers from Japanese to English.

I would also like to thank the people who suggested questions for the interview: ‪@yumboy11‬, ‪@lawzy5228‬, ‪@NMCM‬, ‪@RagDas01‬, ‪@Seanomaniacwrestlingreviews‬.

0:00 - Intro
0:36 - About YUKE'S
1:15 - About Osamu Hashimoto
1:27 - Biggest challenge when working on SmackDown
1:59 - Favorite feature in SmackDown
2:34 - What would you add to SmackDown?
3:21 - How many YUKE'S employees were wrestling fans?
3:37 - YUKE'S and THQ partnership
4:10 - Why did YUKE'S stop working on NJPW games?
4:43 - Did YUKE'S work on a WCW game in 1998?
4:58 - Texture creation for SmackDown
5:27 - Preset movesets and Unknowns in SmackDown 2
6:00 - The Pro Wrestling games
6:47 - Cut characters in SmackDown 2
7:38 - Cut Season mode content in SmackDown 2
8:04 - Unused voice clips in SmackDown 2
8:48 - Did YUKE'S make Owen Hart's model in 1999?
9:25 - Why are character stats hidden in SmackDown?
9:58 - Outro

#SmackDown2 #YUKES #PS1Games

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WWF SmackDown! 2: Inspired Patch
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𝕏 - https://x.com/InspiredSD2