How do you beat a spamming/camping Pacman?

[DarkJosh]

So I played 2 games with this pacman, and lost both times. He literally did nothing but camp on the edge and threw keys at me, or jump up, drop a fire hydrant, and immediately smash it towards me.

First game I was Wario. I lost a stock so i tried playing it safe and just "volleying" off bikes at him, but that didn't work, and of course he wins.

2nd game I was ROB. Knowing what happened last match, I just spammed him with the top and lasers, but there was no actual way for me to get close to him for a smash attack without taking lots of damage myself. I annoyingly lose this one too.


And of course, he taunts after every ko -_-

Any help is appreciated

 

[Jay-kun]

As Wario, use fast falling nair a lot. Crash your bike. Do the thing where you make it lay on the ground, it becomes a shield. If Pac is offstage, gimp him. Catch his key with airdodge. When he places hydrant, immediately use bike then jump off. Dont forget to use your fart. I advise learning all the ATs for Wario
With ROB, try to catch his fruit with the tactic above. At the start of a game, use gyro, then laser , or vice versa. Side-b reflects projectiles. Use it unpredictably under Pacman when he uses hydrant to reflect the hydrant back up at him.

 

[Duck SMASH!]

Bowser Jr. user here.
Also faced a Pac man who did literally nothing but run away and charge his damn fruit and spam hydrants.
I got used to dodging the hydrant and tried to punish him but he kept air dodging my aerials, almost instinctively.
Also taunted like a *****.
Kart dash approaches failed because the hydrant was usually blowing me back. Mechakoopas also less effective. The hydrant stopped them too.
Cannonballs were too laggy and got me punished.
The whole match was basically him running and throwing keys and hydrants at me all day.
I have no clue what to do.

 

[Splooshi Splashy]

Perhaps has what it takes? Any fruit between Cherry and Melon are going to be blocked by the dog's Gunmen, Cans, and Clays. Said blocked Fruit will also be up for grabs once it collides with your arsenal, especially Gunmen, due to its quick & low endlag. Do note that you'll have to dash or air attack it to pick it up, otherwise said blocked Fruit will still hit you. However, as soon as Pac-Man reaches Galaxian Ship (?), consider your projectile shields ripe for piercing. Hydrants knocked your way will also pierce your entire arsenal. The water from Hydrants will simply pass through your arsenal without messing with any of them.

If you DO catch a Fruit, you can try to hold on to it as long as you can to deny him the ability to throw any more Fruits. Of course, by doing so, you'll also deny yourself the ability to use any A button attacks (including Smashes!) and grabs as well. As the canine, your overall mobility is pretty good (you can even crawl & wall-jump!), and you'll still get to chuck Cans, Gunmen, and especially Clays. These will become your main sources of damage dealing if you decide to hold on the Fruit, because without his Fruit, he'll likely try to approach you, especially once he sends the Hydrant flying your way. Hitting him out of Power Pellet before he eats it by hitting the Pellet itself will allow you a chance to heal yourself a bit from the Pellet he drops. If you're still holding on to a Fruit when you try to go pick up the Pellet, you may have to throw it away in order to heal yourself with the Pellet. If there's a way to pick up the Pellet without having to throw away the Fruit first, please let me know. Trampoline will beat your Can, which is one way he'll defend himself against your edgeguards. A DH without access to A moves & grabs (due to holding on to Fruit) will have to play a ranged game like Marth, and possibly even counter-camp.


As for challenging this fighting style as , much like every other MU, the high ground, FAir --> Neutral A string/DTIlt/UTilt x? --> UAir x?, and Side B Jump Cancels (including Side B --> JC [--> UAir at 75-ish%] --> Up B --> A [Hammer] at around 100% for the KO) will be key. In the middle of Side B when Pac-Man's throwing Fruit or sticking out Power Pellet or FSmash? Jump Cancel over it and either try to aerial the Fruit into your hands and/or approach him from there.

It is true that the Hydrant is an effective defense against Mechakoopas. However, Mechakoopas and uncharged Cannonballs can block off any Fruit that's between Cherry & Melon, which can open up a chance to take it from him. I do regret to inform you that Jr's B moves by themselves are not as good at building damage as DH's B moves are (unless Customs are on, in which case Side 3 + Up 1/2/3 will wonderfully rack up damage [and staleness]). Jr thankfully is better at KO-ing with them alone than DH is. NAir and especially FAir, as often air-dodged as they may be, will at least hang out long enough to challenge the air-dodges, as can UAir, which is your fastest and most spammable aerial.

If and/or when you DO get in, try to stay on top of him with Side B JCs into aerials that can punish his openings for big damage. However, Pac-Man's Jab, FTilt, DTilt, FAir, and NAir can compete with your own Jab, DTilt, UAir, FAir, and Nair in terms of speed. As least Jr has better approach options and rushdown abilities than his dad. :>

 

[Froggy]

Learn to perfect shield and then dash punish. That's literally all it takes if that's what your opponent is doing.

 

[COLINBG]

Pac can camp when the situation calls for it, but he can't do it reliably at any time. Stay in his face (body?), don't let him get too far, and don't give him the time he needs to charge his fruits. This is true for every zoning/campy characters, but rush him down. He's particularly weak to that.

Try to get close to him at the start, where he has no momentum yet and where he doesn't have any fruit ready. If you find yourself far from him later in the match, simply walk back to him while shielding/spot dodging what he's throwing. Everytime he throws a Key, he has to charge it again, so if it doesn't hit you, it's kind of like he just lost a couple of seconds. Hydrant is dangerous, approach in the air. Wario has amazing aerial speed so that's good. Both him and ROB have pretty good aerial attacks too. Just be careful not to get hit by a fruit when landing.

 

[xzx]

Hey Splooshie Splashy, you can Z-drop the Bonus Fruit, then eat the Power Pellet, then regrab the Bonus Fruit.

 

[JoeR]

I feel a very aggressive play style is good for taking out pacman. Don't let him breath and set up with his standard b.

 

[NouveauRétro]

Learn to steal his fruit! It's hard but if you want to win that badly and you are a character with good B moves like Wario steal his fruit and mixup Zdrop arials with B attacks. Not enough people steal his fruit.

If he exclusively uses keys, which are indeed very hard to snatch, approach him slowly with less dashes. It seems counterintuitive but despite the key's blazing spped you can probably react to the throwing animation if you are ready for it. When you get close try short hop air dodging to test his reaction. If he acts like you portray him he will likely act the same way every time, be it a roll, sitting in shield, etc. Figure out how to punish that.

Pacman is kind of one of those characters where you can't play your usual game, like DHD.