“Protein beats steroids any day,” claim utterly ripped henchmen for the forces of good., “in-head horticulture, too.”
The image above is just one little glob of frosting from the Cho Aniki series’s sprawling cake. Literally translating to “Super Big Brothers,” the games chronicle the exploits of Samson and Adon, two very muscular brothers who shoot lethal white beams of light out of the holes in their heads while battling equally absurd enemies including a giant in Alice in Wonderland drag and an evil interstellar bodybuilder named Bo Emperor Bill. Note a hint of homoeroticism? (Trepanning subtheme, too!) You’re not alone: Gay Gamer ID’d the venerable, platform-hopper as gamedom’s gayest.
As a straight American gamer embarassed by my otaku affinity group’s rampant homophobia, I couldn’t be happier with the brothers’ Stateside popularity. How many games involving space marines are out there? (Don’t bother counting, please, let’s just say” too many.”) And how many comically homoerotic, side-scrolling shooters can you name? Exactly. I can’t help but read Nintendo’s decision to include Cho Aniki in their“Wii-kly update” (their words, not mine) as a signal of industry maturation. After all, English-language literature took nearly a millennium to progress from Beowulf to Naked Lunch. With a little luck, the brothers’ success will inspire developers and publishers in the U.S. to yank the corncobs of sameness and oldness out of their agendas and start actually using their heads.
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/xHyYGrhO1Gc" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
