Pac-Man (SSB4)

Pac-Man in Super Smash Bros. 4
Universe	Pac-Man
Availability	Starter
Final Smash	Super Pac-Man

“	PAC-MAN Hungers for Battle!	”
—Introduction Tagline

Pac-Man (パックマン, Pacman), stylized as PACMAN (Japanese) and PAC-MAN (all other languages) in-game, is a newcomer in Super Smash Bros. 4, first shown on June 10th, 2014 to attendees of the E3 2014 Smash Bros. Roundtable and later confirmed to the public on Nintendo of America's Twitter account. He was confirmed alongside Palutena and the Mii Fighters on the same day. Pac-Man is one of four third party characters in the game along with Capcom's Mega Man and Ryu and Sega's Sonic and is the third third-party character revealed in the game. His abilities involve throwing fruits at other fighters and eating Power Pellets in various ways, along with punching and kicking abilities for close-range moves. He is noted within the trailer for being, along with Mr. Game & Watch, among the oldest characters in the game, first appearing in 1980 (earlier than Mario's debut in Donkey Kong). While Pac-Man is introduced in his classic "wedge" shape, within the game he mostly takes his 3D "ball" form that appeared in game cabinet artwork and advertising but first appeared in-game in the Japanese version of Pac-Land.

Attributes

Pac-Man's playstyle relies heavily on his unique projectiles to control the flow of battle and KO opponents, as his normal moves have trouble KOing. He is a strong projectile fighter — unfortunately, all his special moves can be turned against him, making excessive use of them risky against skilled players.

Pac-Man has a good combo game, as his ground attacks are fast, though they have mediocre reach and slight ending lag. His grab game is lackluster, as he has the laggiest grab in the game, taking a full two seconds before he can use another move. However, he benefits from having one of the safest dash attacks, which has good range, hits multiple times, and has nearly no ending lag, allowing Pac-Man to follow up with almost any ground move, and he also possesses a safe and fast jab. His smash attacks are strong and disjointed, able to KO as early as 85%, but they are unreliable finishers with noticeable ending lag, making it easy for Pac-Man to get punished. In the air, Pac-Man is a more capable fighter, as his aerials are fast and can combo into themselves, especially his forward and up air, although none of them can KO reliably. Thus, Pac Man's moveset suffers from not having a fast and reliable finisher with good reach, forcing Pac-Man to rely on his special moves to earn kills.

Pac-Man's most useful ability comes from careful use of his special moves. He possesses two good projectiles: Bonus Fruit gives Pac-Man has a massive amount of options for almost any situation, as each fruit has different attributes. They are good spacing, combo starting, and even edgeguarding tools, some even possessing early KO potential with much better range than his slow smash attacks. Fire Hydrant acts like Kirby's Stone, and is Pac-Man's most powerful long-range projectile. Its additional push effect is a great spacing tool, can gimp bad recoveries, and can force foes into Pac-Man's attacks, making it a unique tide turner. Apart from projectiles, Pac-Man possesses a slow but accurate finishing move in Power Pellet, and this combined with Pac-Jump, a great vertical recovery option, allows Pac-Man to safely edgeguard off-stage.

Despite these perks, all of Pac-Man's special moves can be turned against him. Bonus Fruits are items that can only exist one at a time, hence opponents can grab them out of the air, nullifying one of Pac-Man's only projectiles so long as they hold onto it. This hurts Pac-Man's matchups against reflector-holding fighters, especially Villager, who can Pocket his fruit for long periods and prevent him from pulling out any fruits, and more notably Rosalina, who's Gravitational Pull can completely nullify both of his projectiles and render him absolutely helpless at range. His hydrant can turn against him as well; it can be knocked back by opponents, even in the first few frames when it is released, making it likely that Pac-Man gets knocked out by his own hydrant. Its push effect also affects him, and can cost Pac-Man a stock if he's careless. Despite being strong, Power Pellet is highly predictable and can be interrupted by any attack, which drops a healing power pellet that can be used by the opponent, and his Pac-Jump, though giving great vertical height, can also be used by opponents for gimping Pac-Man. Due to these possibilities, a good Pac-Man player must keep watch of where his projectiles are to do the most amount of knockback possible at a safer range than his short-reaching normal attacks without these abilities being turned against him.

