Pac-Jump

Pac-Jump
Pac-Man using Pac-Jump in Ultimate.
User	Pac-Man
Universe	Pac-Man Mappy

Pac-Jump (パックンジャンプ, Pac'n Jump) is Pac-Man's up special move.

Overview

Pac-Man turns into his ball form and summons a blue trampoline that stays in mid-air. The trampoline can be bounced on by anyone two more times, with each subsequent bounce launching characters higher than the last, but a third time causes it to break and the user to become helpless. Should anybody other than the user jump off of the trampoline, their jump will be refreshed, had they already used it. The trampoline will also change color based on the number of bounces it has left (from blue, to yellow, then to red).

The move can also be used offensively: once Pac-Man bounces off the trampoline, he will begin to chomp, causing 5-8% of damage to anyone he touches until his jump reaches its peak. While the chomps do minimal damage and knockback, the move is a useful out of shield option, since the trampoline is spawned on frame 1, and instantly forces grounded opponents to jump (and thus technically makes the chomp unblockable against grounded enemies).

The red trampoline's breaking effect is the only way for 14 characters to enter helplessness. Those characters are Yoshi, Jigglypuff, Mr. Game & Watch, Snake, Ivysaur (in Ultimate), Sonic, R.O.B., Mega Man, Bowser Jr., Bayonetta, Banjo & Kazooie, Byleth, Min Min and Kazuya. This makes it so that characters who did not have a helpless state in the previous game gain one, and by extension, makes Smash 4 and Ultimate the second and third iterations in the series to have helplessness for every character, the first being Melee when characters air dodged.

In Ultimate, the trampoline can be attacked by other players, although it cannot be attacked by the user. Based on the current color and the power of the attack, the trampoline will become yellow, red, or disappear altogether. The trampoline is also spawned at frame 10, making the chomp blockable.

Instructional quotes

case foldout		Attack while bouncing on a trampoline.
Move List		Bounces high into the air with a trampoline that sticks around for a little while.

Glitches

No collision glitch (1.0.8 - 1.0.9)

In versions 1.0.8 and 1.0.9 of SSB4, a glitch exists where a character can be dropped through solid ground by the trampoline. This occurs if Pac-Man creates a new trampoline while someone else is in the process of landing on an existing one that is very close to a floor, which causes the victim to temporarily not collide with the stage and simply fall through it. Victims of the glitch are almost certain to be KO'd, as they find themselves effectively teleported under the stage and unable to escape. This glitch was fixed in version 1.1.0.

"Helpless" glitch

In SSB4, if Pac-Man obtains a Super Mushroom or Poison Mushroom while using Pac-Jump, Pac-Man will quickly perform his respective "grow" or "shrink" animation, but will immediately return to his helpless animation while still moving normally. This helpless animation is completely aesthetic, and the player can cancel it with any attack or dodge.

Pass through glitch

In Ultimate, certain characters (such as Mr. Game & Watch and Pichu) can fall through the trampoline if they are small, Pac-Man was big when the trampoline was made, time is slowed, or a combination of those effects.

Customization

Special Move customization was added in Super Smash Bros. 4. These are the variations:

1. Pac-Jump	2. Power Pac-Jump	3. Meteor Trampoline
"Bounce high into the air with a trampoline that sticks around for a little while."	"Summon a trampoline that bounces you higher than usual but doesn't stick around."	"Bounces you less high. When it's red, it has a meteor effect and can bury whoever jumps on it."

1. Pac-Jump: Default.
2. Power Pac-Jump: The move sends Pac-Man high into the air with one large spring upward. However, the trampoline immediately disappears. Anyone above Pac-Man will be chomped on consecutively, trapping them and hurting them by 9% if the whole attack connects.
3. Meteor Trampoline: The jumps off the trampoline are slightly less than the standard variation's initial bounce, and lessens every time a character bounces off the trampoline, severely hindering Pac-Man's vertical recovery. When a character touches Pac-Man when he chomps, they will be damaged 3%, and the damage lessens with every bounce. Each time a character bounces on the trampoline, there is a weak meteor hitbox directly below it. The trampoline will meteor smash the player who touches it when it is red. If the trampoline is on the stage floor, it will bury the opponent rather than meteor smash them. If a player gets meteored by the red trampoline with another player standing on-stage below the trampoline, the grounded opponent will be buried.

• 

  Power Pac-Jump in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS.

• 

  Meteor Trampoline in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS.

Origin

Mappy using trampolines in the bonus round of Mappy.

The trampoline is a reference to the 1983 Namco arcade game Mappy. In the game, there are several trampolines that start the game colored green. Every time they are bounced on, they change color to blue, yellow, and red. When bounced on when red, the trampoline breaks apart, killing Mappy in the main game and leaving him helpless in the bonus round (unless there is another trampoline below the broken one). The trampoline in Pac-Jump goes through these colors in the same order, but starts out blue since Pac-Man immediately bounces on it once it appears.

Unlike its depiction in Smash, where the height gets progressively higher with each jump, the trampolines in Mappy can always launch the player as high as they wish, leaving it up to them to decide what floor to land on.

Gallery

• 

  Pac-Jump in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.

• 

  Pac-Jump as shown by the Move List in Ultimate.

Names in other languages

Language	Name
Japanese	パックンジャンプ, Pac'n Jump
English	Pac-Jump
French	Pac-saut
German	Pac-Sprung
Spanish	Pac-Salto
Italian	Pac-Salto
Chinese (Simplified)	吃豆跳跃
Chinese (Traditional)	吃豆跳躍
Korean	팩맨 점프, Pac-Man Jump
Dutch	Pac-sprong
Russian	Пэк-прыжок

Trivia

• Pac-Jump is the only move in Smash 4 and Ultimate that can put players other than the user in a helpless state.
  • It is also the only special move of Pac-Man's not from a Pac-Man game.
• Fighters made helpless by Pac-Man's trampoline will always sustain 29 frames of landing lag upon landing. This is because this is the default crash landing lag used by the game if the duration is not specified by a parameter attached to a special move that causes helplessness. As such, fighters will usually sustain more or less landing lag when crash landing from the trampoline than from one of their own special moves, with the animations being sped up or slowed down accordingly.
  • Because of this, Pac-Man will have 1 frame less landing lag when crash landing from another Pac-Man's trampoline than from his own.
  • The only exception to this rule is Mythra, who sustains 18 frames of landing lag instead. This is likely the result of Mythra being based off of Pyra and the conversion created a programming error that makes the game input a value other than default.
• It is possible for Pac-Jump to cause two players to become helpless simultaneously.
• In pre-release material for Ultimate, it was shown that attacking the trampoline would turn it green, and it would also put enemies into a helpless state when they jumped on it (regardless of the current level). Both of these changes were removed in the final game.

References

Pac-Man's special moves

Neutral special	Bonus Fruit
Side special	Power Pellet
Up special	Pac-Jump
Down special	Fire Hydrant
Final Smash	Super Pac-Man