Pac-Man (SSB4)

Pac-Man in Super Smash Bros. 4
Universe	Pac-Man
Availability	Starter
Final Smash	Super Pac-Man
Tier	E (29)

“	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 five third party characters in the game along with Capcom's Mega Man and Ryu, SEGA's Sonic and Bayonetta, and Square Enix's Cloud, and was 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.

Pac-Man is currently ranked 29th on the Smash 4 tier list, making him the lowest-ranking third-party character so far, and squarely in the middle of the pack overall. Pac-Man has probably the game's most combat effective projectile in Bonus Fruit, which can produce different kinds of attacks depending on the used fruit. He's also no slouch when it comes to combos and racking up damage, and has recoveries in Power Pellet and Pac-Jump covering great distance. However, Pac-Man is not without any flaws. His mobility on the ground is below average at best, and his smash attacks and grab game are quite slow. Pac-Man's recovery, despite its strengths, is quite predictable, slow, and easily interruptible. However, Pac-Man's biggest flaw is that all four of his special moves can be turned against him, being either reflected or even used by his opponents.

Attributes

Pac-Man's attributes are that of a typical middleweight with a rather floaty aerial game. This includes an average walking, dashing, air speed, air acceleration and weight, along with slightly low falling speed and gravity, and slightly higher than average jumps.

Pac-Man, like Diddy Kong and his Banana Peels, is reliant on his item-producing special moves to control the flow of battle and win in the neutral game. Two special moves, Bonus Fruit and Fire Hydrant, grant him numerous mix-ups for almost any situation: each Bonus Fruit has different attributes, which makes them good spacing, combo starting or edge-guarding tools, and even possess early KO potential as a way to overcome his smash attacks' slow speed and low range. This allows him to confuse and force movements from his opponents to put them in disadvantageous positions, especially offstage. With extreme technical skill, Bonus Fruits can even be used for footstool-initiated zero-to-death combos, making Pac-Man one of the few characters with this ability in no-item scenarios. Fire Hydrant acts like Kirby's Stone when used in the air, and is useful for covering landings. Its additional push effect also makes it useful for more than just offense, due to its ability to space, gimp poor recoveries, and force opponents into Pac-Man's attacks. It is also Pac-Man's most powerful projectile if damaged enough, which sends it flying and gives him an additional finisher on the battlefield. Apart from his projectiles, Pac-Man also possesses a slow but accurate finisher in Power Pellet, which functions both as a great vertical recovery and mindgame option, as it can be aimed prematurely and made to curve in creative angles using his Fire Hydrant's push effect. Pac-Jump is an effective vertical recovery should all three trampoline jumps be used, and makes it safe to edge-guard off-stage as Pac-Man will likely make it back onto the stage.

Outside of his specials, Pac-Man has a good combo game. Though his ground attacks are weak with slight ending lag, his tilts are fast (especially his jab) and extend his hitboxes (forward tilt) or slide him forward (down tilt), letting him attack out-of-shield easily or poke opponents at a safe distance. His up tilt can chain into itself at low percentages, and his down tilt can reliably combo into his dash attack. The latter hits multiple times with nearly no ending lag, and allows Pac-Man to follow up with almost any ground move, such as his safe and fast neutral attack. In the air, Pac-Man is similarly capable of combos, as his aerials are fast and can chain into themselves, especially his forward and up aerials, while his neutral aerial is a useful out-of-shield option and an effective offstage finisher along with his back aerial, making him overall good at racking up damage or edgeguarding.

However, Pac-Man has his flaws. One of his biggest issues is his inability to KO reliably without his specials: while his tilts and aerials are fast in execution, none of them can KO apart from his aerials, which KO relatively late; his strongest aerial (back air) starts KOing at 138% near the edge. His main finishers, his smash attacks, are strong and can KO at the edge at 88%, but are held back by noticeable startup and ending lag along with mediocre reach, making them very punishable and predictable. Another issue is his grab game: he has an extremely laggy and unreliable grab, making it considerably riskier for him to use his grab for punishes compared to other fighters. None of his throws also open up combo opportunities apart from his down throw to dash attack at low percents.

