Pac-Man: The Matchup and the Strategies

[Aeons_Ahead]

I'm Æon, considered the best Mac main in New England, and I plan on being more active here on SmashBoards now that I'm getting higher places at more consistency. In this post I'll be talking about the Pac-Man matchup: what I've learned from it and what tips I have to combat it. If you have any comments or suggestions, please leave them below!

The Neutral:
Pac-Man has a godlike neutral especially against Mac. Pac-Man has the following tools:

• Hydrant
• Trampoline
• Projectile

Combined, these make it incredibly difficult for Mac to approach. Skilled Pac-Mans (Pac-Men?) will lay out the trampoline to stop an approach so that they can charge their projectile or setup their hydrant. This is an incredibly frustrating defense to deal with, so in the neutral you do not want to let them setup.

Mac's neutral game in this matchup falls into one of two categories:

• Patiently waiting on the other side of the stage
• Trying to apply constant pressure

You can try to avoid Pac-Man's shenanigans altogether by playing his game and camping on the other side. This entails that you must shield everything Pac-Man sends your way flawlessly. This could potentially force an approach from Pac-Man, but the problem with this neutral game is that an equally patient Pac-Man will keep throwing projectiles and hydrants and it is much easier for him to do this than it is to shield every single one.

Because of this, I suggest keeping constant pressure on Pac-Man. This is done by following him very closely wherever he goes so that he cannot setup camp. Now, how do you approach Pac-Man when he is dropping hydrants or throwing projectiles? Here's how:

• Ppivot utilt nullifies damage and knockback from the hydrant
• Ppivot utilt nullifies damage and knockback from the projectiles
• Sideb is good when Pac-Man is charging a projectile, but he can also hit you if he sees you coming

Ppivot utilt is the perfect way to approach Pac-Man. If he's far away, walk to him, do not run. I promise you, if you run you will get hit with projectiles on the way due to shield coming out later.

Attacking:
Now that the neutral is established, how should we go about attacking Pac-Man? Very carefully. You cannot slip up against Pac-Man. My tips would be focusing on quick attacks like tilts to get damage whenever you can. Keep in mind that Pac-Man's upb comes out frame 4, so it's a great tool to escape untrue combos.

While kill options are the same for any other character (smash attacks, dtilt->upb, etc.),
Pac-Man is vulnerable when he drops the hydrant, so using Mac's upb will not only nullify the hydrant's attack potential, but also kill Pac-Man at high percents.


And that's all the info I have for the Pac-Man matchup for now! Like I said, if you have more tips, leave them below!

Next time I post it will be my findings on what attacks from Mac are safe on Wario's, Kirby's, and Dedede's neutral b. See ya then!

 

[tomvanharmelen]

I speak from experience when I say that when pac-man drops his hydrant from the air, you cant up-B through it.
It'll nullify the first hit of your upB and then hit you afterwards.

Trampoline is your worst enemy in this, not the projectiles.
side B reaches beyond trampoline, and you can actually use it as a mindgame to suddenly change up your angle of attack.
Don't blindly hit the hydrant as most pac-man players actually want you to do that, causing you to have lag afterwards and they get a free punish.
Whenever you do want to launch hydrant, use literally any move except for Fsmash because Fsmash launches the hydrant at an angle that is almost always useless.
Utilt, dtilt, and Usmash are my go-to moves when launching the hydrant as they keep it in play as long as possible, causing the hydrant to be a physical wall for pac-man to overcome or a projectile he has to pay attention to while you approach.

 

[Bleezyy]

When fighting pacman I stand by this one main law never stay still and stay close don't give him time to recoup cause then he will have time to throw things . The hydrant I use better judgement most of the time I forward smash aimed up it'll go up just enough so if he can't punish because if she tries to a lot of the time the hydrant hits him lol.

 

[Fruit_Hax]

As a pacman main, I also want to encourage evaluating the situation everytime. For example my go to sparring partner for mac will destroy hydrant almost everytime while trying to hit me along with it. A lot of times I will drop the hydrant and then fade behind him to avoid all of it. In this case it would've been better for him to avoid the hydrant attempt altogether and get the landing punish. Just simple stuff. Overall your ground game is almost suffocating, our only hope is trampoline and an early gimp. Also, another quick tip. Everytime we use trampoline, you can side b over it and hit us for a free punish.