Ever since Namco was announced to be helping with development for Super Smash Bros. for
Wii U and 3DS, fans have wondered if Pac-Man would make an appearance in the game. Well,
it was finally confirmed during E3 and Pac-Man looks to be a unique fighter for the series,
combining his classic games, modern games, and even other Namco games into a cohesive
moveset. But you know us. We can't help but want to run the trailer through the old Analysis
Machine to see just how many secrets and hidden details we can find. So let's get this Pac
Attack on the move! The most obvious thing to look at first is
Pac-Man's design. There was a debate for a while on which form Pac-Man would take if
he made it into the game. Would it be his classic arcade look? Or his most recent design
from Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures? Well, it turned out to be his design from Pac-Land,
the first arcade platformer he ever starred in. However, it looks to have been tweaked
to better match his evolving appearance up until the Pac-Man World games. That's not
to say his classic form doesn't appear at all though.
His entrance into battle actually begins with him as a simple yellow circle, then his mouth
opens for his classic look, and finally he jumps out in his Smash Bros. form. It's a
nice touch that shows the progression of the character. And even some of his moves bring
back the classic Pac-Man such as his dodge roll curling him up into a featureless yellow
ball and his dash attack turning him into his arcade munching form. And Pac-Man is truly
out to munch when he pulls off his Final Smash, which transforms him into a giant form of
himself that sets out to eat his opponents. Unfortunately, we don't know the limits to
this form though such as whether the player can control it, whether Pac-Man can go anywhere,
or if it's just a canned animation. Finally, his side special allows him throw
out pellets that he will then eat as he follows them along. If an opponent gets caught in
its path, they'll be damaged. While it doesn't have a long range, Pac-Man is able to angle
the pellets in any direction he wants, including looping behind him which makes the move quite
versatile. Pac-Man's down special is proving to be just as unique. He summons a fire hydrant
from Pac-Land and drops it beneath him. Whoever's caught underneath will obviously be damaged,
but that's not the hydrant's only use. While it's on the field, it will spray water from
both sides. This water pushes back whoever's caught in it. However, it does not interrupt
their animation as we can see with Luigi. And since Pac-Man is also dodging the water,
he will likely be affected by it too. But he's not done with the hydrant yet as it can
be struck and sent flying as a projectile. It's difficult to say as of yet whether it
travels at the same arc with every hit or different types of strikes will send it flying
at different angles. But we're pretty sure that other players could potentially send
the hydrant at Pac-Man as well. His other special moves are actually references
to other Namco games so we'll cover those later since many of his attacks are callbacks
to his own games. The most obvious examples are his Smash attacks. His up smash sends
out the arcade version of Inky, his side smash is Blinky, and his down smash summons Pinky
and Clyde on both sides of him. It seems as if each ghost has its own specific position
though we wonder if they'll have any kind of special effects. It doesn't seem likely
though because the bonus effects, like Blinky becoming faster as more pellets were cleared,
would be difficult to transition into the Smash Bros. setting. They're even used in
one of Pac-Man's taunts where Pinky and Blinky circle the musical notes around Pac-Man before
disappearing. It's certainly a cute little touch, but there's
something curious about the ghosts in the trailer as well. At one point, all four ghosts
are travelling around the stage. This movement doesn't match any of the moves Pac-Man uses
either in his trailer or in the match we saw during the developer roundtable. While they
could be part of his standard special, which we'll cover later, we believe that this might
actually be a ghost Assist Trophy. After all, if this was one of Pac-Man's moves, why would
he need to dodge out of their way? Of course, we just pointed out how Pac-Man could be affected
by his fire hydrant special, but it still seems odd that two of his moves could damage
himself. One of Pac-Man's normal attacks can even be
linked back to his moves from a past game. His up aerial looks very similar to his backflip
attack from Pac-Man World 2. But the rest of his regular moves seem invented for Smash
Bros while his remaining specials look to be references to other Namco games. His up
special summons a trampoline that can be used up to three times, even if another player
uses it. What's notable though is that the trampoline changes from blue to yellow to
red. If someone tries to jump on it while it's red, it will disappear. This is almost
exactly how the trampolines worked in the arcade game, Mappy. The only difference is
that there was a green trampoline that would allow for an extra bounce.
