Fake Peppino

**Fake Peppino** is the fourth boss and a major antagonist of Pizza Tower.

## Description

Fake Peppino is a being that bears a close resemblance to Peppino Spaghetti. He is shown to have jittery movement while also being moist and slimy. He is much taller than Peppino with loose eyes and a near-permanent smile. He also, much like Peppino, wears a white tank top over a black T-shirt, black pants and a white chef's hat; his outfit will change to whatever costume the player is wearing. Additionally, in one of his boss fight attacks, he takes his head off like a mask, revealing nothing but a pink brain with eyes.

## Boss Room

To access the boss room, the player needs to pay Mr. Stick $200 (20 Toppins).

The room is a gritty, trash-filled, and dilapidated pizza place, seemingly called "Peppino's Pizza 2" based on the inverted window, which has a Peppino-like face making an Italian expression on it. The other thing to note is the giant wall mural of an amusing caricature of Peppino in a proper chef's suit holding a pizza and saying, "Nothing Compares!". As Peppino enters the boss fight, Fake Peppino turns around and makes a similar, but distorted "scared" scream.

During the second phase, the background becomes more demented, changing to have what is presumably Fake Peppino clones/victims appearing from the garbage and cracks in the walls, the window's face distorts to become similar to Fake Peppino's face. The wall mural's face distorts to become similar to the one in the window, with its original message altered to take the form of a nonsensical order of letters, saying "FRTXJPIHCBATTZRDIHJPS!". The window itself has this face along with backward letters saying "Peppino Peppino Peppino Peppino" as they get smaller.

During the chase sequence, the stage is a dark setting with a black and dark purple color scheme. After the chase sequence, the exterior of the stage is shown, apparently being called "Bruno Pizza", With some of the letters crooked, the N however, is fully rotated sideways, making it look like a Z, making it look like the sign says "Bruzo Pizza". which is as rundown, if not more, as the initial boss stage, and boarded up, with several strange posters and signs on it. Fake Peppino's eyes and hands can be seen through the boarded-up door. There is a sign saying "DO NOT ENTER INSIDE!", but when the words are read from a different way, the sign also says, "DO ENTER NOT INSIDE!".

## Boss Behavior

### Main Gimmick of the Fight

Fake Peppino is not the only "Fake Peppino", as darker-clothed variants of the Fake Peppino will appear in order to attack the player. These dark-clothed clones cannot be attacked, but in turn, disappear after attacking. Attacking also makes the player likely take damage, so it is recommended to avoid them.

They're very difficult to parry, but doing so is still possible.

### Phase 1

Fake Peppino has 6 attacks he can perform, spread out across each hit point. Fake Peppino requires 2 grab attacks for a hit to be counted. After each hit, Fake Peppino will disappear, and clones of Fake Peppino will appear to repeat the same attack the "real" one had previously executed.

#### Grab Dash

Fake Peppino will run about and periodically lunge forward to grab you with one arm. If he grabs the player, they are stabbed by his tongue and launched away, taking damage. This is one of the only attacks in the game that can't be parried at all, likely since the player isn't immediately damaged upon being hit by the attack.

Clones that do this move will disappear after doing the grab dash or after hitting the player.

#### High Jump and Face Slam

Fake Peppino performs a powerful frog-like leap into the air, then slowly falls down towards the player, slamming into the ground headfirst. Fake Peppino can be attacked during the windup before the jump or after he slams into the ground.

Clones that do this will disappear after slamming into the floor.

#### Mach Run

Fake Peppino runs at extreme velocity, running up the walls and across the ceiling, around and around the arena. He can be attacked while he starts running and after he stops running.

When the clones try to wall run, they will fall down off of the ceiling the moment they are above the player and then face slam downwards.

#### Super Jump

Fake Peppino crouches down and super jumps to the ceiling, then jumps back down to the floor, repeating this 4 times before finishing.

Clones will form a line of 10, leaving a small space for the player to stand safely before they jump from the floor to the ceiling and disappear, then repeat their formation and attack several times with the opening in a different place each time.

#### Head Throw & Headless Run

Fake Peppino pulls his head off, revealing his brain and eyes, and throws it toward the player. The thrown head can be ducked under or jumped over. After this, Fake Peppino will run to retrieve his lost head, hurting the player if he collides with them. This can either be parried or jumped over.

Several clones will appear from each side of the room and charge towards the other end and disappear, with the exception of the last clone who tosses its head. This clone will disappear immediately afterward.

#### Super Taunt

Fake Peppino jumps and performs one of three super taunts, sending out 8 spiky bouncing projectiles in cardinal and diagonal directions. Once he finishes showing off, he falls back down and runs to the other side of the room to do it again.

Clones that super taunt will only send out one projectile, sending it diagonally downwards, as well as headless clones will run across the room from time to time. The clones will use their simultaneous super taunts 7 times before the second phase begins, and headless clones will spawn after the second and fifth taunts.