Overall, Pac-Man is a character who excels in the air and at starting combos, but has trouble taking a stock. His specials make him a versatile and unique projectile fighter, though they can help or hinder him in battle, as one careless move can ultimately decide his outcome for the current stock he's on, or even the the whole match itself.

Update history

Pac-Man was slightly nerfed in 1.0.4; his up smash and Galaxian were worsened, and an increase in the Fire Hydrant's durability means that he can no longer use a fresh back aerial to quickly launch the hydrant after placing it. In subsequent updates he has seen no significant changes outside of bugfixes. Pac-Man also doesn't seem to be notably affected by the changes to shield mechanics.

1.0.4

• Up Smash has more ending lag.
• Bonus Fruit's Galaxian deals 9% damage instead of 11%
• It now takes 13% damage to launch Fire Hydrant instead of 12%.
• Power Pellet now heals 2% instead of 1%.

1.0.6

• Trampoline can no longer be affected by Pocket.

1.1.0

• A glitch that caused Pac-Man's trampoline to send opponents through the stage is removed.
• A formerly removed glitch that caused Pac-Man to send hydrants through stages returns, this is the first known case of a removed glitch returning to the game.

Moveset

		Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack			3%	Punches twice, then performs a quick flip kick. Decent range for a jab.
			2%
			4%
Forward tilt			8%	Performs a side kick. Can be angled.
Up tilt			7%	Swings his head forward in an arc, headbutting the enemy. Combos into itself at low percentages.
Down tilt			6%	Transforms into his ball form and chomps at a downward angle. Very fast and can be used as a surprise attack, as it pops Pac-Man forward with each chomp.
Dash attack			2% (hits 1-2), 5% (hit 3)	Transforms into his ball form and chomps while sliding forward. Due to it's almost nonexistent lag, it can easily combo into his forward, up, and neutral air.
Forward smash			16% (clean ghost), 15% (clean arm), 9% (late)	Shoots Blinky, the red ghost, forward.
Up smash			3% (hit 1), 14% (hit 2 clean), 8% (hit 2 late)	Shoots Inky, the blue ghost, straight upward with moderate knockback with high ending lag.
Down smash			13% (clean), 7% (late)	Shoots Pinky and Clyde, the pink and orange ghosts respectively, at both of his sides.
Neutral aerial			11% (clean), 6% (mid), 3% (late)	Spins around in his ball form, in a similar fashion to Wolf's neutral air. Acts as a sex kick, useful for covering missed attacks.
Forward aerial			5.3%	Roundhouse kicks. Has virtually no lag, but extremely weak, dealing little to no knockback. Useful for racking up damage.
Back aerial			11.8% (clean), 7% (late)	Dropkicks behind himself. Pac-Man's strongest aerial, and his most reliable aerial KO move.
Up aerial			10%	Flip kicks above himself. It bears a strong likeness to his Flip Kick attack from Pac-Man World 2. High range and good for aerial protection, although it has some slight startup that takes some getting used to.
Down aerial			1.5% (hits 1-3), 6% (hit 4)	Stomps multiple times downward, much like Snake's down air.
Grab			—	Releases the beam from Boss Galaga from his hand, drawing enemies into his grip. Decent range, but very punishable if missed, as it has two seconds of ending lag, the laggiest of any tether grab in the game.
Pummel			3.25%	Bashes the enemy with the top of his head.
Forward throw			6%	Throws the enemy forward. Possibly the weakest forward throw in the game.
Back throw			11%	Spins twice and tosses the enemy, similar to Mario's back throw. Pac-Man's strongest throw, able to KO at high percentages near the edge.
Up throw			5%	Tosses the enemy straight up into the air.