Despite his special move's perks, all of them can also 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. So long as he has no fruits, Pac-Man is disadvantaged at spacing, KOing and mindgames, while a competent opponent can use his own fruits against him. 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, whose 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 possible for Pac-Man to be dealt noticeable immediate damage. Its push effect also affects him, and can cost Pac-Man a stock if he is 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's own recovery. 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.

Pac-Man benefits from his custom moves. Freaky Fruit deals less damage, but each fruit and item has its own erratic pattern and thus can provide even greater mix-ups. Lazy Fruit is slower and deals less damage, but the fruits and items stick around for much longer, which enables them to be usable more than once and also provide different mix-ups. Power Pac-Jump only has one jump, but Pac-Man is launched higher and hits multiple times, making it suitable for offensively-inclined playstyles. Meteor Trampoline decreases in height after each jump, but the fourth jump can bury grounded opponents and meteor smash airborne opponents, as the name implies. On-Fire Hydrant does not shoot out as far, but it shoots fire instead of water, shoots three times instead of two, takes less damage to launch and the hydrant itself deals more damage.

Overall, Pac-Man is a character who excels at mindgames and starting combos, but has trouble scoring KOs directly without the help of his projectiles. 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 is on, or even the the whole match itself.

Update history

Pac-Man was slightly nerfed in 1.0.4, due to his up smash and Galaxian being worsened. Fire Hydrant and Power Pellet had their durability and healing output slightly increased respectively, necessitating players using them even more wisely than before, lest the opponent capitalizes on using their effects to their own advantage. Aside from this update, subsequent updates have given him no significant changes outside of glitch fixes. However, thanks to the shield mechanics brought about by 1.1.0 and 1.1.1, Pac-Man can utilize some new shield pressure options through combinations of Bonus Fruit's key, Fire Hydrant, and his back air.

1.0.4

• Up smash's ending lag increased.
• Bonus Fruit's Galaxian deals 2% less damage: 11% → 9%.
• Fire Hydrant is launched 1% later: 12% → 13%.
• Power Pellet heals 1% more damage: 1% → 2%.

1.0.6

• Pac-Jump's trampoline can no longer be Pocketed.

1.1.0

• Fixed a glitch where Pac-Jump's trampoline could send opponents through the stage.
• The formerly removed glitch where Pac-Man could send Fire Hydrant through stages returns. This is the first known case of a removed glitch returning to the game.

