For a while now, MonkeyPaw Games have been busy bringing Japanese PSone titles to the North AmericanPlayStation Store. Last month, the company brought their import service to the European Store, beginning with the release of a trio of old-school arcade-style shooters: Cho Aniki, Shienryu, and Sonic Wings Special.

There’s a reason why you probably haven’t heard of these games, and that’s because two of them have never had a release in Europe. The titles appear on the PS Store unedited from their original form, and yes, that means some of the text is in Japanese. Don’t worry though; PS3 Attitude is here to give you our take on these three import titles.

Cho Aniki

Cho Aniki is the type of game that could only have ever been developed in Japan, as it is possibly the weirdest and most random game ever made; it’s genuinely almost worth a download simply to see how crazy it is. We even had to do some research into the game, just to establish what on earth it is actually about.

The game’s full title is Chō Aniki: Kyūkyoku Muteki Ginga Saikyō Otoko (catchy, right?), and it is just one of several games in the Cho Aniki series, which is well known for its references to homosexuality (such as an unhealthy fixation on muscular men). This undeniably gives Cho Aniki a certain kitsch value, which may explain its popularity in Japan.

So what’s the gameplay like? In a word; difficult – actually, make that very, very difficult, bordering on impossible (yes, we know that’s more than one word). Side-scrolling shooters are notorious for their harsh difficulty, but Cho Aniki takes things to a whole new level, as (it pains us to say) we couldn’t even make it past the first level!

READ THE REST OF THE REVIEW AT PS3 ATTITUDE