Down throw			1.5% (hits 1-3), 6% (throw)	Transforms into his ball form and chomps on the grounded enemy. Has combo potential, being able to combo into a dash attack at low percentages.
Forward roll Back roll Spot dodge Air dodge		—	—
Techs		—	—
Floor attack (front) Floor getups (front)			7%
Floor attack (back) Floor getups (back)			7%
Floor attack (trip) Floor getups (trip)			5%
Edge attack Edge getups			7%
Neutral special	Default	Bonus Fruit	4% (cherry), 6% (strawberry), 8% (orange), 9% (apple), 12% (melon), 9% (Galaxian), 8% (bell), 15% (key)	A chargeable projectile that iterates over the fruit and other Namco objects for each level of charge, with each object having distinct properties.
	Custom 1	Freaky Fruit	2% (cherry), 3% (strawberry), 5% (orange), 8% (apple), 12% (melon), 8% (Galaxian), 5% (bell), 9% (key)	Each object does less damage but has more erratic behavior.
	Custom 2	Lazy Fruit	1% (cherry), 3% (strawberry), 5% (orange), 6% (apple), 8% (melon), 2% (Galaxian), 7% (bell), 7% (key)	Each object moves much slower and does less damage, but stay around for longer. It also takes longer to cycle pass the orange.
Side special	Default	Power Pellet	1% (dash), 10% (ending)	A sideways dash of controllable trajectory, with Pac-Man chomping onto four dots before eating a Power Pellet. This move has Super Armor after Pac-Man eats the pellet. Interrupting the startup of this move drops a pellet that heals any fighter for 2%.
	Custom 1	Distant Power Pellet	1% (dash), 10% (ending)	Makes the trail deploy faster, increases maneuverability, and makes the length of the trail eight dots, but the attack is weaker.
	Custom 2	Enticing Power Pellet	1% (dash), 10% (ending)	The final chomp is much stronger and the Pellet pulls opponents towards it, but the trail takes much longer to deploy and only consists of two dots.
Up special	Default	Pac-Jump	7% (clean), 6% (mid), 5% (late)	Produces a trampoline to bounce off. Repeated bounces gain more height, but the fourth bounce breaks the trampoline and puts the attempted user into a helpless state. Pac-Man himself can hit opponents while going upwards. In teams, this move is notable for being potentially game-breaking, as two Pac-Mans could infinitely bounce off each others trampolines, past the upper blast line, in a very similar style as the Luigi Ladder.
	Custom 1	Power Pac-Jump	1.5% (loop), 3% (last)	Pac-Man is launched higher and hits multiple times while rising, but the trampoline vanishes instantly.
	Custom 2	Meteor Trampoline	3%, 4%/5% (meteor)	Consecutive jumps decrease in height instead of increasing; the fourth hop will bury grounded users, or meteor smash airborne ones.
Down special	Default	Fire Hydrant	9% (drop), 13% (flying), 10% (landing)	Drops a fire hydrant downwards that produces non-damaging water blobs, and can be launched by attacking it. If sent flying with enough damage, the hydrant can be used to hit opponents, or potentially Pac-Man himself if it is sent flying by an opponent.
	Custom 1	On-Fire Hydrant	6% (drop), 15% (flying), 6% (landing), 6%/4% (flames)	Shoots fire instead of water, which can harm opponents and Pac-Man himself. The flames don't fly out as far, but the hydrant shoots three times instead of two. The hydrant projectile deals more damage, but lower knockback, and takes less damage to launch.
	Custom 2	Dire Hydrant	9% (idle), 9% (drop), 13% (flying), 10% (landing)	Explodes on impact with an opponent, surface, or after a set distance. The explosion deals low knockback and damage.
Final Smash		Super Pac-Man	15%	Pac-Man becomes enlarged and begins moving about the stage in his wedge form, eating opponents and being able to wrap around the screen.

