Basics before flash

[Direspect only!]

Sooooooo..... pac man.
I play for glory for practice and Ive been to a few tourneys and I've only been semi successful. The reason for this is because I don't understand how to play him. I can set up traps (given enough space) but I have trouble finding the time to setup these traps or charge up fruit before I'm forced to kick them away with a hydrant or what not.


My question is how do you work traps onto your gameplay so that it becomes smooth and you don't look like you're fishing for setups. Also a more basic question is how do you play him effectively, outside of his moveset guide. Is he a in and out like greninja, is he a defensive mixup character like link. Or is he patient and read heavy like ganon...

 

[SafCar]

The way I play him is to mixup what I'm doing. Good Pacman players should never go stale with their tactics imo, they need to keep the opponent on their toes. Maybe I'm going for a Dash -> Usmash, maybe it's a commitment to Dash Attack, maybe I'll just Trampoline away, maybe I'll just run past and B Reverse an Apple. It's crucial to keep your opponent guessing and to take advantage of the confusion.

If you're wholly committed to playing Pac, try and understand how each Fruit behaves. Too many people that I fight fail to understand stuff like how Apple kills off the ceiling or that an up thrown Melon is effectively an anti-air. I don't mean just for throwing normally or upwards, but also with the hydrant water's properties.

 

[Direspect only!]

Safcar, whats the best way to create space?

 

[SafCar]

It ultimately depends on the opponent. Fruit does a good job of creating space, but some players can grab it if they know how to time it. Hydrant water can push enemies, but some players go straight for it to prevent shenanigans. I'm not one to focus on space as Pac, I usually just scare off the opponent and get in their face to force their hand and react accordingly.

 

[Nu~]

Mixups, mixups, and more mixups. The big picture encompassing pacman's play style is that you want to be innovative with your tools to deal with what the opponent dishes out. It's because of this that pacman doesn't fall into any one character archetype.

You can create space with jabbed hydrants and trampoline.

 

[Direspect only!]

So the point is really just to keep doing random stuff???? Alright.

 

[JohanVonBronx]

So the point is really just to keep doing random stuff???? Alright.

Not random, Pac Man's play style is situation-based with who he is currently going against. Pac Man takes concentration and thought to play. NEVER just mindlessly throw items and launch the hydrant hoping it works. He has *so* many tools at his disposal and it's your job to remember them all at the right times. I've been to a few local tournaments and I went from being 12th and 9th places to 1st and 2nd. Just keep practicing, never let your opponent get comfortable playing against Pac. Most of the time after a match at the tournament, especially someone who hasn't fought my Pac Man before, they let out a deep sigh cause they were in concentration trying to handle Pac. (And I'm the only Pac player in this area) This is amusing yet a little sad, because it tells a couple things. Not many people play Pac. Most of those who DO play Pac aren't very creative. So because of this many people don't know what to expect, other than his obvious stuff. Which is why I enjoy this forum, they're constantly finding ways to push Pac. He's a scary character to deal with, but only in the right hands.

 

[Direspect only!]

Okay, another problem I have is never having the right fruit for the right situation, like say I read a short hop, a galactic would go Perfect for a setup because it limits options. Should you just fish for the right opportunities with your fruit or run and charge your fruit or what???

 

[SafCar]

You can try to fish for opportunities, but don't be obvious about it. We want to throw off the opponent, so don't be afraid to abandon fruits like Key or Galaxian in favor of earlier traps and strings. Some of our better fruits show up early.

• Cherry is weak, but it disrupts the opponent enought to set up a Trampoline or Hydrant. This goes the same for Strawberry, but it doesn't set up as easily into kill confirms like Cherry -> Usmash
• Orange is not the most promising, but it can chain into itself. Managed to chain three oranges together into a kill once, and it's pretty annoying since it goes pretty fast compared to other Bonus Fruit.
• Apple is easily under estimated as a kill move, especially on Battlefield/Lylat. Also reaches the lowest in front of Pac
• Melon mixups are amazing after conditioning opponents to Oranges. They will reactively shield on occasion, opening up chances for a grab or set up. It's also easy to grab from a shield, making it a great anti air option when thrown up and good for setting up a Jab Hydrant.

 

[Direspect only!]

What about defending against straight up rushdown like falcon???? Running away with tramp and hydro dosent work because by the time you place it they're already around it????

 

[BSP]

What about defending against straight up rushdown like falcon???? Running away with tramp and hydro dosent work because by the time you place it they're already around it????

Camp the ledge against Sonic, Falcon, Little Mac, and Fox with your trampoline. It majorly messes up their usual gameplans. None of those 4 can jump in at you with placing themselves in some danger.

_____Pac-Man_______Trampoline_______Opponent___________________________________________________________

That's what the match should be like 80% of the time, with that 20% being when you are in advantage or they hit you back towards center stage.

A bit of detail on what will probably happen if you camp the ledge:

Falcon: He'll jump at you, or wait for the trampoline to disappear and then resort to his usual stuff. If he waits, at any % that's not KO %s, charge up a galaxian and get it into your hand. You need to be proficient with Galaxian combos + hydrant setups with galaxian in order to make Falcon pay for letting you charge. Look for Dee's videos in the video thread. He's quite good at getting galaxian in his hand and pulling off massive combos. If Falcon jumps at you, try to tag him with Uair. The low base knockback of the move lets it chain into many of your other aerials for quite a long time against Falcon, and its large range isn't easy for him to bypass.

Might do the others later.

TBH Pac-Man isn't like any character. At any given time, there is something you can be doing to better your situation, whether it be charging a fruit, getting a fruit in your hand, placing hydrant / trampoline, priming hydrant, etc. While you're doing this, you need to keep close watch on the opponent in order to not miss opportunities for damage..

 

[Direspect only!]

I'm baaack!!! So. After playing close to 100 games, I've realized pac man requires a lot of creativity as he doesn't have many or any guaranteed ways of approaching as everyone can use what you do.... flipping your hydrant grabbing your fruit, using your trampoline to help them recover..... I can deal with most of these. However I cannot understand how to stop people from kicking my hydrant. Any attempts to punish them results in me being hit by either the attack itself or the hydrant...... my friends do it a lot to screw with me and not being able to deal with it is a major drawback as I've basically given then one of my tools.

 

[Direspect only!]

Also I love the idea of the hydrant gushing you to safety as you charge your fruits.... it's great