Pac-Man (Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U)

This article is about Pac-Man's appearance in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. For other uses, see Pac-Man.

Pac-Man
Universe	Pac-Man
Availability	Starter
Final Smash	Super Pac-Man
Tier	F (46)
Character Statistics
Number of Jumps	2
Can Wall Jump	Yes
Can Crawl	Yes

Pac-Man (パックマン, Pakkuman^?), stylized as PACMAN (Japanese) and PAC-MAN (all other languages) in-game, is the titular main protagonist from Namco's eponymous franchise. He is the fourth third-party character to be representative in the series, following Solid Snake, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Mega Man. Pac-Man is one of six third-party characters in Smash 4, alongside Capcom's Mega Man and Ryu, Sega's Sonic and Bayonetta, and Square Enix's Cloud. He is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS/Wii U.

He ranks 46th on the current tier list, placing him at the top of F tier. This renders him as both the highest-ranking low-tier and the lowest-ranking third-party character in Smash 4. Pac-Man's strengths lie in his unique item-oriented playstyle, which involves a capable camping and projectile game via the usage of Bonus Fruit for a range of items, along with Pac-Jump and Fire Hydrant for stage control. These traits synchronize well with Pac-Man's regular moveset, the overwhelming majority of which allow him to rack up effective damage because of their incredible frame-data and low base knockback. Pac-Man also boasts an outstanding recovery thanks to Power Pellet and Pac-Jump covering great distances, both of which are further supplemented by his ability to wall jump. However, Pac-Man suffers from mediocre range and mobility, allowing swordfighters and speed demons to overwhelm him, respectively. The aforementioned low base knockback of his moveset also drastically hinders his KO potential, which is further compounded by his strongest attacks being burdened with considerable lag. Finally, his most notable flaws include what is considered the most ineffective grab game among the cast, along with all his special moves being exploitable either via reflection, direct usage by his opponents, or even gimping his recovery.

Attributes

Strengths

• Solid mobility.
• Benefits from great frame-data and respectable damage output on his moveset, allowing him to rack up effective damage within only a few hits and offering him a great combo game, which synchronizes well with his unique item-oriented playstyle that involves a capable camping and projectile-zoning game.
• Great poking attacks, useful for interrupting opponents, making him unpredictable.
• Bonus Fruit can make his ranged approaches unpredictable.
• Fire Hydrant is a great trapping move, constantly pushing opponent while also being heavily effective for edge-guarding and zoning. Pac-Man can also send the Fire Hydrant launching, essentially gimping opponents with poor recoveries.
• Versatile and flexible recovery, covering among the longest distances should Power Pellet and Pac-Jump combine.
• Can crawl.
• Can wall jump.
• All of the ghosts (Blinky, Inky, Pinky and Clyde) that appear in his smash attacks count as disjointed hitboxes.

Weaknesses

• Poor melee-oriented range.
• His projectiles (Bonus Fruit and Fire Hydrant) can be reflected/useful against Pac-Man by opponents, resulting in items requiring constant and essential micromanagement.
• Pac-Jump is usable by opponents, even useful for gimping Pac-Man's own recovery. Additionally, if Pac-Man bumps into a direct surface during the chomps within Power Pellet, the momentum halts and he suffers from a tumbling animation that can cause him to self-destruct or be punished due to its overwhelming duration, although this can be compensated with Pac-Jump's long distance.
• Suffers from unreliable KO potential due to his moveset being burdened with low base knockback and his strongest attacks being burdened with considerable lag.
• Burdened with what is considered the most ineffective grab game due to Pac-Man's grab being burdened with considerable lag, and misleading and fleeting grabboxes. This is further burdened by his unimpressive throws, with back throw and up throw being late killing throws, and down throw being his only combo throw, and forward throw being almost virtually useless.

Summary

Pac-Man's stats by Kurogane Hammer

Pac-Man is a middleweight whose attributes slightly deviate from the typicality of his weight class. Although his air speed and air acceleration is above average, and his dashing speed is average, his walking speed is slightly below average, while his falling speed, gravity, and traction are below average. As a result, these traits make him rather floaty and speedy for a middleweight, albeit not to the degree of Luigi and Mario, respectively. Pac-Man is also able to crawl and wall jump, although the former is heavily impractical because of his crouch's tall height.

Pac-Man is a Trapper with decent tools that help with Zoning. He is a character that specializes in using unpredictable projectiles to rack up damage and setup for KO's. He has camping potential using his Down Special and Nuetral Special, a decent, fast poking tool with his Side Tilt and Forward Aerial, a good combo starter using Up Tilt, Dash Attack or Down Tilt, which can be followed up by an Up Aerial or Forward Aerial, reasonably strong smashes, and a far-reaching recovery Up Special. His Down Special is safe on shield, can punish jugglers, and can be launched into opponents as a late KO move. His Nuetral Special is very versatile and can be used as a combo starter, a follow-up, an edgeguarding tool, and sometimes a late KO move as well. His Side Special covers a lot of area and can be used as a horizontal or vertical recovery move. His grab also has utility, in his Back Throw, which can kill at a somewhat late percentage, and his Down Throw, which can be followed up by a Dash Attack.