Taunts

• Up Taunt: “Namco Roulette” - Summons classic Namco items, characters, and enemies, similar to Bonus Fruit, including those from Galaga, Mappy, Dig Dug, and Xevious. The sprites that may appear are:
  • King from King & Balloon (3DS version only)
  • Andor Genesis from Xevious (Wii U version only)
  • Clovis from Dragon Buster
  • Don-Chan from Taiko no Tatsujin
  • The "Hypership" from Gaplus
  • A fighter from Bosconian
  • A fighter from Galaga
  • Galaxip from Galaxian
  • A vulnerable ghost from Pac-Man (3DS version only)
  • Gilgamesh from The Tower of Druaga
  • Mappy
  • A car from Rally-X
  • A Runner from Metro-Cross (Wii U version only)
  • A Paccet from Baraduke
  • A Pooka from Dig Dug
  • Red Baron from Sky Kid
  • Valkyrie from Valkyrie no Densetsu (Wii U version only)
  • A Secret Fighter from Gaplus
  • The Solvalou from Xevious
  • Topcup from Libble Rabble

A different sound is played depending on what sprite appears.

• Side Taunt: Transforms into his ball form and bites on either side of him, making his iconic chomping sound.
• Down Taunt: Pac-Man lays down while Blinky and Pinky along with music notes hover over him.

Idle Poses

• Scratches his head.
• Looks at the camera and winks while giving a thumbs up, similar to the pose in his official art.

On-Screen Appearance

Opens his mouth in his wedge form, then jumps out turning into his 3D form.

Victory Fanfare

A remix of the jingle that plays when starting a new game in Pac-Man, as well as completing levels in Pac-Man World 2.

Victory Poses

• Pac-ManPose1WiiU.png
• Pac-ManPose2WiiU.png
• Pac-ManPose3WiiU.png

• Chases a vulnerable ghost in his wedge form, then shifts to his 3D form.
• Appears on screen in ball form, trips, and puts his fist up.
• Drops from the sky and lands to do a winking pose, while a sign displaying 7650m appears. This move is based on Pac-Land.

In Competitive Play

Official Custom Moveset Project

Character	Custom sets available
Pac-Man	1132	1131	1122	1121	2132
	2131	2122	3131	3132	3121

Notable players

•  Abadango
•  Ginko
•  Koolaid
•  Joecreak
•  Zage
•  Pow
•  Beatfox
•  Loko

Trailer

<youtube>dVz-2VuAYlY</youtube>

Alternate costumes

Trophies

PAC-MAN

The yellow, circular hero of the game PAC-MAN, which is recognized as the "Most Successful Coin-Operated Arcade Game" by Guinness World Records. In Smash Bros., he uses several moves inspired by the original PAC-MAN. Wakawaka your foes by charging up the Power Pellet move and aiming at them.

The yellow, circular hero of the game PAC-MAN, which is recognised as the "Most Successful Coin-Operated Arcade Game" by Guinness World Records. In this game, some of his attacks are based on the original PAC-MAN. Charge up his Power Pellet move, then aim it right at an opponent to wakawaka them extra hard.

PAC-MAN (1980)

PAC-LAND (1984)

PAC-MAN (Alt.)

PAC-MAN's Fire Hydrant down special pushes opponents away with blasts of water. You can drop the hydrant on top of your opponents to damage them, but they can also attack it to damage you if you're standing on it! His Pac-Jump up special spawns a trampoline he can jump on three times—the third jump is especially high!

PAC-MAN's Fire Hydrant down special pushes opponents away with blasts of water. You can drop the hydrant on top of your opponents to damage them, but they can also attack it and hit you with it to cause damage! His Pac-Jump up special spawns a trampoline he can jump on three times, and the third jump is especially high!

PAC-MAN (1980)

PAC-LAND (1984)

Super Pac-Man

PAC-MAN's Final Smash turns him into this huge form that appeared in SUPER PAC-MAN. In this form, SUPER PAC-MAN eats his foes to deal damage to them and reduce them just a pair of eyes. He can move freely in all four directions, loop around the screen, and... obtain a score of up to 7,650 points!

