Update [Wed 17th Jul, 2024 14:15 BST]: We now have a little more information on the upcoming Cho Aniki comeback.
According to the Japanese website 4Gamer, the new collection will feature the two PC Engine tiles Cho Aniki and Ai Cho Aniki, and is being developed with the Nintendo Switch in mind. It is being crowdfunded on the Japanese website Makuake, with the campaign scheduled to go live in the next few days on July 19th.
No release date has been given yet, but we'll keep an eye out for any new information as it arrives.
Original Story [Wed 10th Jul, 2024 14:25 BST]: Masaya's infamously homoerotic shmup series Cho Aniki ("Super Big Brother") is getting revived, presumably as a collection of games.
Posting on Twitter, a new account named Cho Aniki COLLECTION claims that "ANIKI is coming back" and that "a new project [is] coming soon."
The first game in the series, Cho Aniki, was released on the PC Engine in 1992 and would be followed by the sequel Ai Cho Aniki. Subsequent entries would be released for the Super Famicom, PS1, Saturn, WonderSwan and PS2.
Each game is filled with camp imagery and muscle-bound, near-naked men, as well as other unusual imagery. Bold musclemen Samson and Adon are considered to be the series' main characters, but several other playable protagonists are present throughout the franchise.
Here's the complete series so far:
- Cho Aniki / Super Big Brother (PC Engine, 1992)
- Ai Cho Aniki / Love Super Big Brother (PC Engine, 1995)
- Cho Aniki Bakuretsu Ranto-hen / Super Big Brother: Exploding Brawl (Super Famicom, 1995)
- Cho Aniki: Kyuukyoku Muteki Ginga Saikyou Otoko / Super Big Brother - The Ultimate, Most Powerful Man in the Milky Way (PS1 / Saturn, 1995 / 1996)
- Cho Aniki: Otoko no Tamafuda / Super Big Brother: Spirit Man Tag (WonderSwan, 2000)
- Cho Aniki: Seinaru Protein Densetsu / Super Big Brother: Legend of the Holy Protein (PS2, 2003)
- Cho Aniki Zero (PSP, 2009)
There have also been three mobile phones games – i (Ai) Chō Aniki: Gekiretsu Nawatobi-hen, Chō Aniki: Kan's (Menzu) Bouringu!! and Cho Aniki Dance.
Due to this, the series has remained something of a Japanese exclusive, although its fame has spread globally. In its native Japan, Cho Aniki titles are referred to as "baka-ge", meaning "idiot game".
Extreme Co., Ltd. is the current rights holder, as it hoovered up the IP of publisher NCS Corp. and Masaya some time ago.
Comments 11
Historically, the psx sequel was translated to "Chou Aniki: Great Brother"
the new standard is probably more accurate but I think it's interesting to follow along, through the years.
these are good games! I remember how "craaazy!" they were perceived back in the day, and it makes me chuckle. Times change!
EDIT - in case anyone doesn't believe me, or is curious, here's an undated but clearly old blog post about the game:
https://www.geocities.ws/loserv21/chouaniki.html
CONTENT WARNING: homophobia and unseemly language typical of the bad old days ✌️
REAL MEN Play Cho Aniki
@-wc- My favorite title in the entire series was "Legend of the Holy Protein" It's just the kind of Spit take WHAT? that the series is known for.
It's a solid PS2 Era Shmup. The whole series are solid shmups. Big Oily Muscle men or not.
I've got the Saturn and PCE games. Great games, but difficult (for me at least). Worth playing just for the bizarre factor alone, but they are also solid mechanically.
Now we non-Japanese gamers will be able to fight muscular snowmen and muscular Renaissance paintings for the first time, on top of the muscular Elvis submarine and muscular Thomas the Tank Engine from the first game (previously on Wii VC).
This series always creeped me out, not because of the gay stuff, but pretty much every other aspect.
The weirdest thing about this game (besides all the homoerotisim) is that Edia is developing this as part of their "Telnet revival" effort. Cho Aniki never had anything to do with Telnet.
Extreme is an IT consultant company that happens to sit on a small ransom of about 41 IP. Edia is a Hamster/City Connection type "retro IP vault" company that claims to have "over 200" IP, but like Atari buying the bones of Intellivision I can only verify around 61. Why crowdfunding is needed for a port of two TurboGrafx games between the two of them is questionable, but given that this is Cho Aniki we're talking about it's probably best not to ask too many questions
Badass. Ill make sure not to make any phallic jokes or else my post will be deleted.
This series is the reason why I go to the gym. My friends and I refer to our goals as getting "Cho-Aniki swole," which I have not achieved yet, nor probably ever will, but it's great motivation.
if they seriously try only putting two games on this compilation and nothing else im gonna be REALLY mad lmfao. Especially if it goes for the highway robbery prices other pc engine compilations go under nowadays.
I really wished Ratalaika got the rights instead of Edia. Not only is their emulator better, they also have reasonable prices, and not the daylight robbery prices Edia change for the Valis games.
Tap here to load 11 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...