Character Analysis: PAC-MAN (V2)

Character Analysis: PAC-MAN (V2.1)

Background

  • Name: PAC-MAN
  • Age: 44 (As of 2024)
  • Height: 5’4” | 165 cm 
  • First Appearance: PAC-MAN (May 22, 1980)
  • Likes: Chomping Ghosts, Eating, Power Pellets, His Family, Crack
  • Dislikes: Evil Ghosts, Not Eating, AtGames

The Year was 1980, Video Games have been on the rise, from your Galaxians, to your Space Invaders, but something was missing… No, someone. Enter Toru Iwatani, a Video Game Designer. As we all do, Iwatani was going about his day, helping himself to a Pizza, and when he grabbed his first slice, inspiration was struck… “This can be used for game design” he claimed, and immediately got to work. He would soon design a familiar shape that would take the video game world by storm. This is the Birth of an icon: Pac-Man

Popup: According to Iwatani, this story is only “half-true”. He claims that he took the Japanese kanji for mouth “口” and heavily rounded it for Pac-Man’s design, with food playing a part in the game’s design.

You may not realize it, but Pac-Man is essentially the first Video Game character… Ever! Pac-Man was the first arcade game to not only use an actual character, but the first game to utilize power-ups! This effectively paved the way for pretty much most games as we know it. From Mario, to Sonic, arguably all modern games could be traced back to one Yellow Orb. While gaming has evolved as a whole, many have moved on from the one who started it all. A majority of people likely don’t know Pac-Man past his original arcade game, maybe the 3D platformers, and possibly the cartoons! However, there’s a story to be told within Pac-Man’s 45 Years of Hunting Ghosts, and it’s time we told it to the world.

While our start with Pac-Man was his 1980 Arcade Game, Pac-Man’s own journey starts in Pac-Land, his home country where he was born and raised. Pac-Man had a dream, he wanted to become a Pac-Warrior and fight the mischievous Ghosts himself. So he found himself training at the Pac-Master’s house, who not only is the defender of Pac-Land, but also the father of Ms. Pac-Man, and while Pac-Man’s training seemed to be going well, he found himself having a recurring dream, where he was constantly getting chased by a mysterious ghost! This Ghost would soon be summoned by the Ghost Gang, and it would be revealed to be the Rock’n’roll loving Legendary Ghost, Golvis! He would turn Pac-Land residents into balls and capture them, leaving only Pac-Man left. He would set out on a rolling adventure to save Pac-Land! After setting out, rescuing his friends and family one by one, he would eventually defeat Golvis, cementing his status as Pac-Land’s defender!

Pac-Man’s journey would continue throughout his years, chomping any and all ghosts that get in his way and dare to bring chaos to Pac-Land. He would rescue his friends and family time and time again, such as from the clutches of Toc-Man, Spooky, and Erwin. As long as Pac-Man is around, Pac-Land will remain safe, so Ghosts beware of this chowing down machine, from ghosts, to monsters, to ghouls, as he’s the only one who can stop them. Pac-Man remains our hero, and he just can’t be beat. The Pac is truly back!

Current Update:

This is likely the final update for a while. I have completely revamped a few areas, finalized sections, added new graphics, and changed certain arguments, as well as other segments. Ultimately, I am happy with how this blog is now, and I likely won't make another big change for a while with exceptions being major game releases.

Before We Begin…

You may have noticed that this is a V2 of my old Pac-Man blog, a Re-Pac if you will. Essentially I wasn’t satisfied with my old blog, it was my first blog after all and I missed a decent amount of stuff. The big differences that you will find are: Formatting changes, New Additions, New Sections, etc. I basically want this blog to be the definitive version of my old one, so if this blog looks similar to the old one, that’s because it essentially is for the most part. So readers of the old blog might see familiar material, but there is a lot of new stuff too!

For this one, I am essentially sticking to Video Game Pac-Man, which means no Ghostly Adventures and no Hanna Barbera Pac-Man. While I like both of them, I figured that Video Game Pac-Man has enough material to warrant a solo blog. In addition, a lot of what comes from those shows, Pac-Man can replicate for the most part with his arsenal, so it’s not a huge loss. The biggest loss IMO from no Ghostly Adventures is his Immeasurable Feat, but hey what can we do.

Another thing to note, with some exceptions, we won’t be using Crossovers, such as Pac-Man appearing in Sonic Dash, or Mario Kart Arcade GP. One exception I’ll immediately address is Super Smash Bros. I am allowing his unique abilities from Smash given Death Battle’s tendency to allow such abilities and Bandai Namco’s heavy involvement in Smash.

Experience and Skill

Pac-Man has been hunting ghosts and traversing mazes for about 44 years now. During these 44 years he has gone on many adventures, such as when he traveled in time to collect pieces of an artifact. Or the time he had to save his family from the clutches of Toc-Man. Or the time he had to not just save his world, but the entire Universe from Erwin and his legion of robots. Pac-Man has been in the game for quite a while now and has no signs of slowing down his ghost chomping.

Power Pellets

Over the course of his gaming career, Pac-Man has utilized various Power Pellets, each with different properties, but for the most part they provide a power-upl. According to Pac-Man himself, he has collected TRILLIONS of Pac-Dots

Power-Ups

Like the Power Pellets, Pac-Man has used a large collection of Power-Ups throughout his many years of hunting Ghost, which will be listed here:

Pac ‘N Pal Power Ups

  • Galaxian - It shoots a whirlwind which stuns and spins enemies, disorienting them
  • Rally-X - Shoots a smokescreen, causing any enemy to get caught in it to become teary eyed
  • Trumpet - A trumpet that causes anyone that hears it to bust into dance
  • Snow-Man - Shoots an ice beam that can freeze his enemies
  • Pac-Man Attack - Allows Pac-Man to shoot mini-Pac-Men at ghosts

