I spent 2022 quite differently than 2021, opting to greatly reduce my travels for the year, and this resulted in a shift in GemuBaka’s content. I’ve spent time since 2020 making plans to greatly ease off my use of social media, and this has fully kicked in for 2023.
The motivation behind that is in placing more time toward this website and video features. My reduction in travel resulted in less unique arcade content, but 2022 did see two things that bolstered GemuBaka’s content: Returning to live streaming on Twitch and joining the Cohost platform.
Attention to Twitch has taken some of my attention away from original YouTube content, but I’ve had fun playing games on the stream and reconnecting with the handful of viewers that have supported me over the years. The Cohost note may seem weird, but its format has prompted me to expand thoughts beyond 280 characters, and this has lent itself to crafting ideas that evolved into content completely fleshed out on GemuBaka.
This has created a year in review that actually has me a little more excited to dig into what happened on Gemubaka and the YouTube channel compared to the typical rundown of Twitter. Activity still happened on Twitter, but the gap in impressions and engagement between the top and bottom of the top 10 is perhaps wider than ever.
To get the rundown of years past, you can check out the previous Best of Gemubaka entries at the following links:
(The Best of GemuBaka in 2019)
(The Best of GemuBaka in 2020)
(The Best of GemuBaka in 2021)
Let’s get into it and round up the Twitter content.
THE TWITTER TOP 10
#10 – Hidden Quan Chi – September
Posted as a quick-fire joke, this photo is a head-on shot of a Killer Instinct cabinet, but the Easter egg hidden in the photo is the face of Mortal Kombat 4’s Quan Chi – a character that has achieved meme status over the years in part to sources such as @DailyMK4 on Twitter.
While I wasn’t sure at first if people would catch on, it was quickly proven that people were paying attention.
#9 – WWF turbo mode – January
I’ll break down more about WWF WrestleMania throughout this feature, but the game definitely saw some attention from myself throughout 2022. In doing more research, I started experimenting with the secret codes in WWF WrestleMania (arcade) and found that playing in the turbo mode resulted in a couple of very bizarre glitches when characters tried to climb the turnbuckles.
Most of it is just strange graphics positioning and funny animations, but it was noted that turbo mode completely prevents The Undertaker from attacking from the top turnbuckle, period. For whatever reason, perhaps a low profile on his leg drop, The Undertaker immediately collides with the ground after pressing a button, sending him crashing straight to the mat.
#8 – I Want That Man Banned From This Arcade – August
WWF WrestleMania was, of course, one of the first games I played upon returning to live streaming. It’s always a treat to show new people the Yokozuna salt throw shenanigans, and this instance allowed me to do a recreation of the Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 Gambit glitch meme video.
The salt throw exploits never get old, and people are still finding them hilarious … and I discovered during a tournament in the game people are still finding new benefits to the tech.
#7 – A Day in the Life of a Competitive WWF WrestleMania Player – October
In October CherryPixelBun (artist of the Twitch channel’s new D.J. Tatsujin emotes!) hosted a WWF WrestleMania tournament in Fightcade as part of AlexAlchemy’s Charity Thing (ACT) V event.
It was amazing to see the turnout for the competition, which featuring some nerve-rackingly close bouts between myself and FunkDoc, a very accomplished arcade game player. We stuck with a Bret Hart versus Lex Luger matchup throughout the tournament, and, as some people know, each character has an infinite (Bret’s is character-specific against Lex).
Following the tournament, I made light of Lex’s infinite, and how deflating it is to get popped by the first hit of his flail and not be able to do anything about it. This is probably the most “TikTok” video I’ve ever made.
You can see more from Cherry Pixel Bun, which includes the complete tournament stream and a recent video of online net play in Mortal Kombat Armageddon, on the CherryPixelBun YouTube channel. More information about the AlexAlchemy’s Charity Thing event can also be viewed online.
#6 – Too many weaknesses to print – May
My earliest exposures to tier lists come from magazines such as GamePro and Tips & Tricks. By far, one of the most memorable tier listings comes from GamePro’s breakdown of Mortal Kombat II. All these years later, I would still occasionally think about how badly the magazine ripped Reptile apart in every conceivable manner, saying he has too many negatives to fully print, and if anyone knew of any positives to choosing Reptile, they should let GamePro know.
As fate would have it, one of my 2022 game store expeditions resulted in me finding a copy of this magazine and being able to relive this feature. It’s pretty funny looking back, but it did get some players up in arms, who defended that Reptile could indeed be a viable character.
It goes to show that some things never change, and you should never take a tier list as a definitive say on what works – or doesn’t – in a fighting game.
#5 – Stupid sexy Rock Howard CGI – February
This time frame just happened to be when SNK announced Rock Howard’s inclusion in The King of Fighters XV, and also when I started getting clued into being able to scour old video game sites using the Wayback Machine.
An archived version of SNK’s Garou: Mark of the Wolves web site still happened to have some media included, so I thought I would share on Twitter a CGI-style portrait of Rock Howard intended as a desktop wallpaper. It turns out people still liked Rock Howard in 2022.
