Aksys Games garnered much attention last week for its rather kick ass Cho Aniki ZERO press release which highlighted all of the mantastic qualities of the upcoming PSP game. After reading it, I knew that I had to reach out to the publisher to wrangle up more details, so I present to you my brief Q & A with Bo deWindt, Project Lead, Aksys.

Is Cho Aniki ZERO a completely original series entry, or a remake/re-imagining of an earlier Cho Aniki title?

Cho Aniki ZERO is a completely original title. They just borrowed the past “Cho’s” concept.

The Cho Aniki franchise is nearly 20 years old and has survived the ever-evolving gaming landscape. Still, the shooter genre, which soared in popularity in the late ’80s to mid ’90s, has become an extremely niche genre regulated to the realm of the hardcore. Are you specifically targeting that demographic that grew up playing Gradius, Thunderforce, and the like, or are you hoping for a more mass market audience?

We usually try to target the mouth, face and sometimes the small of the back.

How big is Cho Aniki in Asia?

The Cho Aniki series is pretty big in Japan for the console users. For the console in the past the Cho series was on the, PC Engine (Turbo Grafx-16 in the U.S.), then Sega Saturn, PlayStation, ad PlayStation 2, so we believe this title is especially loved by the older generation.

Shifting to gameplay, could you please tell us a bit about the powerup system?

Power ups involve collecting protein capsules from defeated enemies. Collecting ten orange protein capsules will power you up by one level for a total of 5 possible level upgrades, which will affect how powerful your normal shot will be. You can also collect the blue capsules to increase your Men’s Beam gauge, and there are also the red 1UP capsules that grant you an extra life.

Cho Aniki Zero has multiple paths and endings–how are these achieved? Is it has simple as selecting a route before a stage begin or is there a deeper gameplay element such as in Border Down?

Endings vary depending on the character and/or Options (support characters) you play as. For example, there is an ending when you play as Idaten and Samson, and then another ending if you play as Idaten and Adon.

As much as I like to think of myself as a serious game journalist, I turned into a 12 year old when I read the incredibly awesome press release that referred to “protein shakes”, “bromances”, “thrusting”, “Man Protein” and other terms that evoke hilariously over the top homoerotic imagery. When Famitsu previewed the game this summer, many of us expected this game to be an Asian release that wouldn’t see the light of day in the United States – — what prompted you to bring this game stateside? Was it due to sales of Cho Aniki on the Wii Virtual Console?

Our editor Ben, really, REALLY wanted to do it.

Games featuring sexual themes/overtones have been around since the days of Custer’s Revenge, but they were mainly of the heterosexual variety. Do you think that the collective gaming world is ready for this “mantastic” title?

Cho Aniki goes beyond the barriers of gay or straight. It more so appeals to the dormant body builder, protein lover within. With that said, we believe the world has been awaiting the day for the inevitable Cho Aniki revival, and we’re more than happy to make it happen.

Aksys has a history of bring niche 2D title to the American market. In you experience, do you think that the contemporary gamers truly adverse to 2D/sprite based games, or is it an overstatement by guys like me looking for a scapegoat that explains that lack of those types of titles?

It really is just a sign of the times where most gamers aren’t “Ooohd and ahhhd” with 2D games, but games like BlazBlue do make the general gaming populace sit up and take notice. So we think there’s quite a bit of life left in 2D games.