Pac-Man 256 Power Ups

  • Laser - Pac-Man fires a laser straight that will defeat ghosts. The laser will stop if it hits a wall.
  • Freeze - Slows down Ghosts
  • Bomb - Will trigger an explosion whenever Pac-Man touches a ghost
  • Giant Pac-Man - Grows and can squish ghosts
  • Tornado - Summons a tornado that will chase ghosts.
  • Stealth - Turns Pac-Man invisible and intangible, keeping him safe from enemies.
  • Fire - Leaves a trail of fire
  • Trap - Leaves a spike trap that kills Ghosts
  • Magnet - Automatically collects coins, power-ups, and Dots within a range near Pac-Man
  • Pac-Men - Summons mini Pac-Men that can attack enemies
  • Shatter - Slows down enemies and spawns Icicles that Pac-Man can eat for more points
  • Pyro - Upgraded version of Fire, which spreads further
  • Twinado - Summons 2 tornados that chase ghosts.
  • Optic - Shoots lasers that can bend around corners
  • Boom - Touching enemies will trigger mini-explosions
  • Regen - Regenerates Pac-Dots
  • Radar - Projects a beam that kills nearby ghosts
  • Cherries - Turns nearby Ghosts into cherries
  • Sonar - Emits a pulse that scares away nearby ghosts
  • Electric - Zaps and kills nearby Ghosts
  • Beam - Creates a beam above and below Pac-Man that kills ghosts instantly.

Pac-Man 256+ Power-Ups and Upgrades

Pac-Man 256+ is an “upgraded” version of Pac-Man 256, which introduces new QoL changes, new themes, and more importantly, new Power-Ups. All of the original power-ups seem to be in this version as well, so I will only list the new ones (Huge help to my friend Raiden who helped me get images of all the upgrades)

Power Ups:

  • Mines - Mines that explode when Ghost get near it
  • Coin Bundle - Get a bundle of coins

Upgrades:

Pac-Man Arrangement Power-Ups

The Best Pac-Man Maze Game BTW

  • Red Capsule - Doubles Pac-Man’s speed
  • Pink Capsule - Traps all enemies in a brown pot
  • Cyan Capsule - Summons a clone that mirrors all of Pac-Man’s movements for a few seconds.
  • Orange Capsule - Prevents Pac-Man from getting slowed down when eating bigger Dots.
  • Gold Capsule - Removes all attributes from Pac-Man
  • Magic Wand - Turns enemies into presents
  • Brown Sack - Same as Pink Capsule
  • Pac-Dash Arrows - Pac-Man dashes in the direction of the arrow at high speeds
  • Jump Panel - Shoots Pac-Man to the corresponding panel in an instant

Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle/Chomp Champs Power Ups

  • Speed Boost - Gives Pac-Man a boost in speed
  • Ghost Speed Boost - Increases the movement speed of all Ghosts
  • Extra Life - Awards Pac-Man an extra life
  • Lock Gates - Closes pathways from rival mazes for 20 seconds
  • Unlock Gates - Unlocks pathways from rival mazes for 20 seconds
  • Stun - Stuns all nearby enemies for a few seconds.
  • Invulnerability - Surrounds Pac-Man with a barrier that protects him, bouncing away Ghosts
  • Clone Ghost - Spawns a Clone of one of the Ghost Gang
  • Ghost Attractor - Causes nearby Ghosts to fall in love with Pac-Man, speeding them up towards Pac-Man
  • Ghost Repellent - Creates a field around Pac-Man that scares off Ghost towards the opposite direction.
  • Smart Bomb - Unleashes a large blasts that every enemy within the radius

Pac-Man Battle Royale CHOMPionship

The direct arcade sequel of Pac-Man Battle Royale, and I didn’t know existed until I started researching for this Blog.

Note: Footage of this game is scarce as it is an arcade game that isn’t well known, however all of its Power Ups have been officially stated, seen here and here.

  • Gold Power Pellet: Allows Pac-Man to eat the ghosts.
  • Green Super Pellet: Makes Pac-Man big. Allows Pac-Man to eat both ghosts and other Pac-Men.
  • Caffeine: Boosts Pac-Man's speed.
  • Smoke Bomb: Releases a smoke explosion that slows down ghosts.
  • Banana Peel: Causes Pac-Man to slip and skid uncontrollably.
  • Lightning: Zaps nearby ghosts or other Pac-Men.
  • Ghost Sheet: Makes Pac-Man invisible to ghosts.
  • Chili Pepper: Burns nearby ghosts or other Pac-Men.
  • Earthquake: Causes all players to slow down.
  • 1UP: Adds one life.
  • Ghost Magnet: Allows Pac-Man to pick up ghosts and carry them around as a weapon.

Pac-Man Party Royale Power Ups

  • Energizer - Gets an increase in speed, along with the ability to eat Ghosts and Players
  • Electric Field - Gain an electric field which zaps players or ghosts around them, said field shrinks over time
  • L.A.S.E.R. - Shoots a laser in front of you, which stops at walls. Enemies and Ghost hit with this laser are vaporized
  • Air Strike - Rain down missiles down on your enemies
  • Cherry - Makes Pac-Man Invisible
  • Magnet - Grabs nearby Pac-Dots
  • Land Mines - Let’s Pac-Man place land mines which blow up after a few seconds or when someone steps on it. When it explodes, it sends a blast across all directions as long as it's not cut off by terrain.

In addition, there will spawn a ghost called “Itchy”, which will debuff players, while technically not a Power-Up, given Pac-Man can force others to grab Itchy, he can use it to his advantage

  • Inverted Controls - Inverts your controls
  • Slow - Slows you down
  • Bait - Allows Pac-Man to eat whoever has this debuff without a Power-Pellet
  • Muzzle - Prevents the use of Power-Ups

Pac-Man All-Stars

List here:

  • Speed-Up - Speeds up Pac-Man by 50%
  • Stun - Stuns enemies for 5 seconds
  • Magnetic Pac - Pellets near Pac-Man are automatically pulled to him
  • Strong Pac - Enemies who collide with Pac-Man are stunned for 5 seconds
  • Multiplier  - Multiplies points earned by 4
  • Power-Pellets - Makes Pac-Man invulnerable to Ghosts
  • Thief - Steals points from enemies whenever Pac-Man collides with them, increasing exponentially.