#4 – Vicious Circle brutality – July
I’ve probably mentioned too many times to count that GemuBaka has massive features on the gameplay of Atari’s Vicious Circle, as well as the development of Vicious Circle under its project name “Hero.” Because of these features, I occasionally get someone contacting me to let me know they have discovered something new about the game.
This actually happened quite a bit in 2022, as a couple of players hunkered down and discovered a number of new finishing move commands. I typically share these on Twitter, and it usually gets noted how fun it is for people that new things are being discovered in decades-old games.
This specific entry was based on Bolok’s brutality move. With help from GemuBaka’s readers, the only known finishing move command that remains unknown is one of Mallus’ finishing moves.
#3 – Go Geese! It’s your birthday! – January
Out of sheer coincidence, this very same item was the GemuBaka #3 Twitter item on our 2020 list.
This one’s pretty simple – Jan. 21 is the birthday of legendary SNK character Geese Howard. The SNK games coming to the United States for a period of time received some pretty dicey localizations, and one of the most notable is Geese’s quip of “pin-headed son of an ice cream maker!” Yes, it’s still ridiculous all these years later.
#2 – The Dynamite Deka EX slap chop – September
I’ve visited the “nearest” Round One arcade location multiple times, and while I spend most of my time invested in the music games, I would wander through the fighting/retro game section every now and again. On a birthday trip to the location last year, I had enough time to dedicate some attention to this section, even recording game playthroughs and doing a short live stream.
The main attraction I’ve wanted to get to since I first visited this arcade a couple years back was Dynamite Deka EX – a game so fascinating to me, it has its own feature on GemuBaka. Even the attract mode for this game is completely bonkers, and one of the elements always stuck out to me as hilarious.
The characters in this game can pick up briefcases to transform with special abilities, and one of these allows the character to grapple an enemy, completely rotate them around, spiking them on their head so they remain in a headstand and then promptly chopping them in-between their legs. Yes, in THAT area.
I felt I needed to share that move as I don’t believe a lot of people were aware of what Dynamite Deka EX was, and I found my hunch was correct. It got a lot of people discussing the game, and I was happy to find out that there are players who enjoy how overboard this game goes … and “overboard” says a lot when you consider how wacky this series is to begin with.
#1 – That Anita art – August
This is another case where, this is probably the third time I made such a post over the years, it just so happened the third time was when people finally noticed it.
There has been a lot of discussion online about how U.S. companies used to change the artwork for video games so they will “appeal to the U.S. audience.” Heck – this just came up in the Official U.S. Playstation Magazine feature I posted on GemuBaka the other day.
One of the more notorious examples was the Street Fighter Alpha (1) artwork that got plastered on the longboxes of the home versions released on PlayStation and Saturn. This apparently got so much backlash, that this art alone resulted in the company sticking with Japanese artwork from that point forward.
Unfortunately, this seems to have been a decision made after Capcom released Night Warriors: Darkstalkers’ Revenge to U.S. arcades. The game could be featured in a “big blue” cabinet made famous by Capcom for a stretch of its game releases, and the original artwork features U.S. comic book stylings of Morrigan, J. Talbain, Pyron, Donovan and Anita.
I can’t draw worth a lick, so it isn’t my place to say this is crappy artwork. Placed in a U.S. comic book as part of a different universe, this art would probably be fine. I would even say the Morrigan isn’t all that bad. But, even as a kid, I found it to be a mismatch that you have the beautiful anime-style pixel artwork inside of the game of these amazingly cool monster movie style characters, and a completely different direction is chosen for the art that is supposed to promote the game and attract players to the cabinet.
That being said … I love this marquee. Those who follow me know that I love, love, love a lot of Konami’s marquee and sideart creations that have actors and actresses photographed to recreate the game scenarios. Dark Adventure, The Main Event, Crime Fighters/Vendetta and Martial Champion are amongst my favorites. If there ever comes a day where I have more money than I would ever know what to do with, I think I might try to build a museum that features arcade art like these.
MY FAVORITE GEMUBAKA POSTS FROM 2022
Preview: Mega Man The Sequel Wars
This amazing fan project has seen a couple of demo releases, so we’ve covered it a couple of times between a feature, along with a few YouTube videos. The Sequel Wars is a project that aims to take Mega Man 4-6 and port them to the SEGA Genesis with all of the care that went into Mega Man: The Wily Wars, a game that was previously lost to the U.S. audience because of its SEGA Channel exclusivity. I can’t wait for this one to fully release, and I recommend any interested in Mega Man to check out a demo of the game.
GemuBaka turns 14!
This feature was spurred because I thought GemuBaka might be reaching its 10th anniversary, only to find out it’s almost old enough to drive. In a scramble to feature something on the 14th anniversary of the site, I discovered I still had a few arcade video that came from a digital camera I had purchased nearly 15 years ago. Now that the site anniversary is something that is on my mind, work is underway to try to do something I’ve always wanted to do for when the site reaches the big 1-5.
Getting our hands on a Vicious Circle cabinet!
Another Vicious Circle feature was added in 2022, this time courtesy of Galloping Ghost Arcade obtaining a prototype cabinet of the game. This allowed us to solve the mystery of how the buttons could have possibly been arranged, and it felt great to play the game the way Atari would have intended.
