is a Japanese

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

series originally developed by

Masaya Masaya () is the capital city of Masaya Department in Nicaragua. It is situated approximately 14 km west of Granada and 31 km southeast of Managua. It is located just east of the Masaya Volcano, an active volcano from which the cit ...

and published by NCS Corp. The first game was released in 1992 for the

PC Engine The TurboGrafx-16, known as the outside North America, is a home video game console designed by Hudson Soft and sold by NEC Home Electronics. It was the first console marketed in the fourth generation, commonly known as the 16-bit era, though ...

system. The game's

sequel A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...

s and

spin-offs Spin-off may refer to: *Spin-off (media), a media work derived from an existing work *Corporate spin-off, a type of corporate action that forms a new company or entity * Government spin-off, civilian goods which are the result of military or gove ...

later appeared on the

Super Famicom The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), commonly shortened to Super NES or Super Nintendo, is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan and South Korea, 1991 in North America, 1992 in Euro ...

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divisi ...

Sega Saturn The is a home video game console developed by Sega and released on November 22, 1994, in Japan, May 11, 1995, in North America, and July 8, 1995, in Europe. Part of the fifth generation of video game consoles, it was the successor to the succ ...

WonderSwan The (ワンダースワン) is a handheld game console released in Japan by Bandai. It was developed by Gunpei Yokoi's company Koto Laboratory and Bandai, and was the last piece of hardware Yokoi developed before his death in 1997. Released i ...

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on 3 ...

and

PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PAL regions on September 1, 2005, ...

. Mainly consisting of side-scrolling

shoot 'em up Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs ) are a sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain types of chara ...

s in the vein of ''

Gradius is a series of shooter video games, introduced in 1985, developed and published by Konami for a variety of portable, console and arcade platforms. In many games in the series, the player controls a ship known as the Vic Viper. Games *''Scr ...

'', the ''Cho Aniki'' series is best known for its

homoerotic Homoeroticism is sexual attraction between members of the same sex, either male–male or female–female. The concept differs from the concept of homosexuality: it refers specifically to the desire itself, which can be temporary, whereas "homose ...

overtones, wacky humor and vivid, surreal imagery. Most of the games have never seen release outside Japan. For various reasons, the popularity of the ''Cho Aniki'' games has endured since the series' debut. Highlights of the various games include in-game music, innovative control schemes, or sheer

kitsch Kitsch ( ; loanword from German) is a term applied to art and design that is perceived as naïve imitation, overly-eccentric, gratuitous, or of banal taste. The avant-garde opposed kitsch as melodramatic and superficial affiliation with ...

value. In Japan, these games are examples of ''baka-ge'', which literally means "idiot game" whose appeal lies in its campiness. The rights to the series are currently owned by Extreme Co., Ltd., which had obtained the rights of NCS Corp. and Masaya products and trademarks.

Video games

''Cho Aniki''

''Cho Aniki'' is the first game in the ''Cho Aniki'' series.

''Ai Cho Aniki''

was the sequel to ''Cho Aniki'' developed by Masaya and also released for the Super CD-ROM². In this game, players control Samson and Adon directly. A key difference in the control scheme of ''Ai Cho Aniki'' is that instead of rapidly pressing buttons as a means of firing at enemies, players now had to input intricate button combinations, ''

Street Fighter , commonly abbreviated as ''SF'' or スト (''Suto''), is a Japanese media franchise centered on a series of fighting video and arcade games developed and published by Capcom. The first game in the series was released in 1987, followed by six ...

''-style. By and large, ''Cho Aniki'' and ''Ai Cho Aniki'' play very similarly. In this game, Bo Empress Conscious (Bo Tei Conscious, a pun for "body-conscious") raises the Neo Builder Army to fight Idaten and Benten. However, the two fall in love and elope. This leaves Samson and Adon to fight the new threat, Su Emperor Roid (SuTeiRoid, a pun on "

steroid A steroid is a biologically active organic compound with four rings arranged in a specific molecular configuration. Steroids have two principal biological functions: as important components of cell membranes that alter membrane fluidity; and a ...