Ms. Pac-Man: Maze Madness - Multiplayer

  • Pepper - Leaves a trail of Fire behind Pac-Man, burning those who run into it.
  • Cake - Become indestructible and bigger so you can damage other players by running over them!
  • Lightning - You generate lightning that shoots along the paths shocking whoever it hits.
  • Sneakers - Makes you run faster.
  • Money Bag - Grab this bag and you gain Pac-Dots, all other players will lose Pac-Dots.

Hats

No way, TF2 Scaling…

Hats that give Pac-Man new abilities:

  • Cool Hat - Drops ice blocks that freezes ghosts
  • Hacker Hat - Freezes ghosts and makes the vulnerable for 3 seconds
  • Magician Hat - Allows Pac-Man to shoot ghosts with magic, making them disappear (No Footage Available)
  • Alien Hat - Can vaporize ghosts with acid (No Footage Available)
  • Zeus Hat - Freezes opponents in their position

Pac-Man Simulator Power-Ups

So quick context if you don’t know what this is, back in July 30th 2024, Namco released an Official Pac-Man game in Roblox. It’s one of those generic idle/gacha games. It might be strange, but it’s still an official game nonetheless.

  • Luck Potion - Increases Luck, used for better odds in opening Capsules
  • Huge Potion - Increases odds of obtaining a Huge Pac-Man when opening Capsules
  • Power Potion - Increases Pac-Man’s overall Power
  • Trophy Potion - Increased the Amount of Trophies earned via battling Ghosts
  • Strawberry Jam -
  • Crystal Melon -
  • Crystal Red Apple -

Party Game Items

Various Power-Ups/Items that Pac-Man has obtained in the Party Games.

  • Cookies - Provides an active buff in relation to the mini-game
  • Hover Boots - Let’s players move up 1 - 8 spaces.
  • Token Square - Win 5 - 20 tokens
  • Ghost Square  - Causes a ghost to take half your tokens
  • Revenge Square - Steal half the tokens from a player of your choice
  • Store Square  - Option to buy game actions, such as character:
  • Movements to move yourself or other people backwards
  • Multipliers, which multiply the amount you win from mini-games
  • Raffle tickets, which give you a chance to win big on Raffle Squares
  • Gambling, LET’S GO GAMBLING, gamble your tokens
  • Fruit Raffle Square - Chance to gain Redemption Tickets when landed on
  • Spring Square - Springs you forward 3 - 8 spaces
  • Return Square - Jumps you backwards 1 - 5 spaces
  • Surprise Square  - Causes an unknown event to occur, such as moving forwards or backwards, stealing tokens or losing them.
  • Token Game Square - Lets you play a game where you can win tokens
  • Challenge Game Square - Challenges an opponent to a duel for tokens

Misc Power-Ups

Power-Ups that I’d rather lump up into one category:

  • Turbo - Let’s Pac-Man go faster
  • Shield - Shields Pac-Man from Enemies and Modifiers
  • Glitch - Allows Pac-Man to Glitch enemies and scare them
  • Freeze Blast - Let’s Pac-Man shoot a Freeze Blast
  • Fireball - shoots a fireball at enemies
  • Magnet - Magnetizes Pac-Man to attract Pellets and Fruit
  • Ice Cube - Turns all enemies into Snowmen
  • Mirror - Creates a mirror clone of Pac-Man
  • Time Stop - Stops Time for everyone except Pac-Man for a few seconds.
  • Stealth - Turns Pac-Man invisible and intangible, allowing him to phase through enemies
  • Speedy Pac-Man - Enables Pac-Man to move faster
  • Magnet - Transforms enemies into coins, which automatically get collected by Pac-Man
  • Jet-Pack - Allows Pac-Man to hover in the air
  • Blazo - Shoots fireballs that turn enemies into coins
  • Fireball - Become an unstoppable Fireball
  • Freezo - Freezes enemies into Ice Blocks
  • Save Star - Saves Pac-Man without the cost of a life
  • Giant Potion - Turns Pac-Man into Mega Pac-Man
  • Knight Chocolate - Turns Pac-Man into Knight Pac-Man, in this form, Pac-Man becomes heavier, allowing him to roll underwater, and can easily smash iron boxes. Pac-Man also becomes immune to arrows.
  • Wing Chocolate - Makes Pac-Man very light, allowing him to glide in the air.
  • 1-Up - Sometimes called an Extra Life, these can be earned through a variety of ways, such as finding them or being granted one after collecting enough points.
  • Special Flag - Similar to the 1-Up, it grants Pac-Man an extra life.
  • Power Pellet (Pac-Man.io) - In addition to turning ghosts vulnerable, it slows down other Pac-Men around them.
  • Speed Boost Pellet - As the name suggests, it speeds up Pac-Man’s speed
  • Ghost Pellet - Allows Pac-Man to become a Ghost
  • Vacuum - Let’s Pac-Man vacuum up a lot of Pac-Dots
  • Repel - Send Ghosts flying away

Equipment

Pactrometer

Built by Professor Pac, The Pactrometer allows long ranged communication. Pac-Man has used it to communicate with Professor Pac and with Orson, meaning he should have constant communication with them.

It allows Pac-Man to travel through four different lands, including Pac-Land.

The Pactrometer even functions in completely different realms, along with different periods of time, either Past, or Future.

The Artifact

An ancient artifact that kept the planet safe from evil. It can shoot a laser that can instantly vaporize its enemies.

Space Board

Allows Pac-Man to fly into deep space at fast speeds, it can shoot lasers that can destroy asteroids and enemies. Even ones as big as King Galaxian

Magic Pen

A Magical Pen that can bring drawing to life. It can also be used to seal drawings and turn them back into Ink. When turned into Ink, it acts as Power Nullification given that while sealed, the Ghosts could still curse Pac-Man, but were completely powerless when turned back into Ink.