Even though he has a somewhat versatile moveset, his fatal flaws are in his unreliable KO potential and his slow grab. Even though Pac-Man can rack up damage efficiently if used properly, his smashes have a lot of starting and ending lag, as well as not having very many reliable kill options/setups that exclude smash attacks. His grab could possibly be the slowest grab in the game, even though it has utility. This means that opponents do not have to be very wary of grabs when playing against Pac-Man. Overall, Pac-Man is a character that is not particularly a force to be reckoned with, but at least a small threat.

Moveset

Ground Attacks

Normal

• Neutral Attack: Throws a slow punch.
• Neutral Combo: Hits one time with his left hand, then the right hand, and ends with a flip kick.
• Dash Attack: Turns into his classic form and rushes forward, repeatedly biting.
• Side Tilt: Does a kick.
• Up Tilt: Does a headbutt. Looks similar to Mario/Luigi/Dr. Mario's Up Smash.
• Down Tilt: Turns into his classic form and goes forward a short distance.

Smash Attacks

• Side Smash - He sends out an 8-Bit version of Blinky.
• Up Smash - He sends up an 8-Bit version of Inky.
• Down Smash - He pushes 8-Bit versions of Pinky and Clyde off to the left and right.

Other Attacks

To be added

Aerial Attacks

• Neutral Aerial: Turns into his classic form and spins around.
• Forward Aerial: Does a kick.
• Back Aerial: Kicks backwards with both feet. Looks similar to Mario/Luigi/Dr. Mario's Back Aerial in Melee.
• Up Aerial: Flips over and sweeps his feet upwards. Looks similar to Mario/Luigi/Dr. Mario's Up Aerial. Could also be based on the flipkick, a move Pac-Man could perform in the Pac-Man World series.
• Down Aerial: Repeatedly kicks downward. Looks similar to Lucas' Down Aerial.

Grabs and Throws

• Pummel: Throws himself at the opponent and hits them with his head.
• Forward Throw: Slaps them forward. Is a considerably weak throw.
• Back Throw: Spins around slowly and throws opponent backwards.
• Up Throw: Hurls the opponent upward with one arm.
• Down Throw: Gets on top of the opponent in his classic form and bites them.

Special Moves

Pac-Man's Special Moves
	3DS/Wii U	Ultimate
Standard Special	Bonus Fruit
Side Special	Power Pellet
Up Special	Pac-Jump
Down Special	Fire Hydrant
Final Smash	Super Pac-Man

Pac-Man's Custom Special Moves
	Custom 1	Custom 2
Standard Special	Freaky Fruit	Lazy Fruit
Side Special	Distant Power Pellet	Enticing Power Pellet
Up Special	Power Pac-Jump	Meteor Trampoline
Down Special	On-Fire Hydrant	Dire Hydrant

Taunts

• Up: This taunt is known as Namco Roulette. Pac-Man randomly summons one of the following Namco character sprites, each making a sound from their game:
  • Both versions: Clovis (Dragon Buster), Don (Taiko no Tatsujin), Fighter (Bosconian, sound: "Alert! Alert!"), Fighter (Galaga), Galaxip (Galaxian), Gilgamesh (The Tower of Druaga), Mappy (Mappy), My Car (Rally-X), Paccet (Baraduke, sound: "I'm your friend!"), Pooka (Dig Dug), Red Baron (Sky Kid), Secret Fighter (Gaplus), Solvalou (Xevious), Topcup (Libble Rabble)
  • 3DS only: King (King & Balloon, sound: "Thank you!"), Ghost (Pac-Man)
  • Wii U only: Andor Genesis (Xevious), Valkyrie (Valkyrie no Densetsu), Runner (Metro-Cross)
• Side: Transforms into his ball form and bites on either side of him, making his iconic chomping sound.
• Down: Lays down to relax briefly while musical notes appear above him and two Ghosts swirl around him.

In Competitive Play

To be added.

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.

• 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 (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!

Classic (3DS)

Alt. (3DS)

Classic (Wii U)

Alt. (Wii U)

Super Pac-Man

Alternate costumes

Gallery

Reveal trailer

Gallery

Artwork with the ghosts, 8-bit renditions of Donkey Kong, Mario, Megaman, Peach, Kirby, Bowser, Samus, & Link, and 16-bit Sonic the Hedgehog.

Pac-Man's splash screen. Pac-Man Hungers for Battle!

Pac-Man's amiibo figure.

Mr. Game and Watch appearing at the end of Pac-Man's SSB 3DS/Wii U trailer, which at the time hinted at his return.

Pac-Man Screen KO

Pac-Man's forward smash

Trivia

• Pac-Man is the second-oldest character in all Super Smash Bros. history, with Mr. Game & Watch being older by just less than a month.
• Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U marks the second time Pac-Man has appeared in a crossover fighting game with Mega Man (or a variation of Mega Man) and Ryu. The first time was the PlayStation version of Street Fighter X Tekken.
  • It also marks the fourth time Pac-Man has appeared in a crossover game with Mario, the first three being the Mario Kart Arcade GP series.
• The score 7650 is referenced three times in this game: the score during Pac-Man's Final Smash, the score sign in one of the victory animations, and an Event Match title. 7650 is a goroawase number which reads in Japanese as "na-mu-ko" (Namco).
• At one point, Sakurai considered cutting Pac-Man from the roster if Namco made him use his recent design from Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures.
• Pac-Man and the Mii Fighters are the only characters who do not show panicked facial expressions when drowning. In Pac-Man's case, he grins when he drowns.
• Sonic and Pac-Man are the only third-party characters to have two different home stages (Pac-Maze and Pac-Land in Pac-Man's case).