My initial reaction to Apoc’s certified for gold sprites was a spontaneous combustion of joy, an instant homepage bookmark and a desire to eat the whole printout with chili sauce. I wanted to narrate my soul among these masterpieces so badly that I reworked a couple designs myself, but we’re here not about me.

Although many of these sprites are conventional. For example, Angeles follows the tradition of classic Renaissance, while Death depicts the Grim Reaper or one of the four Horsemen of Apocalypse, also, there are the mermaids, archangels and minotaurs.

In other sprites we see a great sense of style and fashion. For example, Axel has a cool trench-coat (as Eflucix, Enigma, Heat and some others – it seems that Apoc has a deep fascination with them), Dave – Men in Black clothes and funky shoes, Dayla a – tomboyish hair and tight pants, Devon is like Dante from DMC, and so on and on.

Despite that, Apoc challenges himself and sprites traditional robes. Carmesí seems like he just hopped out from some ancient Aztec tribe, Duncan is a punk with a strong entitlement to wear Chinese outfits, Glacion reminds me of Sweden somehow, Leonidas wears some kind of a Spanish conquistador’s formal outfit, Maximillian reeks of the age of kings, Vulcanus is like a wild nomad, and so on and on.

There are also a lot of fantasy elements in Apoc’s sprites. That includes the animals. Three-headed Cerberus-from-Hell like lions, awesome Death’s horse on two legs; though I have to say that Snow and Tania’s pet look quite mediocre, like from plastic and without emotion and without implied fierceness. Drake has an elven similarity with Lord of the Rings book and films, Gabriel is like Claude from Final Fantasy. Empire and Darks are okay, but LF2TimmE1 remakes are the best in the level of detail for the armor. One word: prodigious.

What I like most about Apoc’s sprites is the girls. They’re beautiful to look at. Brisa has long grey hair, nice tits and is fit as hell. Elizabeth is a little loli in light blue dress, all sparkly and cute. Love the Love (that’s the name); one of the rare images where it seems that Apoc had experimented and, while the graininess looks as mystic as it should, the head is an awful mess (a gentle hint here to fix it). Lucy and her skins are fantastic in detailed reconstruction of original characters' clothes. Did I mentioned that she has deliciously juggly battle cannons on her chest? Well, now I did. Rose looks nice, but I sense that something here is not right. Usually I have a hard-on for short hair, but she looks so unattractive. Nevertheless, shapelly legs save the day. Meteora and Mistara are among my favorites. They’re like futanari fusions – athletic, great poses for the camera, epic boobs – say cheese, girls! And last, but awkwardly really last, is Evo Jan. I’m surprised that anyone wanted to make a full char out of her. She’s not my type and I wouldn’t hit on her. Maybe if those bubbles wouldn’t be around; nah, she probably doesn’t have any other friends without them. Let her be, Claude. Just let.

I haven’t mentioned other characters, because of the space (I try to write one page of material that I wouldn’t bore anyone to death). My final comments are these: when it comes to Apoc, it’s 99% of genius and 1% of effort. My only wish is that you would do more full sized artwork and share your progress and/or technique with others. If you feel generous, that is. That’s it, thanks for reading and sorry for grave-digging.