Reppin’ Team Rock in the Splatfest World Premiere!
I’m sure some people question whether I even play videos games that released past 2003, but, yes, I do sometimes. It might even come as a surprise to people that I absolutely adore the Splatoon series. I didn’t get to play Splatoon 2 nearly as much as I would have liked, so I decided to invest more time into causally playing Splatoon 3. This started with my son and I taking part in all 12 hours of the beta testing period prior to the game’s launch. It doesn’t seem like too many people are interested in my Splatoon content, but it’s something I’m going to keep doing out of personal interest since I like the game so much.
The Street Fighter 6 beta from the eyes of a novice
Yes, I assure you that sometimes I play current video games! I lucked out in being drawn for inclusion in the second closed beta test of Street Fighter 6, and it got me even more interested in the game. I may not be a modern Street Fighter expert, but I had a lot of thoughts to share on my experience. More importantly, I had a great time!
POPULAR YOUTUBE UPLOADS
Unsurprisingly, nothing from 2022 shook up the channel’s top 10 videos. As of now, the GemuBaka top 10 on YouTube are the following:
DJ Max Fever Final Trailer – 93K views
DJ Max Black Square – Fermion (RuliWeb) – 40K views
Arm Champs II (arcade) Specks Challenge – 37K views
DJ Max Black Square – Heart of Witch (RuliWeb) – 31K views
DDR Universe 3 – 888 Oni – 23K views
DDR Universe 3 – Sakura Storm (Oni) – 18K views
DDR Universe 3 – Complete Songwheel – 17K views
DDR Universe 3 – 888 (oni quad) – 16K views
Scratch: The Ultimate DJ Numark Trailer – 14K views
Mortal Kombat Actors Play MKII – 12K views
DJ Max Black Square Trailer – 10K views
DDR Furu Furu Party Trailer – 10K views
The majority of those are from 13-14 years ago, when I decided to launch the channel to not only secure the GemuBaka name but get started with music gaming content creation. My DDR Universe 3 videos were amongst very limited content for the game available online, and, to this date, players occasionally remember the quad dance mode (four dance pads lined up for one player) from the Xbox versions of the game and then my videos get linked.
The only two videos from “modern day” GemuBaka on that list are the Arms Champs II video – by far my most-watched video on a day-to-day basis for some reason – and the Mortal Kombat actors playing Mortal Kombat, which is still a fun watch.
Still, there were a couple of videos that saw some response in 2022. Most notably the Single-player primer for Red Earth that I released prior to the launch of Capcom Fighting Collection in June. This was the first and only video I’d ever published on YouTube that passed 1,000 views on its first day. It also currently sits as the only video on the channel that has the potential to crack the top 10 at some point.
Based on the release of Capcom Fighting Collection, it also makes sense the number two video for 2022 is based on Pocket Fighter, but this video has yet to pass 1,000 views.
I think the biggest surprise on the list was a video I posted giving my thoughts on Konami’s Dance Around. I enjoyed playing the game and wanted to share information about it, so I put some attention into a short video. It released to something like 20-30 views, and then, much like Arm Champs II at one point, out of nowhere it started accumulating views and comments.
I can’t pin down who might have shared my video to result in this, but this was by far the channel’s biggest growth that I simply cannot explain. While none of the other videos have reached the level of Dance Around, this momentum seemed to have also increase viewership on some of the other rhythm gaming videos on the channel.
The GemuBaka chart for videos published in 2022:
10. First Game on Future TomTom
9. I Bought a Warlord VHS Tape
8. Thoughts on Chrono Circle
7. Breaking Down Scotto
6. WWE 2K22 Royal Rumble Glitch Ruins the Match [SHORT]
5. Quick Thoughts on Time Crisis 5
4. The Secret of Street Fighter’s (1) Special Moves
3. First Impressions on Dance Around
2. Pocket Fighter – Basic Mechanics and Runner Battle
1. Single-player Primer for Red Earth
There were also a couple of “series” released on YouTube that did accumulate to a generous amount of video views. This included various videos on Vicious Circle, event reports for Universal All-Pro Wrestling and a series of videos of playthroughs on demos for Mega Man: The Sequel Wars. This was also true of videos from Ruthless Pro Wrestling’s Boiling Point 2, but this event actually took place in 2021 and I used unlisted videos as support media for an event report I did on the show. I decided to make the videos public, and this pushed a “publish date” of 2022 for those videos.
Personally, I felt 2022 didn’t have as much of a shine as 2021, but I’ve been motivated to make 2023 something special for GemuBaka. Content will be more focused on the web site as opposed to feeding into quick hits on social media that don’t lead to any real growth. This is my fifth feature so far for GemuBaka in January, so I want to keep that momentum going.
As mentioned, May 19, 2023, will mark the 15th anniversary of GemuBaka, and that’s something that honestly means a lot to me. Thanks to everyone who has supported GemuBaka, especially over the past couple of years! I’m hoping I can continue the momentum I have built recently, and I look forward to being able to bring readers more content and a variety of odd, classic gaming features.
GemuBaka 
Leave a Reply