"). This time Taku Iwasaki scored the soundtrack. On release, ''

Famicom Tsūshin formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the fo ...

'' scored the PC Engine version of the game a 24 out of 40, giving it a 7 out of 10 in their Reader Cross Review. The game was released on

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...

Virtual Console A virtual console (VC) – also known as a virtual terminal (VT) – is a conceptual combination of the keyboard and display for a computer user interface. It is a feature of some Unix-like operating systems such as Linux, BSD, illumos, Unix ...

service in 2007 in Japan.

''Cho Aniki Bakuretsu Ranto-hen''

is a departure from the typical ''Cho Aniki'' formula has characters from previous games — heroes and villains alike — battling in one-on-one fights. Playable characters include the following. * Idaten, a warrior with long spiked hair who uses a variety of attacks with his body * Benten, who in this game is flanked by two

cherub A cherub (; plural cherubim; he, כְּרוּב ''kərūḇ'', pl. ''kərūḇīm'', likely borrowed from a derived form of akk, 𒅗𒊏𒁍 ''karabu'' "to bless" such as ''karibu'', "one who blesses", a name for the lamassu) is one of the u ...

s who can transform into mini-hunks * Samson/Adon, attacks by gyrating and flatulating. * Sabu, a

pagoda A pagoda is an Asian tiered tower with multiple eaves common to Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most often Buddhist but sometimes Taoist, ...

-shaped ship with an

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...

-looking figurehead * Mami 19, a strange amalgam of a cute girl and a

battleship A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ...

transporting three naked, frolicking men * Adam, a naked man riding in half a

moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

. He is intended to resemble

Adam Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...

from ''

The Creation of Adam '' Creation of Adam'' () is a fresco painting by Italian artist Michelangelo, which forms part of the Sistine Chapel's ceiling, painted c. 1508–1512. It illustrates the Biblical creation narrative from the Book of Genesis in which God gives li ...

'' portion of

Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was insp ...

Sistine Chapel The Sistine Chapel (; la, Sacellum Sixtinum; it, Cappella Sistina ) is a chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the pope in Vatican City. Originally known as the ''Cappella Magna'' ('Great Chapel'), the chapel takes its name ...

. * Botei, a

berserker In the Old Norse written corpus, berserker were those who were said to have fought in a trance-like fury, a characteristic which later gave rise to the modern English word '' berserk'' (meaning "furiously violent or out of control"). Berserkers ...

, likely to be Bo Emperor (Botei) Bill from the first series * Uminin, an odd

latex Latex is an emulsion (stable dispersion) of polymer microparticles in water. Latexes are found in nature, but synthetic latexes are common as well. In nature, latex is found as a milky fluid found in 10% of all flowering plants (angiosperms ...

creature that resembles a

condom A condom is a sheath-shaped barrier device used during sexual intercourse to reduce the probability of pregnancy or a sexually transmitted infection (STI). There are both male and female condoms. With proper use—and use at every act of in ...

This game was the last of the series to be developed by Masaya. It was released in 1995.

''Cho Aniki: Kyuukyoku Muteki Ginga Saikyou Otoko''

was released for the

the same year as the previous two titles. This game features

digitized DigitizationTech Target. (2011, April). Definition: digitization. ''WhatIs.com''. Retrieved December 15, 2021, from https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/digitization is the process of converting information into a digital (i.e. computer- ...

sprites instead of the hand-drawn

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

-style art from the other titles. It was released for the

three months later. The subtitle of this game loosely translates to "The Ultimate, Most Strongest Man in the Milky Way" or "The Ultimate, Invincible, Most Galactically Powerful Man." The game is based on the engine of the first ''Cho Aniki''. Idaten and Benten are again the main two characters. Koji Hayama returned to score a few songs for the soundtrack, along with Don McCow, Taku Iwasaki, and Sanae Kasahara.