### Phase 2

Once Fake Peppino reappears after taking 6 hits, he enters phase 2. Fake Peppino will repeat all of Phase 1 again but will no longer disappear. Now clones will appear alongside him to attack the player.

#### All Attack Combination

Fake Peppino and his clones will both attack the player in Phase 2. Here are all the combinations of attacks for each hit point.

* **Underlined Moves**: The move performed by the main/original Fake Peppino.

1. Grab Dash + Mach Run
2. High Jump & Face Slam + High Jump & Face Slam
3. Mach Run + Mach Run
4. Super Jump + Headless Run
5. Head Throw & Headless Run + Head Throw
6. Super Taunt + Mach Run

### Dark Tunnel Chase

Once Phase 2 is beaten, the floor collapses, and the player is chased by a giant, monstrous Fake Peppino through a small dark hallway. If Fake Peppino touches the player, they will simply take 2 points in damage, and Fake Peppino is knocked back, effectively giving the player 3 hit points if they survived up to this point with full health. Once the player escapes the tunnel, the fight is over.

### Boss Rematch

After beating the Final Boss’ 2nd Phase, Pizzahead will bring in the four previous boss characters, and sends each of them to attack. Despite each boss having 8 HP and extra 8 HP afterwards, 4 HP will be drained per hit due to Peppino becoming enraged immediately beforehand. The player fights each of the bosses one by one, they use some of the same attacks as before. After defeating Pepperman, Gustavo will appear for the player to grab and throw him at the remaining 3 bosses to stun them.

Fake Peppino is the fourth and final boss in the rematch. Fake Peppino doesn't use any of his clones during the final battle.

Fake Peppino will attack in this order:

* Grab Dash
* High Jump & Face Slam
* Head Throw & Headless Run
* Super Taunt

After 4 hits, Fake Peppino will fall down, and the player will face Pizzahead.

## Pre-release

*For early appearances and scrapped ideas, see the pre-release page here: Fake Peppino/Pre-release*

## Trivia

* In the third background for WAR, a Peppino-like figure can be seen in a test tube, presumably meaning that Peppino is being cloned. This figure somewhat resembles Fake Peppino, possibly explaining his origins.
	+ This thought is also justified as the indoor lab part of WAR includes Peppino Clones, which look extremely similar to Fake Peppino, and even had the same sauce-based tongue/mouth. (Which was originally cheese)
* He is the only one out of the first four bosses that do not appear on another floor after they’re defeated.
* He is the only one whose boss fight doesn't have a second-phase transition.
* When first fighting him, the VS Screen Portrait and name he uses is the same as Peppino's. After the first attempt, they get swapped out with his true portrait, depicting him with his mouth wide open and his eyes popping out of his sockets.
	+ The portrait will only change upon defeating Fake Peppino for the first time. If the player revisits the fight after closing the game but hasn't beaten him yet, the portrait will still be of Peppino.
	+ The icon for P-Ranking the fight with Fake Peppino is also intentionally made blank to hide his identity, while also referencing the fact that Fake Peppino has no skeleton, unlike the other bosses.
	+ Additionally, in demos where Fake Peppino was a boss fight, like in the very complete October 2022 Build, only his true identifying VS Screen Portrait will appear.
* Fake Peppino's sound effects are mostly those of Peppino, but reversed and distorted.
	+ If Peppino's and Fake Peppino's scream is played together at the same time, it will sound like a completely normal/original sound.
* Fake Peppino and Pizzaface are the only bosses to have I-Frames.
* In a slightly earlier version of the chase, the giant Fake Peppino would only move at the speed the player did, however, this was changed in an update to him moving at a set speed. The chase layout was also nerfed twice before the game's final release.
* Like Gustavo, Fake Peppino will wear the same clothes that the player (Peppino) does when changed.
	+ Thus can involuntarily make the fight much harder, as with certain colors, clones become more difficult to differentiate from the actual Fake Peppino. In the case of Dark Cook, the actual Fake Peppino and the clones will look exactly the same.
	+ In the October 2022 Build, the clones did not have different shades of clothes, leaving them identical to the original Fake Peppino.
* Fake Peppino has the least amount of health despite being the second-to-last boss fight, being 6 health per round; the same amount the player has. This is possibly to reference the fact he is a distorted clone of Peppino.
* Fake Peppino's original purpose was to secretly be a cheese enemy.
* If you manage to beat him without taking damage, but without collecting any health pick-ups, you'll be met with an A Rank. Doing so on any other boss would instead give you a B Rank.
* The song used during the chase sequence, “Okay Campers, Rise and Shine!”, has been heard by fans as having voice clips of presumably Fake Peppino calling out “Peppino! Come over here *now*!” This has not been confirmed, however.
* Fake Peppino appears in the DOOM mod “Bring Your Own Class” as The Noise’s BFG 9000 replacement, chasing down enemies and attacking them.
* Fake Peppino is (clearly) not human, as he deforms in and out of the ground, his eye falls out of his pocket without any blood, pain, or even the inside of the eye, can remove his own head, and become a terrifying abomination that will chase Peppino out of the building.
* The sign at the end of the boss fight that reads "Do Enter Not Inside!" appears to be a parody of a promotional poster for The Walking Dead that is intended to read "Don't Open" and "Dead Inside" on two separate doors, but reading the poster from left-to-right reads it as "Don't Dead Open Inside"
* This is obvious, but all of Fake Peppino’s attacks are taken straight from Peppino, further adding to the feeling that this is a copy of you.
* Fake Peppino appears in scrapped levels like Strongcold as an easter egg and Mansion as an enemy.
* Recently, there was code found for a playable (and very unfinished) Fake Peppino in the files, suggesting that he was briefly considered as a playable character.
* Upon entering this stage, the game's window will rename itself to "Fighting a weirdo in the Pizza Tower".

