is the first game in the ''

Cho Aniki is a Japanese video game series originally developed by Masaya and published by NCS Corp. The first game was released in 1992 for the PC Engine system. The game's sequels and spin-offs later appeared on the Super Famicom, PlayStation, Sega Saturn, ...

'' series. It was originally released in 1992 on the Super CD-ROM² System. Years later, the game was released as part of Project EGG for Windows Store and Wii's

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, Uni ...

in Japan, North America, and Europe. This makes it the first time any game of this series has seen release outside Japan.

Plot

The game's plot involves the heroes moving through various locations — space, urban environments, elaborate ruins — and fighting alien invaders. Bo Emperor Bill (Botei-biru, a pun on bodibil, a shortened form of bodybuild in Japanese), the man who achieved ten consecutive victories in the Great Galaxy Bodybuilding contest, faces an ever-decreasing supply of

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, res ...

. He unilaterally invades neighboring star systems, in order to establish protein factories to replenish his supply. Feeling threatened, the heaven realm sent Idaten and

Benten Benzaiten (''shinjitai'': 弁才天 or 弁財天; ''kyūjitai'': 辯才天, 辨才天, or 辨財天, lit. "goddess of eloquence"), also simply known as Benten (''shinjitai'': 弁天; ''kyūjitai'': 辯天 / 辨天), is a Japanese Buddhist g ...

to vanquish Bo Emperor Bill. Thus the sweaty hot battle between the muscle brothers (aniki) and Builders Army begins.

Gameplay

Upon beginning a game or continuing, the player chooses between two playable characters: Idaten, a young man wearing a cape, and Benten, a blue-haired woman. The player can pick up one of three support options by collecting randomly appearing power-ups. The most common is Samson/Adon, musclebound men clad in

Speedo Speedo International Limited is a distributor of swimwear and swim-related accessories based in Nottingham, England, known for its swim briefs. The company has roots in Australia but is no longer based there. Founded in Sydney in 1914 by A ...

s. The two hover about the hero, firing shots from the holes in their bald heads. The pair eventually became the series'

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name. Mascots are also used as fi ...

s. The other options are Angel and Uminin. The player character's firepower is increased by collecting proteins. They also have a stock of bombs which can be replenished with bomb pickups. Each player character has ten build levels, while each option has five build levels.

Reception

Lucas M. Thomas of IGN rated the Wii Virtual Console game 7.5 (good) for being the weirdest and most nonsensical Import to come to the American Virtual Console so far. Scott Sharkey of 1up.com listed the PC Engine game's sequel as having one of the worst game box covers of all time.

Soundtrack

''Cho Aniki Aniki no subete'' is a soundtrack based on the video game. It was released by

NEC Avenue was a Japanese music and video game publisher. History NEC Avenue was founded in 1987 as a record label within NEC. NEC Avenue eventually got involved with video games, and secured licenses to produce console versions of arcade titles from Sega ...

in 1993-03-21, then by

Columbia Music Entertainment , often pronounced ''Korombia'', operating internationally as , is a Japanese record label founded in 1910 as Nipponophone Co., Ltd. It affiliated itself with the Columbia Graphophone Company of the United Kingdom and adopted the standard UK C ...

in 1998-05-21.

References

External links

Hudson Soft page
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160314143721/http://vc-pce.com/jpn/j/title/sp_aniki.html , date=2016-03-14

1992 video games Hudson Soft games Masaya Games games Horizontally scrolling shooters Single-player video games TurboGrafx-CD games Video games developed in Japan Virtual Console games Windows games PlayStation Network games