''Cho Aniki: Otoko no Tamafuda''

is a video game in the ''Cho Aniki'' series. This twist on the ''Cho Aniki'' universe pits the heroes of the previous games on a

role-playing video game A role-playing video game (commonly referred to as simply a role-playing game or RPG, as well as a computer role-playing game or CRPG) is a video game genre where the player controls the actions of a character (or several party members) immers ...

quest in which battles are fought with

playing card A playing card is a piece of specially prepared card stock, heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic that is marked with distinguishing motifs. Often the front (face) and back of each card has a fi ...

s. According to an article on the game on the Hardcore Gaming 101 website, the title of the game is a pun. The title translates to "Man's ''Tamafuda''," with ''tamafuda'' being a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordshanafuda are a style of Japanese playing cards. They are typically smaller than Western playing cards, only , but thicker and stiffer. On the face of each card is a depiction of plants, ''tanzaku'' (短冊), animals, birds, or man-made objects. One single ...

'' — a Japanese card game. It is also likely that the pun extends to another meaning of ''tama'', "balls". The game was released for the portable

system in 2000.

''i (Ai) Chō Aniki: Gekiretsu Nawatobi-hen''

is the first ''Cho Aniki'' game released for Japanese mobile phones. The lowercase i is a reference to the

i-mode NTT DoCoMo's i-mode is a mobile internet (distinct from wireless internet) service popular in Japan. Unlike Wireless Application Protocols, i-mode encompasses a wider variety of internet standards, including web access, e-mail, and the packet- ...

Japanese cellphone provider.

''Cho Aniki: Seinaru Protein Densetsu''

. It was released for the

in 2003. With Masaya now defunct, the game was co-developed by X-Nauts and

Psikyo Psikyo was a Japanese video game developer and publisher known for its shoot 'em ups and undressing mahjong games. It was founded in 1992 by former Video System staff who worked on the ''Aero Fighters'' series. Psikyo was mainly an arcade game de ...

. This team also developed ''

Sengoku Blade ''Sengoku Blade'', also known as ''Tengai'' outside Japan, is a horizontally scrolling shoot 'em up video game released for arcade machines in 1996 by Psikyo as a sequel to their 1993 shooter '' Sengoku Ace''. A home console version was also relea ...

'', and this game plays much like it as a result. The plot of this game centers on the Holy Protein, a godlike glob of what may be

semen Semen, also known as seminal fluid, is an organic bodily fluid created to contain spermatozoa. It is secreted by the gonads (sexual glands) and other sexual organs of male or hermaphroditic animals and can fertilize the female ovum. Semen i ...

. Samson and Adon hover around the glob, absorbing enemy fire as they did in previous games. This game lacks playable characters from previous titles, such as Benten, who only appears in some "stage complete" illustrations. Some of the enemies include a giant,

cross-dressing Cross-dressing is the act of wearing clothes usually worn by a different gender. From as early as pre-modern history, cross-dressing has been practiced in order to disguise, comfort, entertain, and self-express oneself. Cross-dressing has play ...

man in an ''

Alice in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatur ...

'' costume and a

Mona Lisa The ''Mona Lisa'' ( ; it, Gioconda or ; french: Joconde ) is a half-length portrait painting by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. Considered an archetypal masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, it has been described as "the best known ...

painting that fires lasers from its eyes.

''Cho Aniki Zero''

This is the first ''Cho Aniki'' title developed by extreme Co.,Ltd., which had obtained the rights of NCS Corp. and Masaya products.

''Chō Aniki: Kan's (Menzu) Bouringu!!''

is the second ''Cho Aniki'' game released for Japanese mobile phones.

''Cho Aniki Dance''

is an upcoming rhythm game that was scheduled for October 2021 in Japan, it is the third ''Cho Aniki'' game released for Japanese mobile phones.

Music

The first game was composed entirely b
Koji Hayama
who states on his website that Cho Aniki is his favorite work to date. Numerous

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...

s from the various games have been released on CD, Maxi-Singles, and even a live performance has been released on VHS. Later games in the series were composed by Taku Iwasaki, Isao Mizoguchi (under the alias Don McCow) and Sanae Kasahara.