PAC-MAN's Final Smash turns him into this huge form that appeared in the arcade game also called Super PAC-MAN. In this form, PAC-MAN can eat his foes to deal damage to them and reduce them just a pair of eyes. He can move freely in all four directions, loop around the screen, and... obtain a score of up to 7,650 points!

• 

  Classic (3DS)

• PacManAllStarTrophy3DS.png

  Alt. (3DS)

• 

  Classic (Wii U)

• 

  Alt. (Wii U)

• 

  Super Pac-Man

In Event Matches

Solo Events

• New Challengers 2: Pac-Man is one of the seven opponents fought in this event alongside Greninja, Palutena, Robin, Shulk, Dark Pit, and Mega Man.
• The Big 7650!: Pac-Man must use his Final Smash and get six hits with it within 15 seconds.
• The FINAL Final Battle: The player must defeat Pac-Man, alongside Mario, Sonic, and Mega Man.
• Yellow Devils: As Mega Man, the player must defeat a giant Pac-Man and Pikachu, along with the Yellow Devil.

Co-op Events

• A Fairy Nice Trip: Pac-Man and Link must survive on Pac-Land until the stage reaches Fairy Land. Four Kirbies will also try to hinder the players' progress.
• Food Fight: Kirby and King Dedede, both with 100% damage, must defeat Pac-Man, Wario and Yoshi.
• Getting Healthy: Little Mac and Wii Fit Trainer must defeat Pac-Man and Kirby.
• The Ultimate Battle: Two players select a character and must defeat the entire roster.

Gallery

• 

  Pac-Man's poster used on the official website.

• 

  Pac-Man's splash art.

• 

  Pac-Man's amiibo.

• 

  Pac-Man with the other third party characters, Sonic and Mega Man.

• 

  Pac-Man with Mario, Sonic, and Mega Man.

• 

  Pac-Man and Zero Suit Samus.

• 

  Pac-Man in his classic form that he uses for certain attacks.

• 

  Namco Roulette with Kirby.

• 

  Using the Fire Hydrant on Sheik.

• 

  Next to the Mother Fairy.

• 

  Pac-Man using his Final Smash.

• 

  Pac-Man kicking a Pooka.

• 

  Pac-Man and Mario on the Pac-Maze stage.

• 

  Pac-Man's neutral special move, Bonus Fruit.

• 

  Pac-Man holding a sprite of Mappy.

• 

  Various sprites that can be summoned with Namco Roulette.

Trivia

Pac-Man's two different head icon styles.

• Pac-Man's trailer is the only newcomer trailer that shows footage of the 3DS version, excluding the first trailer of the game, which served as Villager's introduction trailer.
• Pac-Man, Shulk, and Ryu are the only characters in the game without a green palette swap.
• Pac-Man's official artwork is posed to match his Pac-Man World series artwork.
• Pac-Man is the only character in Super Smash Bros. 4 to have different head icons in the Wii U and 3DS versions of the game. In the 3DS version, Pac-Man's arm is exposed, showing whatever arm band he's wearing if he has one. In the Wii U version, Pac-Man is giving a "thumbs up" with the hand on his other arm. Each icon represents one half of the pose in Pac-Man's official artwork.
• Pac-Man's sleeping animation is a reference to a painting found in Pac-Man World 2.
• If a Pac-Man token is KO'd in StreetSmash, the death sound effect from the original Pac-Man will play, which normally doesn't happen.
• For some odd reason, Pac-Man (along with the Mii Fighters) is the only character to not have a panicked expression on his face when drowning. He keeps his standard smile when he sinks, making Pac-Man drown with an ironically wide grin on his face. Pac-Man keeps this grin while sleeping as well.
• In an interview, Masahiro Sakurai said that he would have considered dropping Pac-Man from the game if Bandai Namco had required the usage of the Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures redesign.
• Pac-Man, Duck Hunt, and Villager are the only characters who have moves based on another series.