Wing Shoes

Gives Pac’s jumps a boost in height

Golden Fruit

Created by the Great Wizard Pac, they give Pac-Man a Golden form which makes him stronger and gives him the ability to imprison ghosts.

Kart

Wouldn’t be a 3D platformer series without a Mario Kart ripoff. A standard kart with what you would expect from a racing game. It can drift, boost, and make use of multiple items.

Such as:

Green Pac-Bomb

Similar to the Green Shell from Mario Kart, when launched at an enemy, they explode.

Red Pac-Bomb

Like the Green-Pac Bomb, it explodes on contact when it hits an enemy. The main difference being that the Red-Pac Bomb follows enemies.

Blue Pac-Bomb

Like the previous Pac-Bombs, but this one exclusively targets the player in first place.

Pac-Dora Box

A fake item box, when collected by a tricked player, stuns them.

Atomic Belly

Gives racers a small speed boost.

Pac-Snowman

Tosses snowballs at nearby racers. When they get hit, they spin out and also freeze.

Storm Cloud

Makes the road slippery for up head racers

Black Pac-Bomb

Works exactly as the Green Pac-Bomb, but explodes with a larger radius

Siria the Ice Dragon

A dragon that throws ice blocks that can freeze opponents.

Sir Pac-a-Lot

Targets the racer in front of the player.

Galaga Ship

Shoots the racer closests to the player up ahead.

Banana Ram

A ram in the shape of a Banana, you must ram into players to deal damage to them.

Blueberry Blaster

A blaster that shoots four rockets at a medium firing rate.

Cherry Bombs

Bombs in the shape of a Cherry, will explode upon contact or by itself if left alone for a few moments.

Grape Grenades

Shoots explosive grapes that damage those near its proximity.

Pac-Dot Gun

A rifle that shoots up to 10 Pac-Dots, each shot has to reload.

Sonic Bell

Sends out a shockwave which will damage nearby players.

Strawberry Striker

Strikes players with great force.

Watermelon Seed Spitter

A rapid fire weapon, can shoot repeatedly and chip away health.

Pac-Man

This game's version of the starman from Mario, grants temporary invincibility and does not slow the player down when they drive off-terrain.

Katamari

Basically the green shell/Pac-Bomb of Kart Rally. Can get up to 3.

Drill

An item drop, if a racer runs into it, they will be stopped for a bit

Power Pellet

Grants a speed boost, can get up to 3

Cherry

Activates auto-pilot, it will take the most optimal route.

Ghost

Turns enemy racers into Ghosts, which can be eaten.

Abilities

Bonus Fruit

Pac-Man can charge various fruit and objects to throw at his opponents, each with different properties:

  • Cherry - Knocks characters in a very shallow arc.
  • Strawberry - Knocks characters on a similar arc to the Cherry, but slightly farther. Travels slightly more total distance than the Cherry.
  • Orange - Knocks characters in a semi-spike angle.
  • Apple - Knocks characters vertically. Thrown at a strong diagonal angle downwards, useful for interrupting offstage opponents attempting to jump towards an edge.
  • Melon - Travels slowly in a very slight arc, and has considerable diagonal knockback.
  • Boss Galaxian - Does a quick shuttle loop before continuing to fly off either straight ahead or at several angles diagonally upward from the direction it was thrown.
  • Bell - Travels slowly in a high arc before suddenly stopping short and falling straight down, passing through opponents. Causes paralysis if it connects.
  • Key - Travels at high speed in a straight line and deals high damage and knockback.

Power Pellet

Pac-Man sends out a Power Pellet, while controlling its direction. After a while, Pac-Man follows the trail and launches himself towards the direction of the Pellet, damaging and knocking away enemies.

Pac-Jump

Pac-Man summons a trampoline that can be bounced on 3 times, with each bounce launching the user higher. After the 3rd jump, it turns red, anyone who jumps on it when its red will force them into free fall, where they can’t do anything until they land.

Fire Hydrant

Pac-Man spawns a Fire Hydrant. It shoots water from the sides which pushes people away. If Pac-Man is on top of the hydrant, it shoots water above, sending him upwards. Pac-Man and others can hit the hydrant, launching it away, the angle depending on the attack.

Final Smash: Super Pac-Man

Pac-Man eats a Power Pellet and a Super Pellet, turning him into Super Pac-Man, allowing him to gobble up his enemies and their souls.

Rev-Roll

A Spin-Dash rip-off Pac-Man charges in place and let’s go, he rolls forward with a ton of force. It can also be used on treadmill-like platforms to power gates or move platforms.

Butt Bounce

A simple form of attack that not only breaks open crates, but also gives Pac-Man a boost in height.

Pac-Dot Attack

Pac-Man can charge his dots in order to throw them at enemies, if Pac-Man has at least 5, he can charge them into a Bomb Attack, a stronger version of the Pac-Dot Attack.

Hover Jump

Pac-Man can flutter mid-air for a few seconds, preventing him from falling. This can last up to 20 seconds in easy mode.

Pac-Sense

Pac-Man has a sort of Pac-Sense that seems to clue him in on upcoming events, such as when he felt it right before being teleported by Orson to go help him save the world.

Summoning

In Pac-Man Monsters, Pac-Man can summon allies to help him in his adventure. This grants him access to a massive list of monsters, including some of his past enemies like Spooky and Golvis

List of monsters can be found here: https://pacman.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_Monsters_in_Pac-Man_Monsters

Teleportation

Pac-Man can teleport to get himself away from harm's way.

Duplication

If Pac-Man ever feels cornered, he can duplicate himself, up to 32 duplicates.

Regeneration

Whenever Pac-Man dies, his body collapses on itself. He uses a life and comes back with his body fully intact.

Size Manipulation

Pac-Man can indefinitely increase his size through various means. Eating food lets him grow in size, as well as simply consuming pellets. He can also seemingly control his size with reality warping, allowing him to be as big as the Earth.

256 Dot Combo

After collecting 256 pellets, Pac-Man will launch an energy blast that instantly defeats any ghost in his field of vision.

