Namco Roulette

Pac-Man using Namco Roulette in Ultimate.

Namco Roulette (ナムコうらない, Namco Horoscope) is Pac-Man's up taunt.

Overview

Examples of various sprites Pac-Man can summon with Namco Roulette.

Pac-Man summons a sprite and associated sound clip from one of Namco's other games. It is one of very few taunts with a random element, and the selection includes a wide range of characters and objects from across Namco's history.

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U both have exclusive sprites in each version; for 3DS includes the King from King & Balloon and a vulnerable ghost from Pac-Man, while for Wii U includes Valkyrie from The Legend of Valkyrie, the Runner from Metro-Cross, and Andor Genesis from Xevious. All of the sprites from both for 3DS and for Wii U appear in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, with the addition of Heihachi Mishima from Tekken and the Prince of All Cosmos from Katamari Damacy.

List of Namco Roulette sprites

Character	Image	Appears in	Sound	Game	Description
Galaxip			(The sound that plays when a Boss Galaxian is struck.)	Galaxian	The player's ship in Galaxian.
			(The sound that plays when a Galaxian is struck.)
TURN-TO-BLUE			"Ghost: Turn to Blue"	Pac-Man	A scared ghost from Pac-Man, seen when Pac-Man eats a Power Pellet. In for 3DS, it is animated; this is not the case in Ultimate.
			"Ghost: Turn to Blue"
King			("Thank you!")	King & Balloon	The focus of King & Balloon is to save the King from hostile balloons by shooting them down. When rescued, he says "Thank you!", the same voice clip he uses here. The clip used is the one from the Japanese version of the game regardless of the game's language setting.
My Car			"Special Flag: Get"	Rally-X	The player's car from Rally-X, distinguished by its blue color.
			"My Car: Smokescreen"
Fighter			"Challenging Stage (Start)"	Galaga	The player's ship in Galaga.
			"Zako: Stricken"
Fighter			"Voice: ALERT"	Bosconian	The player's ship in Bosconian. In SSB4, a voice clip saying "Alert! Alert!" plays.
			"P-Type Missile Hit"
Pooka			"Monster: Blow" (from the Famicom version of Dig Dug)	Dig Dug	A common enemy from Dig Dug that also shows up in some Pac-Man games.
Solvalou			"Blaster: Shoot"	Xevious	The player's ship in Xevious.
Andor Genesis			"Andor Genesis: Appearance"	Xevious	An enemy mothership in Xevious that acts as a mini-boss.
			"Ground-based Enemy: Stricken"
Mappy			"Target: Get"	Mappy	The eponymous playable character of Mappy, a mouse who works for the Micro-Police.
			"Trampoline: Jump"
Topcup			"Fanfare For Treasure Chest Appearance"	Libble Rabble	Creatures from Libble Rabble that hide inside treasure chests. When enough are captured, a bonus round begins.
			"Bashishi"
Hypership			"Alien: Bound"	Gaplus	A secret fighter in Gaplus that can be obtained through a hidden method. It can fire three shots at once instead of the standard two.
			"Alien: Hit"
Gil			"Treasure Box: Get"	The Tower of Druaga	Prince Gilgamesh, the hero of The Tower of Druaga, as he appears in his Hyper Armor.
			"Sword: Drawing"
Clovis			"Entering and Leaving Dungeon"	Dragon Buster	Prince Clovis, the hero of Dragon Buster.
Runner			(The sound that plays when the Runner jumps.)	Metro-Cross	The nameless playable character from Metro-Cross.
Paccet			("I'm your friend!")	Baraduke	A friendly alien from Baraduke. When summoned, it says "I'm your friend!"
Red Baron			"Baron, Max: Loop"	Sky Kid	Player 1's character in Sky Kid, a bird piloting a red biplane.
Valkyrie			"Prologue"	The Legend of Valkyrie	A heroic shield maiden based on the valkyries of Norse legend. Her sprite is taken from The Legend of Valkyrie, the second game in the Valkyrie series.
Heihachi Mishima			(A stomping sound.)	Tekken	A major antagonist throughout the Tekken games, as well as the series' main mascot. His sprite is taken from Tekken Tag Tournament 2.
Don-Chan			("Don, don, ka!")	Taiko no Tatsujin	An anthropomorphic taiko drum who serves as the mascot of the Taiko no Tatsujin series.
The Prince of All Cosmos			(Sounds that play when selecting menu options in the Katamari games.)	Katamari	The main character of the Katamari series, a diminutive prince who rolls up objects to create stars. His sprite is taken from Me & My Katamari.

Official sound effects names taken from "Namco Sounds" iTunes releases where applicable. Unofficial descriptions are noted in italics.

Trivia

• TURN-TO-BLUE, Heihachi Mishima, Pooka, and Gil are the only characters on the roulette to have an appearance in Smash outside of Pac-Man's taunt.
  • TURN-TO-BLUE appears on Pac-Maze and as a Spirit; the Ghosts also turn to blue when their Assist Trophy is defeated in Ultimate.
  • Pooka appear as enemies in Smash Run.
  • Heihachi Mishima and Gil appear as DLC Mii costumes in Smash 4 and Ultimate. Heihachi also appears in the background of Mishima Dojo.
• The King, the Bosconian fighter, and the Paccet are accompanied by voice clips (all voiced by Namco employees: Kazunori Sawano, Hideyuki Nakajima, and Junko Ozawa, respectively). Out of these, only the Bosconian fighter did not retain the same voice clip in Ultimate.
• Valkyrie, Heihachi Mishima, Don-Chan, and The Prince of All Cosmos are the only characters to appear in the roulette accompanied by non-8-bit sound effects.
• Don-Chan is the only character to appear in the roulette that does not have a pixelated appearance.
• Katamari Damacy Reroll—a remake of Katamari Damacy, in which the Prince of All Cosmos debuted—released on the Nintendo Switch the same day as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: December 7th, 2018.
• Namco Roulette is the first taunt in the series to have an official name. It would later be followed by Demon's Wrath, Kazuya Mishima's side taunt.
• In Smash 4, when the mirrored Pac-Man in Wii Fit Studio performs the Namco Roulette animation, no sprites will appear at all. This creates a visual oddity where the sprites do not have a reflection.
  • This is due to the mirror actually being the entire stage flipped on the Z-axis, likely causing issues with the two player-controlled Pac-Man characters randomly generating different sprites and ruining the illusion.