## Gallery

### Regular animations

Fake Peppino waiting patiently in his boss introFake Peppino turning around towards the player in the intro.Fake Peppino starting his screaming animation in the intro.Fake Peppino screaming like Peppino in the intro of the boss.Fake Peppino ending his screaming animation.Fake Peppino's idle animationFake Peppino walking.Fake Peppino dashing while trying to imitate Peppino's Mach 4 (Or Mach 2) animation, this is used in The Crumbling Tower Of Pizza when walking.Fake Peppino dashing on a ceilingFake Peppino dashing up to the ceilingFake Peppino dashing down onto the groundFake Peppino lunging forward to grab the player.Fake Peppino jabbing the player with his tongue.Fake Peppino preparing to jump up in order to body slam.Fake Peppino jumping up to perform a body slam.Fake Peppino descending while bodyslamming.Fake Peppino landing after performing the bodyslam.Fake Peppino preparing to superjump.Fake Peppino preparing to superjump onto the groundFake Peppino superjumping.Fake Peppino superjumping off a ceiling.Fake Peppino taking off his head and throwing it.Fake Peppino's Head ThrowFake Peppino running wildly without his head.Fake Peppino's Head idle.Fake Peppino putting his head back on after throwing it.Fake Peppino jumping before doing a Super Taunt.Fake Peppino's first Super Taunt animation. A potential imitation of the taunt where Peppino points forward and grins.Fake Peppino's second Super Taunt animation. A nod to one of Peppino’s scrapped taunts, which itself is a nod to Sonic Adventure.Fake Peppino's third Super Taunt animation, where he leans towards the screen with a creepy, toothless grin.Fake Peppino falling after doing a Super Taunt.Fake Peppino staggering after taking a hit.Fake Peppino deforming.Fake Peppino deforming on a ceiling.Fake Peppino reforming.Fake Peppino's stunned animation.Fake Peppino chasing the player down in the final phase of the boss fight.Fake Peppino's hurt/vulnerable animation.Fake Peppino's splashing effect.Some of Fake Peppino’s debris, appears with the splash effect.
### Arena

Fake Peppino's arena gate showing 2 pizzas and a peppino head at the top.Fake Peppino's arena gate background.Fake Peppino's arena ground sprite.Phase 1 background, showcasing Peppino's Pizza 2.Phase 2 background.Chase ending background.Fake Peppino behind a door in the chase ending background.
### In-game miscellaneous

Fake Peppino's VS portrait when you go back to the boss a 2nd time.Fake Peppino's name on the VS screen.Fake Peppino appearing as Peppino on the VS screen before revealed.Fake Peppino's HP icon.Fake Peppino's boss fight icon on the Pizza Granny sign.Fake Peppino's shadow in the game's intro.Fake Peppino in the game's ending.Fake Peppino coming across his counterpart and staring in shock while taking out the trash. Appears in the game's ending.Fake Peppino copying Peppino's costume in a costume party. Appears in the ending.Fake Peppino seemingly trying to mimic Peppino running from the bosses, seen in the game’s ending.Fake peppino in a ghost costume in the Halloween event
### Concept Artwork

Early concept art of Fake Peppino, where he resembled Peppino a little more closely.Another early concept art of Fake Peppino.Concept art with Fake Peppino on the ceiling.Disturbing concept art of Fake Peppino.Concept art of Fake Peppino's phase 2, where Fake Peppino himself would change instead of just the background.A terrifying concept art of Fake Peppino where he is seen with a skull and spine,Concept art with Fake Peppino covered in slime.Concept art for Fake Peppino's bossfight.
### Miscellaneous

Doodle of Fake Peppino and other characters referencing the Donkey Kong Rap of Donkey Kong 64 made by McPig.