Perception Manipulation

Pac-Man can slow down his perception of time in order to react and dodge enemies quickly.

Resurrection

When Pac-Man dies, he turns into a ghost. While in this form, Pac-Man seemingly has all the properties of a standard ghost. This is further consistent with Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness where if a player dies in “Da Bomb” minigame, they turn into a ghost.

Possession/Body Snatching

While in his ghost form, Pac-Man can steal another player’s body, leaving them as just a ghost while Pac-Man creates a new body for himself.

Soul Regeneration

As a ghost, Pac-Man can regenerate his soul whenever it gets damaged. This is consistent as Pac-Man, along with other characters, can also do this in World Rally and in Kart Rally.

No-Clip

After collecting enough dots, Pac-Man can gain the ability to No-Clip through walls, useful for avoiding enemies.

Slow Down

Pac-Man can slow down his enemies after collecting enough dots.

Forms

Planet Pac

Pac-Man, with some form of reality warping, can make himself as large as Planet Earth.

He does this again in Pac-Man -READY-

Super Pac-Man

Pac-Man can make himself bigger through various means, he can consume Super Pellets, transform himself at will. He can physically crush ghosts, and grants him invulnerability from ghosts.

Super Pac-Man (The New Adventures)

When Pac-Man eats a Super Pellet, he turns into Super Pac-Man, giving him the ability to fly, a boost in speed, and being able to effortlessly chomp down his opponents.

Mega Pac-Man

Designed similarly to Super Pac-Man, upon eating a Power Pellet, he can transform into Mega Pac-Man, giving him a boost in size, and strength, letting him chomp down his opponents effortlessly.

Golden Pac-Man

After using the Golden Fruit, he turns himself into Golden Pac-Man. It gives Pac-Man a boost in strength, allowing him to fight on par with Spooky, and even seal his spirit after his defeat.

Pac-Mobile

After collecting enough Power-Pellets, Pac-Man can transform into the Pac-Mobile. In this form, he transforms all of his opponents into Ghosts, running into them will consume their soul. Though this form only lasts 8 seconds.

Ghost Form

Whenever Pac-Man dies, he can come back as a ghost. This is consistent in “Da Bomb” minigame where he straight up turns into one of the Ghost Gang members upon death. This means Pac-Man should gain all the attributes of a ghost, including the ability to fully regenerate his soul.

Support

Ghost Gang

Despite being his enemies for over 40 years, he is on decent terms with them. Thanks to being able to summon them in World 3 and in Pac-Man Monsters, Pac-Man should be able to bring them onto the battlefield should he need to.

  • Life-Force Absorption: The Ghosts are capable of absorbing one’s life-force.
  • Size Manipulation:  The Ghosts can make themselves much bigger, making them stronger.
  • Summoning: Can summon large hoards of Ghosts to attack others.
  • The Emperor Ghost: Can spawn clones of Kinky, as well as produce shockwaves with a ground pound.
  • Mechs: A set of machines used to battle Pac-Man, including a Mechanical Frog, Saw, Blower, and Ghost.
  • Item Manipulation: Ghosts are capable of stealing tokens from players inventories.

Professor Pac

Thanks to his Pactrometer, Pac-Man has constant communication with Professor Pac, granting him access to his tech.

Orson

Like Professor Pac, Pac-Man has constant communication with Orson thanks to his Pactrometer. This allows him to call him for help should he ever need to.

  • Dimensional Travel: Orson can teleport Pac-Man into the Spectral Realm, which is a completely different Universe. He can also teleport him back home.
  • Toc-Man: Orson has lent Pac-Man his upgraded Toc-Man model to use in combat. Can shoot blasts of Sound and can easily smash through enemy robots.

You (The Player) (Debatable)

Admittedly this is a bit of a weird one, but somehow is slightly consistent. In Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures, Pac-Man and the Player work together in various tasks. At first, I’d be a bit hesitant to allow this, however in Pac-Pix, Pac-Man calls upon the player to help fight the Ink Ghosts, with the Magic Wand in the player's hands. Still, I’m a bit iffy on this one, but there are two examples where the Player is outright acknowledged, so up to you.

  • Slingshot: The Player is armed with a Slingshot that can be used to find things, attract Pac-Man’s attention, break obstacles, and wake up Pac-Man whenever he is downed.
  • Super Pellets: The Player can give Pac-Man Super Pellets, which allows him to turn into Super Pac-Man.
  • The Magic Pen: The Player was able to utilize the Magic Pen while Pac-Man was trapped inside the Magic Book

Intelligence

Pac-Man is quite intelligent. He is able to outmaneuver Ghosts consistently, he has repeatedly tricked his opponents. He is capable of solving ancient puzzles. He can also pilot machinery built by the likes of Orson without much trouble. He is fully capable of utilizing all of his various power-ups and all their different effects.

Resistances

Feats

Overall

Power

  • He grew as large as a planet… again! (Planet Level)

Durability

Speed

Scaling

Pac-Family

Pac-Man is consistently the strongest of his verse, and given that he saves his family numerous times, it's clear that he upscales from them.

Ghost Gang

(The Best Ghost Gang designs BTW)

Yeah, I don't think this one requires that much justification, these guys have been chasing and killing each other for years.

Misc Villains

Pac-Man has gone through many adventures throughout his years and fought many enemies as a result, given that he has beaten all of this bad guys, he likely scales to all of them

  • Erwin’s battle robots should naturally be faster given their intent to kill

Weaknesses

While Pac-Man doesn’t have any obvious weaknesses, a lot of his Power Ups are on a timer, which usually lasts for a few seconds. In addition, his typical form of combat involves getting in close, as he usually chomps down his foes, meaning any opponent who can keep him at range or are faster than him will give him trouble, though Pac-Man has a few ranged options to help mitigate this a bit.

