Power Pellet

Power Pellet (, Power Food), is Pac-Man's side special move.

Overview
deploys an 8-bit Power Pellet, which is followed by a maximum of five 8-bit Pac-Dots. The direction of the trail can be changed slightly by moving the control stick, and when the special button is let go, Pac-Man turns into his ball form and follows the trail. The Pac-Dot trail extends about one fourth the length of Final Destination, but Pac-Man can travel a farther distance after consuming the Power Pellet, traveling a little more than half of Final Destination's length. The trail can be stopped at any time by letting go of the special button, cutting the trail short. When Pac-Man finishes this move, he will not go into his helpless state, and can follow up with his second jump or up special, making this a viable horizontal recovery. During the move, Pac-Man will automatically snap onto ledges if aimed at one, can fast fall during the move's ending lag, and will not go off ledges during a grounded chomp if the trail does not go past a ledge. However, when used in the air, Pac-Man will still drop down, and the Pellet trail follows him.

If the opponent is in Pac-Man's path as he is eating the pellets, they will be hit once for 4% to 6%, depending on how many pellets Pac-Man has eaten when they are chomped on. Pac-Man will grow bigger and radiate yellow for a second when he eats the Power Pellet, and gain super armor for 8 frames. If an enemy is hit when Pac-Man is in this state, they will take decent knockback and 6% to 12% of damage, depending on how many pellets Pac-Man let appear when using the move. This sweetspot can KO at around 130%. It is possible for both the first hit and the sweetspot to hit in one use of Power Pellet.

If Pac-Man is interrupted before he begins to travel or before he gets to the Power Pellet, the Pellet will fall to the ground and Pac-Man will stop the action of deploying smaller pellets. It can be used as a food-like item, healing 2% damage. When the trail is aimed at the ground, Pac-Man will tumble onto the ground upon impact in Super Smash Bros. 4, though in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, he will instead move along the ground in the last horizontal direction he moved in. Additionally, if the path is aimed at a wall, Pac-Man will fall into his hurt animation upon impact for a moment, unable to do anything until the animation ends. Pac-Man will not get hurt in the process, but the lengthy animation of the mis-aimed tumble can easily cause a self-destruct if he collides with the sides of the stage.

Glitch
In early versions of, there was a glitch that would result in Pac-Man being frozen and intangible. It involved hitting the Power Pellet while Pac-Man follows the trail. If he then uses a Warp Star, he will become frozen and intangible after landing.

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


 * 1) Power Pellet: Default.
 * 2) Distant Power Pellet: The trail of pellets is much longer and deploys faster, summoning a Power Pellet followed by eight Pac-Dots. This trail is as long as more than half of Final Destination, but Pac-Man's momentum after eating the Power Pellet is extremely short, making the move's horizontal distance the same as the standard variation. This move is extremely maneuverable, as the path of the Pellets can be changed in any direction with relative ease, making it a viable horizontal recovery option, or used for combos. It is possible to create several small loops with the trail, which can result in Pac-Man trapping the opponent when he turns into his ball form. Upon startup, if the enemy is immediately next to Pac-Man, they will be hurt by 10%, and 1% or 2% if they are hit while in the middle of the trail. This move's sweet spot at the end of the trail is weakened, dealing 6% to 7% of damage, and has less knockback. Armor lasts for 4 frames when the pellet is eaten instead.
 * 3) Enticing Power Pellet: This trail is extremely short, and takes longer to deploy. The Power Pellet that is summoned is slow, and is surrounded by a vortex that has a strong pull effect. It is followed by only two Pac-Dots. This move only travels less than half of Final Destination's length. The vortex will drag nearby opponents directly into the move's sweet spot, making it a strong attack. This move deals 13% damage when Pac-Man chomps on an opponent, and deals 19% with strong knockback when the opponent is hit by the sweet spot. This move can KO at 80%. Armor lasts for 4 frames when the pellet is eaten instead.

Origin
In the original Pac-Man, the main goal was to eat all the pellets in the maze, each of which always follows in a perfect line. Power Pellets appear on different points of the stage and allow Pac-Man to become invincible and eat ghosts. Similar Pac-Dot trails appeared in the  games, wherein long snaking trails of pellets would wind around sections of many stages; chomping on a pellet with a red arrow (or a red pellet in Pac-Man World 2 and 3) would make Pac-Man proceed to follow the path, flying through the air as he ate all of the pellets, similar to how the Smash Bros. move is used, although no Power Pellets are encountered at the end of those flying Pac-Dot trails. Before that, the opening credits of the Hanna-Barbera Pac-Man Saturday morning cartoon series depicted Pac-Man floating through a chain entirely comprised of power pellets, and after the World series, Pacster (an alternate timeline character with an oft-contradicted relationship to the original Pac-Man) was able to fly in midair in a similar manner in the Pac-Man & The Ghostly Adventures cartoon and games.

Trivia

 * The internal name for the edible Power Pellet item is "poweresa". This is unlike other character-specific items, which generally have their name prefixed by that of the character that uses them, such as "robotgyro" for R.O.B.'s Gyro.