Is Pac-Man REALLY Underrated?

[D-idara]

I've recently played with Pac-Man a lot, and good god, I'm starting to wonder how we're not seeing many Pac-Man players at tournament, I've been seeing something with Pac-Man that honestly makes me think that he SHOULD be one of the best characters on the game, at least on paper.

He has several good approach options, all of them extremely hard to punish, his Pac-Dash never stops at a shielding opponent, he can virtually attack right out of his dash attack animation and his fruit can cover pretty much every type of approach, he's a little ridiculous on the approaches side.

All of his Smash Attacks are kill moves with good hitboxes, his Pac-Dash also kills and he can turn his Hydrant into a kill move when the opponent has enough damage, not to mention that the Key kills at around 120%

He's basically impossible to juggle because of his Fire Hydrant.

Why isn't Pac-Man higher up in the tier lists?

 

[dr_six]

Pac-Man isn't an easy character to play. He's a character that must be mastered first, in order to win tournies. You have to put a lot of time in him, and I don't think many people have done that.

 

[Firedemon0]

Pac-man will place high over time, but he is not top tier unfortunately. He has very few safe attacks on shield, his throw is easily punished. His kills are normally 2 hit kills excluding up-smash on lighter characters. Side-B is an effective kill move, but is easily avoided/predicted. While Key is a kill move, it still takes over 120% for most of the cast. His combo game is nice, but it suffers from Mario Syndrome and most of them do not lead to kills on their own. He is a very good Toolbox character, and with those tools he can react to pretty much any matchup with ease. However, on the same token he does not excel immensely outside of that. So I feel he would A-B tier when the dust settles.

 

[dragontamer]

Pac-man will place high over time, but he is not top tier unfortunately. He has very few safe attacks on shield, his throw is easily punished. His kills are normally 2 hit kills excluding up-smash on lighter characters. Side-B is an effective kill move, but is easily avoided/predicted. While Key is a kill move, it still takes over 120% for most of the cast. His combo game is nice, but it suffers from Mario Syndrome and most of them do not lead to kills on their own. He is a very good Toolbox character, and with those tools he can react to pretty much any matchup with ease. However, on the same token he does not excel immensely outside of that. So I feel he would A-B tier when the dust settles.

Agreed.

Vs Shield I see PacMan maybe doing fair pokes, which is ungrabbable vs tall characters if done properly.

He has several good approach options, all of them extremely hard to punish, his Pac-Dash never stops at a shielding opponent, he can virtually attack right out of his dash attack animation and his fruit can cover pretty much every type of approach, he's a little ridiculous on the approaches side.

On the contrary, good players can shield the first, or second portion of a dash attack and then grab you out of it before the 2nd or 3rd attack comes out. The Dash attack is one of Pac Man's riskiest approach options. I don't suggest you use it unless you expect the opponent to backroll.

Pac-Man's best approach option seems to be run-up and shield.

He's basically impossible to juggle because of his Fire Hydrant.

Except by Dedede, Megaman, and Rob, who hit through the Fire Hydrant and KO you anyway.

 

[Nu~]

Pac-man will place high over time, but he is not top tier unfortunately. He has very few safe attacks on shield, his throw is easily punished. His kills are normally 2 hit kills excluding up-smash on lighter characters. Side-B is an effective kill move, but is easily avoided/predicted. While Key is a kill move, it still takes over 120% for most of the cast. His combo game is nice, but it suffers from Mario Syndrome and most of them do not lead to kills on their own. He is a very good Toolbox character, and with those tools he can react to pretty much any matchup with ease. However, on the same token he does not excel immensely outside of that. So I feel he would A-B tier when the dust settles.

Agreed.

Vs Shield I see PacMan maybe doing fair pokes, which is ungrabbable vs tall characters if done properly.



On the contrary, good players can shield the first, or second portion of a dash attack and then grab you out of it before the 2nd or 3rd attack comes out. The Dash attack is one of Pac Man's riskiest approach options. I don't suggest you use it unless you expect the opponent to backroll.

Pac-Man's best approach option seems to be run-up and shield.

I wouldn't be so quick to dissmiss his approach options and combo game just yet. We are still finding out all of the tricks pac has up his sleeve, and even though right now his best approach seems to be fair with a follow-up, we still haven't factored in all the possibilities that his fruit open up. We can use his toolbox to expand our combo game tooo. His toolbox right now gives us better ways to react to all approaches and characters, but imagine when we start using our fruit for kill combos and AT.
Pac-Man's gonna be high A tier in my eyes

 

[BSP]

Pac-Man is mid high tier at worst IMO.

The most frustrating about him for me is not being able to go for raw grabs a lot, but the trade off is versatility and an answer to nearly anything.

Compared to Mario, the other character I use, he's got a much better projectile and trap game, recovery, stage control, and overall damage output.

Unlike with Mario, I can't spam grabs without significant risk, making CQC a bit more annoying...but that's about it IMO.

 

[Firedemon0]

I wouldn't be so quick to dissmiss his approach options and combo game just yet. We are still finding out all of the tricks pac has up his sleeve, and even though right now his best approach seems to be fair with a follow-up, we still haven't factored in all the possibilities that his fruit open up. We can use his toolbox to expand our combo game tooo. His toolbox right now gives us better ways to react to all approaches and characters, but imagine when we start using our fruit for kill combos and AT.
Pac-Man's gonna be high A tier in my eyes

That is what I was referring to with my 2 hit kill statement. Pac-man is unable to reliable kill at lower percents because of how he telegraphs his attacks. His combo game is good, but it does not lead to kills like One-inch punch, or throws u-air like Sheik or Diddy Kong. His smash attacks also lack in oomph compared to Bowser or Yoshi. He is very similar to Mario in terms of damage output, but with better recovery and control, so he is higher then him for sure. He does not kill as reliably as other higher tier characters. Though I do feel he will see more use when people realize how much he whoops on Sheik.

EDIT: I also wanted to add that while he isn't Top tier, this game is not nearly as imbalanced as previous iterations of smash. He will see tournament results, just will take time. High tier with a 50 member cast is a good thing.

 

[dragontamer]

I wouldn't be so quick to dissmiss his approach options

I'm not dismissing any approach options. But it needs to be known that the dash attack is very unsafe at high level play. Opponents will shield the attack and then punish you. Either that, or you dash really early, so the opponent can back-roll and then smash you.

In either case, its a high-risk low-reward game... unless you got bell charged and are confident in comboing that.

As for "Safest option is run up and shield", this fact is true for pretty much every character in this game. Its a very solid approach option honestly. If you enter Shield, then you can pretty much do any attack you wish in the game soon afterwards (with an OOS Jump->Nair if you need something damn near instantly)