The most interesting of Pac-Man's specials though is his standard. This allows him to
pull out various items from many different Namco arcade games. We even got more detail
from Sakurai's Miiverse post that says that as the player holds down the move, it will
cycle in the order from the original game. From what we can see, that seems to hold true
as the strawberry changes to an orange, and later an apple changes into a single large
grape and then a Galaxian. So while we haven't seen all of them, it can be presumed that
the order cycles from a cherry to a strawberry to an orange to an apple to the grape and
then the Galaxian. Each one will have a different effect and
we can see this demonstrated in the trailer as the orange is only thrown a short distance
before being deflected by one of Mega Man's shots. Meanwhile the Galaxian mimics the same
circular motion it uses in the original game to attack opponents. But there are still a
lot of questions surrounding this move. We already noted that the objects cycle through
the same order of the original game so does that mean that the bell and key will appear
after the Galaxian? Or will they be cut in favor of other Namco cameos? After all, we
see the same summoning effect for the fruit and when it cycles through the Galaga ship,
the Pookas from Dig Dug, Mappy from Mappy, and the Andor Genesis from Xevious.
What this could mean is that the cycle of the Bonus Fruit special might extend way beyond
what was in the original Pac-Man. Each of the fruits would do typical damage, maybe
slightly increasing in power as it's charged. It has been noted that the charge time doubles
after the orange so this would make sense. What we think might be the case is after the
Galaxian, the Galaga ship appears, completely ignoring the bell and the key mainly because
they seem less specialized than the Galaxian, unless it's a possible power increase. As
for what the other items could do, the Galaga ship could fire lasers at opponents, Pookas
could chase opponents or maybe even pop up from underground to attack them, Mappy could
chase other fighters with his club, and the Andor Genesis could send hordes of bullets
at your enemies. Considering how long the charge would take to get to that point, it
would be more than fair. The other question is though, where does the
Galaga alien fit in? We saw it before Pac-Man was even announced and assumed it to be an
Assist Trophy. But we clearly see Pac-Man using the same absorbing rays so could this
be another option for his standard special? If it is, where would it fit? The likely option
would be between the Galaxian and the Galaga ship, but there could be even more than what
we've seen here. At the very least, we can assume that it's used to leave opponents defenseless
in the air for future attacks. It isn't just Pac-Man's moveset that we got
a look at though. Both of his stages for the 3DS and Wii U were revealed. The 3DS stage
is based on the arcade game although it's not a complete recreation. Only a few of the
platforms are actually there. However, the ghosts are still roaming the outskirts and
pellets and fruit appear all around. We can see that players earn points from collecting
these items, but we still have no idea if they'll have an affect like the coins from
the Golden Plains stage. Obtaining a power pellet, on the other hand, has an immediate
effect. The ghosts turn blue allowing the player who got the pellet, and only that player,
to eat them. Anyone else that touches the ghosts is still hurt.
The Wii U stage will be based on Pac-Land and looks to be an auto-scrolling stage. We
don't think it will work like other scrolling stages though. While those always became a
loop, Pac-Land had a different conceit. It was Pac-Man's job to take a lost fairy to
the fairy garden then immediately return home. If this stage follows that format then once
the players reach the fairy garden that we see in the trailer, it will begin scrolling
back to the left until it reaches Pac-Man's house. There might even be cameos by Ms. Pac-Man
and Baby Pac-Man like in the actual game. Pac-Land also featured the ghosts attacking
from various vehicles like planes and bulldozers so could they appear here as hazards as well?
And would players be able to attack them normally or collect a power pellet like in the actual
game to get rid of them? And will the level just feature the town and the fairy garden
or will the desert and forest appear as well? There are a lot of elements that could be
pulled from the original game. Okay, we're almost done here, but there are
still a few things we'd like to point out. For one, in one of the released screenshots
we get our first look at Kirby's Pac-Man transformation. He even has Pac-Man's tell-tale nose and triangular
eyebrows. Then there's the special flag. At first we thought that it might be connected
to his standard special, but the trailer clearly shows other characters using it. There's no
indication to what it's doing exactly, but it seems to be an item in the game rather
than something directly related to Pac-Man's moveset. And finally, the end of the trailer
shows Mr. Game & Watch next to Pac-Man since both of their games were released in the same
year. This is the first we've seen of him in Smash Bros. Wii U & 3DS. The question everyone
has though is whether it's a soft confirmation that he's back or just a tease from Sakurai.
We firmly believe that he'll return, but there's always that chance that Sakurai is just playing
with all of us. At the very least, Pac-Man is indeed in Smash
Bros. and we all have the opportunity to pit him, Mario, Mega Man, and Sonic against each
other. He has some very unique moves, and we can't wait to see more from him. But until
then, that's everything new we could find in the Pac-Man reveal trailer. Of course,
if we still missed something, please let us know in the comments. If you liked this video,
be sure to like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter at GameXplain. Thanks for watching,
and make sure to stay tuned to GameXplain for more on Smash Bros and other things gaming
too.