Cho Aniki in pop culture

Appearances in other games

Masaya also developed the ''

Langrisser is a fantasy tactical role-playing video game series created by Masaya Games. The main development team is Career Soft, first as Team Career within Masaya Games for the first three games and then as an independent studio for ''Langrisser IV'' ...

'' series, where Samson and company make a cameo. A hidden level takes the party to an area called the Muscle Shrine, where they must fight Samson. If victorious, the party can then use the Aniki summon, the most powerful summon in the game. The cameo exists in the

Mega Drive The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master System. Sega released it in 1988 in Japan a ...

, Super NES, and PlayStation ports of the game. The

Capcom is a Japanese video game developer and video game publisher, publisher. It has created a number of List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being ''Resident Evil' ...

video game,

God Hand is a beat 'em up video game developed by Clover Studio and published by Capcom for the PlayStation 2. It was released in Japan and North America in 2006, and in 2007 for PAL territories. It was re-released for the PlayStation 3 as a List of PlayS ...

, pokes fun of Samson and Adon as powerless yet flamboyant drag queens who are the first boss of the game. Though technically not part of the series, the Sega Genesis shoot 'em up ''Wings of Wor'' (known as

Gynoug , known in North America as ''Wings of Wor'', is a 1991 scrolling shooter video game developed by Masaya and published by NCS Corporation for the Sega Genesis. The game was released in North America and Europe in 1991 and in Japan on January 25, 1 ...

in Japan and Europe) was also developed by Masaya and published by NCS, and features gameplay and surreal designs similar to the first ''Cho Aniki'' game. The Japanese release of the

Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, 2 ...

game '' Gem Smashers'' replaces the three playable characters with three differently colored versions of the Uminin (the original light blue Uminin, and a pink and green Uminin as well).

Cult popularity

Few outside Japan have played the ''Cho Aniki'' series, but many know of the game through articles written about it on such websites as I-Mockery,

Seanbaby Sean Patrick Reiley (born June 15, 1976), better known as Seanbaby, is an American writer and video-game designer best known for his comedy website and frequent contributions to video game media outlets ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' and 1UP.com, ...

, and

Something Awful ''Something Awful'' (SA) is an American comedy website hosting content including blog entries, forums, feature articles, digitally edited pictures, and humorous media reviews. It was created by Richard "Lowtax" Kyanka in 1999 as a largely per ...

. The series is often mentioned in lists of outrageous, peculiar or sexual video games. Sometime around 1999, gaming magazine ''

Electronic Gaming Monthly ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' (often abbreviated to ''EGM'') is a monthly American video game magazine. It offers video game news, coverage of industry events, interviews with gaming figures, editorial content and product reviews. History The m ...

'' ran a passing comment about how the US was thankfully spared this homoerotic shooter (Referring to ''Cho Aniki'' for PS1, although the comment was followed by "Not that there is nothing wrong with a homosexual shooter"). For the next few months, EGM's letters to the editor were dominated by remarks lambasting the editors at EGM for making fun of the game, even after the editors repeatedly told their readership that the game was horrible.

References

External links

extreme Co.,Ltd. Choaniki page

The official site of PS2 version.

- In depth article about the Cho Aniki series

- Article about Chō Aniki Bakuretsu Rantō Hen SNES fighting game
PC Engine Review: Masaya's Ai Cho Aniki
- Review of the PC Engine game "Ai Cho Aniki" by NFG/Games *
HonestGamers: Ai Choaniki
- Review of "Love! Super Big Brother" for PC Engine
HonestGamers: Sei Naru Protein Densetsu
- Review of "Legend of the Holy Protein" for PlayStation 2
Sexual Moments in Video Game History: THE "CHO ANIKI" SERIES!
- A humorous but in depth review of the Cho Aniki series, centred on the homosexual aspects of the game

{{Masaya Games Masaya Games games PlayStation (console) games PlayStation 2 games Horizontally scrolling shooters Sega Saturn games Super Nintendo Entertainment System games Super Nintendo Entertainment System-only games TurboGrafx-CD games Video game franchises Video games developed in Japan Virtual Console games