Yep it's him again. The mutant who just loves to hate all other mutants. He was the boss in XSF and he's back for more. I always thought that he was a total pushover, but he now has a new super move and....he's still a pushover. Hehehe....remember the car bonus stage in the original SF? Well, think of him as that Benz, only he fights back. At the beginning of the match, he's normal size and he chats with your lead character for a while, but when the fighting begins, he becomes the size of a building. His attacks really hurt and can kill your characters very quickly, but only if you're totally brain-dead. You can easily block or avoid most of his attacks and combo him to death while he's vulnerable. Just keep hitting him until your super meter is charged and then pull off a super. Do this a few times and he's toast.

Smash Down Shockwave
Apocalype's hand looks like a big fist while he's attacking like this. This is the move that he'll pull off the most in the battle against him. He'll slam his fist down to the ground and a pillar of flames will erupt in front of him that hits several times for good damage. It will push you away if blocked and does excellent damage if it connects. The startup time on this move is enormous though, so you can pull off a combo before you have to block. Keep in mind though that his hand will be raised so it's better to do jumping and high attacks. The pillar covers his entire front and will push you away if you try to jump towards him while he's doing it. The best thing to do is to get behind his hand so that you can hit him with whatever you want without worrying about getting hurt. Don't be directly under his fist though, or you'll receive a lot of pain.

Mace Fist
I think that this is his dumbest move. His hand becomes a ball with spikes and he does damage when he slams it down. So what? I mean, sure you'll get hit if you try to attack his hand, but his face is very open to attack while he's like this. As soon as you see this ball, keep jumping at his face and pulling off air combos. There will be no pillars of fire to push you away. Just watch out for the reflect beams.....

Reflect Beam
In case you didn't notice, Apocalypse has a whole bunch of little satellites orbiting around his head. These things like to get near you and randomly reflect beams of energy from an unknown source. This is a really annoying attack cause it will usually catch you in the air as you're trying to air combo his face. The best thing to do is to block these and if you come across one of the satellites, hit it until it blows up.

Scatter Shot
A hatch opens up in Pockie's shoulder and he shoots out a whole bunch of bullets that are released in a circular pattern. They move very fast and will hit you if you're not careful. They don't do that much damage and you can see it coming a mile away cause of the shoulder hatch thing so this move is not a big threat, but you should block it anyway.

Tracking Shot
Pockie's shoulder hatch opens up again and he shoots out a whole bunch of energy balls, one after the other. These are a threat because not only do they hurt, they also home in on you. If all of them hit, then you'll probably be dizzy afterwards. Block, block, block! They won't be able to catch you if you're behind his fist though, so I'd just avoid them altogether by super jumping over.

The Drill
This is Apocalypse's most effective supermove. His arm becomes a big drill and he charges towards you while it spins. It really hurts if it connects cause it does so many hits. Over a half of your life just drains away if you're dumb enough to get hit by this. The best way to avoid it is to super jump as soon as you see him forming the drill. If you don't super jump though, prepare to receive a lot of chipping damage. I've lost over a third of life before cause I just sat there and blocked. However, if you're standing on the ground and you push block, it'll knock him back. Far enough for you to super jump over and hit him from behind.

The Eye Laser
This is a new move for Pockie. He didn't have it in XSF. His eyes shoot out a concentrated beam of energy that does as much damage as his drill. It's not as effective at chip damage but it is much faster. It can still be anticipated though cause his eyes light up before he starts doing this attack. Just block it if you didn't super jump in time.

Ok, as I said before, it is possible to lose to this guy, but only if you're ignorant. Just learn a few simple rules and you will be able to beat him every time.

Now a good rule to follow when fighting him is to be very alert. Watch everything, his face, his hand, his shoulders and even the satellites orbiting around him. All of his attacks announce themselves long before they actually hit so you should just turtle and hit him when it's clear. Nobody is going to call you cheap for fighting him like this, cause nobody really likes him and they all consider him cheesy anyway. Also, don't push block that often against him cause it's a bit tough to get close to him afterward. However, if you see that big ass drill coming towards you.....PUSH BLOCK, PUSH BLOCK! Trust me, this works. Not only will you lose less chip damage while he's hitting you, it will push him far enough away for you to super jump behind him and pull off a super.

When comboing Apocalypse, keep in mind that nothing will knock him down and nothing will cause the flying screen to occur. This means that characters can do AC Finishers and be able to tag on another special move that you would not be able to otherwise. For example, a normal jumping combo with Spidey would be SJ.Jab, SJ.Strong, SJ. Fierce. Now because apocalypse isn't gonna be knocked away when Spidey does the SJ. Fierce, he'll be able to throw in a Web Ball or Web Swing. Cool Right? The same goes for ground combos. Akuma can hit Pockie with a Dragon Punch after doing his C.Roundhouse which would normally knock his opponent down to the floor. You can really look like a combo king once you master these extra combos which you can do on him.

One thing about air comboing Apocalypse. Keep in mind that you are not super jumping and only regular jumping to hit his face. This means that most characters will not have the Zigzag series that they normally have in air combos. Instead, they will have their regular jumping series. For example, while super jumping, Shuma Gorath can get up to five chained hits in the air. However, if he's not super jumping, then his series is one punch to one kick. It is nearly impossible to correctly time a super jump in order to hit Apocalypse. This means that the best that you can do against him with Shuma is two chained hits and maybe a special move chained after that. So when comboing Apocalypse, think like you're doing a jump in combo instead of a Super Jumping air combo.

The best place to hit him is in the face. Not only will you be away from that big fist of his, you'll make him flinch too! Plus, it's just so much fun hitting him there. I only wish you could fight his full body so that you could really hit him where it hurts. Mwahahahahaha!!! That'd be funny, seeing Apocalypse hunched over, grabbing the family jewels. Anyways, some characters have moves that can hit his face while on the ground such as Cyke's Fierce Optic Blast, Sakura's fireballs, Hulk's S.Roundhouse and Dhalsim's Yoga Blast. More details will be provided when I get the individual boss tips in each characters move guide.

Now, about supers.....some work really well against him and some do nothing. Multi-hitting supers are the best to use against him cause he is so big and slow. He'll get hit by all of the attacks and you should pull these off as soon as you have a meter charged up. Shinkuu Hadoken, Mega Optic Blast, Berserker Barrage X and the Thunder N Lightning Legs work amazingly well against him. however, combo supers and grab supers will not connect at all. This means that the Final Atomic Buster, Chaos Dimension, Weapon X, Final Justice and Maximum Spider will do no damage against him.

All in all...Apocalypse is a pansy. Capcom could have made it much tougher for us by speeding him up and giving him some more attacks. I wouldn't even mind losing to him if they made him really tough. What I wanted was the ability to fight him in normal size first. Then, after you beat him, he'd grow big. Oh well.....anyways, he is really no challenge at all. Just play smart and you'll come out on top every time.

� 1998 Migs Rustia: [email protected]
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