QNA

Pac-Land’s Size and Country Scaling

Pac-Land has been threatened multiple times, notably Spooky and Golvis having statements saying they will destroy all of Pac-Land. This begs the question, how big is Pac-Land, since its size determines how powerful they would be. Visually it looks different title to title, but Pac-Man Monsters blatantly states that Pac-Land is a country. This likely isn’t a one-off statement either, as in Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness, there are several lands disconnected from Pac-Land, some of which are obvious stand-ins for real world countries, Pac-Land being just another land implies it's also a country. This is also implied in PAC-MAN Friends, with another stand-in of Egypt. While Pac-Land’s size has never been directly stated, given it’s a country, and likely comparable to real world countries, it should at least be an average sized country.

There’s also scaling to the Gems of Virtue, which can sustain and power entire countries. This would support the country level statements via being in the same ballpark. We just have to prove that Ms. Pac-Man scales (and in-turn, Pac-Man).

To start, as per Mesmerelda’s own words "Where's My Key! I can't get to my crystal ball." "The gems are useless to me without it." Implies that she’s going to empower her Crystal Ball with said power in order to “rule Pac-World”, and as we see at the end of the game, we visibly see her Crystal Ball break and become de-powered after her defeat, meaning it was likely amped by the Gems during her final boss fight.

The 2nd part, all four Gems were required to dispel Mesmerelda’s magic. After placing all Gems inside the Pactrometer, it activated them, which reversed the effects of her magic. Professor Pac states that “Powerful Black Magic” was being used to steal these Gems, the same magic that created Mesmerelda. This train scaling feels more streamlined, Mesmerelda is roughly on par or downscales from all four Gems, should be stronger than just 1 single gem as a result, which can sustain countries, and uses her magic to attack Ms. Pac-Man. With this I think it’s fair to scale Ms. Pac-Man to at least one of the Gems, which would be Country Level. Oh, and there’s also Pac-Man’s country level durability feat.

Toc-Man’s Space Travel Feat

And by extension, Professor Pac’s too

One of our speed feats involves Toc-Man flying into deep space in order to activate King Galaxian. The calc places it at 1,534 c to 36,821 c, but first we should give a bit more context. In World 1, we see stars zooming in the background, meaning the minimum distance is 4.2 lightyears, which is the closest star to Earth. We keep zooming past several stars, but we have no way to quantify the true distance, so using the minimum should be good. Now, Re-Pac added a cutscene where we visibly see Toc-Man fly to King Galaxian, however in the remake, the background is static and we don’t see the same visual of stars zooming by, but there should be no reason that the distance would change, so I figured keeping the distance of 4.2 lightyears would be fine. Now for the timeframe, the game takes place during Pac-Man’s birthday as we see in the beginning of the game, and when it ends, it’s still Pac-Man’s birthday, in fact it’s still bright out suggesting not too much time has passed during the events of the game. With this information in mind, we have all we need to make a calc, by using the minimum distance (4.2 light years) and the maximum time frame (24 hours), we have the absolute minimum for Toc-Man’s speed feat. Given how it’s still clear as day at the end of the game, I lean more towards the 1 hour timeframe, which would be 36,821 c. This all applies to Professor Pac’s speed feat as well.

Scaling To The Glitch

Alright, this is simple enough, Pac-Man is capable of outrunning The Glitch in Pac-Man 256. This allows him to scale to the Glitch’s speed. We know based on how it consumes mazes in Pac-Man 256, and in Party Royale that it physically travels through the whole maze, this too is supported by the game in which the feat takes place (if you go frame by frame, you see the Glitch spread outwards). With this in mind, we know it has to physically travel the entire maze in order to destroy it, which is impressive when certain mazes are cosmic in size. Such as the Galaga Maze, which contains stars, meaning it is likely 4000 lightyear’s in size, potentially bigger, and the Mr. Driller Maze, which contains the entire Mr. Driller “world” in it, possibly being that of an entire universe. Netting numbers from 252 Billion Times Faster Than Light at Minimum, to 5.8 Quintillion Times The Speed of Light at the highest. There’s even evidence to suggest regular sized mazes are cosmic in size as well. That being said, I don’t fully agree with using the Universe for its size, as its entire argument is based on it “possibly” being the Mr. Driller World. It definitely is cosmic in size, but it’s likely not as big. I put the argument out there, though I personally stick with using average star viewing distance for its size and distance.

Now let’s talk about AP. As mentioned before, the Glitch consumes mazes, including the Galaga Maze, this would qualify as AP, resulting in Multi-Solar System Level, up to Universal if you take the Mr. Driller Maze to be Universal sized. This is pretty blatant for the Glitch, and is another cosmic feat that can be used to justify the consistency of a high end that we will talk about later, but can Pac-Man scale to its AP? The answer is, probably not physically? After all, Pac-Man dies when he touches the Glitch, but is fully capable of killing and eating Glitchy, a product of the Glitch, though he requires a Power-Pellet or his various power-ups to kill Glitchy. Admittedly, this is a bit of a high end, but if you buy him scaling to another feat in the series, you can get Pac-Man much higher.

Does Pac-Man need Power Pellets?

Given its significance in the series, being the first Video Game Power-Up… Ever, you would think he needs a Power Pellet to eat ghosts. However, as it turns out, Pac-Man does not need a Power-Pellet to gobble up his opponents. His aura alone will turn ghosts blue, allowing him to be able to consume them, no pellet required. He can also spook his opponents blue. Him simply being bigger than his opponent is enough for him to consume them as well.

Mid-Godly Regeneration Pac-Man

Ok let’s work our way up:

Low-Godly: Pac-Man can fully regenerate his body in the following scenarios: In Pac-Man World Rally (Note: The left over eyes are a staple of Ghosts in the Pac-Man Series, those are his Soul’s eyes and not his physical body, which does not disqualify it from being Low-Godly) Next up is at the end of every round in Pac-Man Party Royale, which Pac-Man in their ghost reform their body to get ready for their next game (Think something like Fall Guys) and finally in the Pac-Man Mobile game where Pac-Man instantly regenerates their body after dying.