Moveset

		Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack			3%	Two jabs followed by a backflip kick. Decent range for a neutral attack.
			2%
			4%
Forward tilt			8%	Performs a side kick. Can be angled.
Up tilt			7%	An upward headbutt. 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 moves 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 having virtually no lag, it can easily combo into his forward, up, and neutral aerials.
Forward smash			16% (clean ghost), 15% (clean arm), 9% (late)	Launches Blinky, the red ghost, forward. Powerful and can KO at the edge at 88%, but has noticeable startup and ending lag.
Up smash			3% (hit 1), 14% (hit 2 clean), 8% (hit 2 late)	Launches Inky, the blue ghost, straight upward with moderate knockback with high ending lag. Has a weak first hit that leads into the stronger ghost hitbox, but is unable to connect unless the opponent is almost touching Pac-Man's body. Begins KOing Mario at 115%.
Down smash			13% (clean), 7% (late)	Launches Pinky and Clyde, the pink and orange ghosts respectively, at both of his sides. Strong semi-spike knockback that can KO at 115% at the edge, although like his other smash attacks this move has slow startup and moderate ending lag.
Neutral aerial			11% (clean), 6% (mid), 3% (late)	Spins backward in his ball form, in a similar fashion to Wolf's neutral air. Starts up very fast, which can be a good out-of-shield option. Acts as a sex kick and is useful for covering missed attacks.
Forward aerial			5.3%	Performs a reverse roundhouse kick. Has virtually no lag and is useful for damage racking, but it is extremely weak and deals little to no knockback.
Back aerial			11.8% (clean), 7% (late)	Performs a dropkick. Pac-Man's strongest aerial and his most reliable aerial KO move.
Up aerial			10%	Performs a backflip kick. It bears a strong likeness to his Flip Kick from Pac-Man World 2. High range and good for aerial protection, although it has some slight start-up.
Down aerial			1.5% (hits 1-3), 6% (hit 4)	Stomps multiple times downward, much like Snake's down aerial. The last stomp deals vertical knockback.
Grab			—	Releases the beam from Boss Galaga from his hand, drawing enemies into his grip. Oddly, it consists of a series of three hitboxes with short delays in between; this along with significant startup and very high ending lag makes it extremely unsafe.
Pummel			3.25%	Headbutts the opponent.
Forward throw			6%	Shoves the opponent forward. Possibly the weakest forward throw in the game, but it can potentially lead into combo set-ups with the Bonus Fruits.
Back throw			11%	Spins twice and tosses the enemy, similarly to Mario's back throw. Pac-Man's strongest throw, it is 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. It has combo potential, most notably being able to combo into a dash attack at low percentages.
Floor attack (front)			7%
Floor attack (back)			7%
Floor attack (trip)			5%
Edge attack			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. Pac-Man's also falls slower when choosing a fruit. Can be used for intricate zero-to-death combos that are initiated by jab resetting and footstooling an opponent repeatedly while dropping any fruit.
	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. The key meteor smashes aerial opponents.
	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 past 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 and deals respectable knockback. Interrupting the start-up of this move drops a pellet that heals 2% for any character. If Pac-Man bumps directly into a surface during the chomps, the move stops and Pac-Man suffers from a lengthy tumbling animation that can cause him to self-destruct or be punished.
	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. Active on frame 1 and is a good out of shield option. 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 team battles, this move is notable for being potentially game-breaking, as two Pac-Men could infinitely bounce off each others trampolines, past the upper blast line, similarly to the Luigi Ladder.
	Custom 1	Power Pac-Jump	1.5% (loop), 3% (last)	Pac-Man is launched higher than the standard first jump of his trampoline, and hits multiple times while rising, but the trampoline vanishes instantly.
	Custom 2	Meteor Trampoline	3%, 4%/5% (meteor)	Consecutive jump height is reversed, decreasing in height instead of increasing; the fourth hop will bury grounded users, or meteor smash airborne ones. There is a weak meteor smash hitbox below the trampoline on startup.
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. With enough damage, it gets sent tumbling as a powerful projectile that travels in the trajectory of the move that launched it. The tumbling 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 do not fly out as far, but the hydrant shoots three times instead of two. The Fire Hydrant itself 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.

On-screen appearance

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

Taunts

• Up taunt: "Namco Roulette" - Summons classic Namco items, characters, and enemies, similarly to Bonus Fruit. The only taunt in the game with variable effects.
• 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, Pinky, and music notes hover over him while a musical tune plays.

Up taunt	Side taunt	Down taunt

Up taunt sprites

• 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.

Idle poses

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

Crowd cheer

	English	Japanese
Cheer
Description	Pac-Man!	Go! Go! Pac-Man!
Pitch	Group chant	Group chant

Victory poses

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.

• Chases a vulnerable ghost in his ball form, then shifts to his 3D form and poses akimbo.
• Appears on screen in ball form, trips onto the floor, and puts his fist up while sitting down clumsily.
• Drops from the sky and lands to do a winking pose, while a sign displaying 7650m appears. This move is based on Pac-Land, with 7650 being a Japanese number pun that sounds like the word Namco

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

Active

•  Ginko
•  Koolaid
•  Zage
•  Sinji
•  PepeSpain

Inactive

•  Abadango

Reveal trailer

<youtube>dVz-2VuAYlY</youtube>

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.

Alternate costumes

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 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.
• When Pac-Man's token in StreetSmash is KO'd, the death sound effect from the original Pac-Man is played instead of the regular death sound effect. He and Olimar are the only character tokens with this distinction.
• Pac-Man and the Mii Fighters are the only characters to not have panicked facial expressions when drowning; Pac-Man drowns while keeping his grin.
• 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 a series other than their own.
• In the 3DS version, Pac-Man's Alt. Trophy shows him using his Power Pellet move instead of him in one of his alternate costumes, being the only character with this distinction.