Demon Armageddon

"Accept death! The other realm awaits. (消え失せろ！ 砕け散るがよいわ！)"

- Akuma

The Demon Armageddon (天衝海轢刃, Tenshou Kaireki Jin, "Heaven Piercing Sea Crashing Blade") is Akuma's second Ultra Combo in Super Street Fighter IV, and is his most powerful variation of the Tatsumaki Zankukyaku.

The move was first mentioned by its Japanese name in Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, where Akuma had perfected the technique, and used it to destroy the remains of a sunken liner ship that sat on the ocean floor, as shown in his ending.

Description
Executed by pressing up twice and pressing all three kicks, Akuma turns away from the opponent before kicking them with forcefully into the air, and zooms towards them with an extremely powerful Tatsumaki Zankukyaku which envelops him in a whirlwind. As he hits his opponent, a giant red kanji of "heaven" (天, ten) appears in the background, acting as a sort of "wall" against which the opponent is pinned until Akuma flies through them with the Tatsumaki Zankukyaku, shattering the kanji and sending the opponent tumbling to the ground.

If an opponent is "chipped out" (i.e. knocked out while blocking) by the move, the Ultra Combo will end there, with the opponent flying back silently and in slow-motion while the background turns to Akuma's signature  black-and-white backdrop.

Tactics
By itself, the move is very damaging, dealing 500 damage when used with a full Revenge Gauge, half of Ryu's health. However, it is considerably ill-favored by other players because of how easy it is to dodge. By itself, the opposing player can either block, crouch or backdash away from the attack, leaving the user wide open to a counterattack.

Demon Armageddon's main usage, however, should be in combos, as it can be used during his teleport, allowing Akuma to cancel his close standing heavy punch, crouching heavy punch, crouching medium punch, crouching medium kick, or a far standing heavy punch (only in Ultra Street Fighter IV) into a teleport and connect the Demon Armageddon successfully (note that the timing to cancel the crouching medium moves into the teleport and Demon Armageddon is extremely strict, while the heavy punches are more lenient on timing due to increased hitstun). It additionally has a larger hitbox, hitting characters whether they are standing or crouching. Due to the nature of his teleport, the Demon Armageddon can also be used as a safety net against characters that are able to chase it down, or against easily punishable moves. This version of the move deals less damage (500 to 421 with a full Revenge Gauge).

After a crumple as a result of a Focus Attack, the Demon Armageddon by itself can hit certain characters (mostly tall characters). It can also hit any character following a very well spaced EX Zanku Hadoken as long as they are not crouching.

Due to pre-jump frames, it is also possible to do the Demon Armageddon without doing any buffering whatsoever, but the difficulty and the time frame to do so (four frames) makes it very impractical and nearly impossible to incorporate in gameplay.

Combo Examples

 * Crouching medium kick, cancel into Gohadoken (fireball), FADC, heavy punch, cancel into teleport, cancel into Demon Armageddon.


 * Demon Flip dive kick, close heavy punch, cancel into Gohadoken, FADC, close heavy punch, cancel into teleport, cancel into Demon Armageddon.


 * Jump in heavy kick, far standing heavy kick (two hit roundhouse), link into close heavy punch, cancel into teleport, cancel into Demon Armageddon.


 * Jump in EX Zanku Hadoken (air fireball), jump in heavy kick, close heavy punch (crouching heavy punch if enemy is crouching), cancel into teleport, cancel into Demon Armageddon.


 * Heavy Shakunetsu Hadoken, teleport and cancel into the Demon Armageddon.

Video
thumb|300px|center|Demon Armageddon (Japanese voices).