Mid-Godly: There are 3 games in which Pac-Man can regenerate his soul. Those being Pac-Man Party Royale, World Rally, and Kart Rally. While some depictions show Pac-Man’s Ghost form regenerating with its eyes left, this is simply a unique feature of Ghosts in the Pac-Man Verse. In fact, Pac-Man himself has outright shown the ability to regenerate his soul from Nothing, such as these two examples. Even Ghost Gang members have done the same thing, such as when they have shown the ability to regenerate their souls even when it’s been fully destroyed (Note the lack of eyes popping out, the ghosts are still able to regenerate fully despite this). This means that Pac-Man blatantly has Mid-Godly Regeneration.

Can Pac-Man Fully Destroy Souls?

This is a question worth asking, mainly because it's a staple feature that whenever Pac-Man eats a ghost, it leaves behind their eyes. This might imply that Pac-Man can’t fully destroy their soul, leaving a bit behind, possibly allowing opponents to regenerate their soul if they are able to.

I personally believe that this is simply a feature of the ghosts specifically, rather than Pac-Man’s inability to fully consume their soul, this is because there are actually several examples where Pac-Man has fully destroyed souls without leaving their eyes behind.

Pac-Man has fully destroyed souls in Pac-Man Arrangement, Pac-Man 99, Pac-Man Championship Edition 2, Pac-Man Run, Pac-Man Note, The Sandbox Evolution, Pac-Man Simulator, Pac-Tune, and Galaga Wars It’s consistent enough for this to be a non-issue.

Pac-Man and Lost Media

“Pac-Man… is Lost Media?”

Pac-Man is a series that has been going for 40+ years, as a result, it has several games that were either outright canceled, (Count Pacula, Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness 2) were live service games that are no longer available to play (Pac-Man Monsters, Pac-Man Reborn) or just have little to no documentation if any at all. As much as I would love to include the contents of these games (A Gacha game and a game where Pac-Man evolves would go crazy if we had any info on them), we simply don’t have any readily available info on these games. If ever found, you bet I will rush to update this blog as soon as I can, but in the meantime, not much can be done.

Universal Pac-Man

All right, people. Let's start from the beginning one last time. First let’s start with the facts. First we need to acknowledge that the Spectral Realm is its own universe, separate from Pac’s. We know they are separate because it’s stated that the two realms will merge into one once the Spectral Realm collapses, further supported by Orson differentiating the two by calling Pac’s Universe the “Real World” which was further reiterated later in the game. In addition, it is implied that the Spectral Realm and The Main Universe are parallel, given there is “fabric” between the two realms. Its cosmic size via its starry sky also supports this.

Secondly, the plot of World 3 is that Erwin is siphoning the Spectral Realm which will lead to it collapsing with the Universe,threatening both universes (see image above). Erwin also states that the energy he harvested from the Spectral Realm is powering all of his Robots. Erwin also confirms that all of his machines can survive the two realms merging.

Those are the facts, now we can move on to the scaling part. As mentioned before, Pac-Man can tank hits from Erwin’s machines, but also damage them. But there seems to be a problem, Pac-Man has to disable Erwin’s Forcefield in order to damage his machine, this would imply that his machine can only survive thanks to the forcefield, which would mean Pac-Man can’t scale, right? It might appear that way, but it’s important to note that the energy that created his forcefield and the energy that he uses to attack Pac-Man are the same. Visually the energy around the forcefield and the energy around his laser are the same, both having the same electric particle around it. The laser that Pac-Man can shrug off hits from. In addition, whenever the forcefield is active and Pac-Man is inside, it acts as a hurtbox, which again, Pac-Man can tank. Since it’s the same energy source, the case can be made that Pac-Man tanking hits from either the laser or the forcefield’s energy means that he can scale. Lastly, when Erwin mentions his plans, he says that his “machines” will survive the collapse, as in plural, he also mentions a legion of robots. This implies that all of Erwin’s machines can survive the collapse, which Pac-Man can defeat on his own. This makes sense too given that he needs his legion to survive the collapse, otherwise he would have no army to power up.

At the end of the game, Pac-Man was debatably near the explosion of the Spectral Realm’s energy. I say debatably because Pac-Man was teleported back home and the presentation of the explosion makes it hard to tell if Pac-Man was present during the explosion or if he was teleported before or after. However, we do know for a fact that the ghosts were still in the Spectral Realm when it exploded given they were teleported after the fact, although not near the epicenter. Erwin himself fell directly into the raw energy, along with its explosion, and it’s implied that he may have survived given his playable appearance in World Rally, although I’d rather use this as supporting evidence than as the main argument given characters like Spooky are also playable despite him being sealed.

However, there is a much more blatant way to scale Pac-Man to this level of Power. Erwin’s machine is clearly capable of surviving the merge, this part is fact, but it might not be his machine directly, it could just be the force field? As it turns out, it doesn’t matter, whether it be the machine or the force fields, since they are being powered by the same thing. As it turns out, the Final Boss mech is directly powered not by the Spectral Realm’s siphoned energy, but rather the Spectral Energy of Inky and Blinky. The mech, the force field, the laser that the mech shoots, it’s all powered by them. Meaning if Erwin’s force field is what protects him from the merge, it’s a result of Inky and Blinky’s energy, which in turn scales back to Pac-Man. In addition, the Spectral Syphon machines are directly powered by Inky and Blinky as well. This is later reiterated by Pinky. Now it’s important to note that the source for this statement is from an Official Strategy Guide, but before you dismiss it just off of that alone, remember that Namco/World 3 Devs provided direct assets for the Strategy Guide + Said Guide even contains cut material further suggesting official devs gave genuine information for the guide. Plus this statement is directly backed up by Pinky’s “Energy sucking machine” statement.

So the quick version is:

Erwin’s Final Boss Mech is powered by Inky and Blinky, which are = to Pac-Man

And they also powered up the Syphons that absorbed an entire Universe’s energy

With that all in mind, there is, in my opinion, a lot in favor of Universal Pac-Man being considered Valid.

“Spectral Paradox” and The Pac Wiki’s False Pages

One thing I’ve seen parroted a lot within VS Circles involving Pac-Man are the “Spectral” pages, involving the Spectral Ream, and I’m here to say… It’s a Load of Crap.

First, what the heck is even going on regarding these pages? Let’s start with it’s “claims”


“The Spectral Realm is interrelated with the fabric of the Space-Time Continuum through these facts: 1. The Space-Time Continuum is made up of the following:

Space: Involves 3 dimmensions: Length, Height & Width

Time: 4th dimmension

2. Spectral Energy going out of syphons rips Space-time apart & breaks it into a Space-time destroying paradox (i.e. a Spectral Paradox) 3. According to Spectralogy (The study of the Spectral Realm), The Realm counters Space-time & if any destructive object affects it, such as syphoning or ripping it, it would destroy every piece of matter made from it. However, A paradox is impossible as the Realm has rebuilt itself everytime a syphon failed when they were sucked into the Spectral vortex, releasing the energy back into the Realm.”

“By syphoning the Realm's energy, objects in the Spectral Realm contain energy, if the syphon catches that energy, The object involved will be "erased from existance" as it'll become more transparent & finally disappear. Any living being in the Realm could be erased with it as the syphon's deleterious effects can destroy the animal, According to Spectralogy”

Okay… Ignoring the spelling errors and formatting, it’s extremely clear that everything about these claims are just made up. NOTHING on these pages are sourced. Not only that, it just reeks of VS Brain Rot, or at bare minimum, someone who wants to extrapolate these pages. Like, bringing in the “Space-Time Continuum” and “Erased from Existence”. It feels… not right at all, especially when there is nothing in the game itself, nor the manual, nor the Official Strategy Guide referencing anything from these pages. Not only that, but I checked the history of these pages and found out it was all created by exactly one guy, I won’t name them, but this fandom user was the one who added all that fluff about the Spectral Realm and created the Spectral Paradox and all adjacent pages.

Tl;dr: Don’t use these pages for anything regarding Pac-Man scaling, they are bad. Also, if any Pac-Man Wiki User is reading this, please remove these pages as well as any edit made by said user.

“You missed XYX”

As mentioned before, Pac-Man has a lot of media, some of which can be considered Lost Media. As a result, I am 100% confident that there is stuff that I missed. I also tried to list mainly stuff relevant to VS Stuff, otherwise I’d be listing mundane things like a Fishing Rod or Mallet. With this blog being intended to be the definitive version of the first version, I will hopefully continuously update this one with new stuff that is found, new calcs, new games, etc. As for now, this is where it sits.

Summary

Attack Potency: At least Country level to Planet Level (Defeated Spooky and Golvis, who threatened all of Pac-Land, Scales to Ms. Pac-Man who defeated Mesmerelda) (Can turn as big as the Earth) | Likely Universal (Via overpowering Erwin and his various death robots, scaling to the Ghosts who can power Erwin’s machine which can survive two universes merging)

Speed: MFTL+ (Via piloting the Space Board, which can pilot at high speeds, Via Scaling to various villains, such as Toc-Man or Erwin who can siphon an entire universe, Via outrunning the Glitch, who can consume cosmic sized mazes instantly)

Durability: Country to Planet (Survived a moon sized explosion. Can turn as big as the Planet) | Likely Universal (Via tanking hits from Erwin’s death robots, Via scaling to the Ghosts who can power a machine that can survive two universes merging)

  • Access to a plethora of Power-Ups with various hax that bypass durability.
  • A large list of equipment to aid him in battle
  • Body and Soul Regeneration makes him difficult to put down for good
  • Various resistances that make putting him down difficult
  • Can summon various allies and clones to help him in battle
  • Can buff his stats with various Power-Ups, such as the Speed Boost or the Power Potion
  • Can debuff his opponents with Power-Ups such as Slow Down and Stun Pellets

Potential Opponents

Luigi

(Thumbnail By Me)

The big one. Personally, this is my favorite matchup for Pac-Man, I love both franchises, I think Luigi deserves a better episode, and both of their arsenals perfectly bounce off of each other. They both have a plethora of Power-Ups, along with unique abilities. In addition, I think it’s closer than people think, given Luigi can’t win via raw stats alone due to Pac-Man’s regen. Ultimately I would love to see this become an episode.

Felix The Cat

(Thumbnail By Me)

The other big one. This one has been gaining a lot of traction recently, and for good reason, it’s the Grandfather of Gaming VS the Grandfather of Animation. I think for this one, we should composite both, given this matchup celebrates their histories. As for how I feel, I also really like this matchup, and I would not mind at all if this was Pac’s Episode instead. Overall I think this would be a fun matchup to do.

Bomberman

(Thumbnail By Fit-Opinion7992)

This one is interesting, retro heroes that navigate mazes to avoid and defeat enemies. There’s more to it, but that’s the core theme. I think this could work, not my favorite per se, but I think it’s fine as an alt, plus I feel both characters are way more overpowered than the casual community thinks, so this episode could show everyone what they both got.

Kirby

(Thumbnail By Relevant-Impress-420)

Yeah, I get it, spheres who eat a lot. Thematically, I think this actually works, but I feel both have better. I think this is fine as a DBX, but maybe not as a full episode. In regards to this, I actually have a variant of this matchup that I prefer, Ghostly Adventures Pac-Man VS Right Back at Ya! Kirby. I think that would be cool.

Closing Thoughts

Heya! So, as you could tell, this is a revamp of my old Pac-Man Blog. It was my first public blog, and while I think it turned out okay, I thought I could do a better job. So I changed a lot of sections, added new ones, and added new stuff that I found. I’ve always been working on a V2 since I published the first one, I’ve been looking for new stuff, and new feats, and now I think it’s in a state that I can publish. Like last time, this wasn’t intended to be my next blog, but given how much I have been working on it recently, I ended up finishing it before other stuff.

Again, I am unsure what my next blog will be. I have a few series/characters in mind, but nothing concrete. Till next time!

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