General info
Game info
The game visually updates at 30 FPS, but polls for input and runs calculations at 60 FPS.
Compared to the console counterparts, the DS version has a lot less content. There are no bosses, aside from the final boss. Galaxians and the "25th Anniversary Pac-Man Statues" don't exist. All cutscenes have been removed, aside from the image-only shortened intro/end credits.
Version Differences
While similar, the EU version has slight differences. Charging a rev-roll plays a sound effect. The camera is slightly different, staying farther back at high speeds, so the game has more potential for lag. EU has a `Saving...` indicator on the bottom screen between each level. Some levels have earned more polish, like one area in Banni Wastelands being a slope instead of stable ground. You can have a maximum of 9 lives on EU, while on US it's 2.
Movement
Holding any direction from idle, Pac-Man accelerates 33 pixels per frame, until his speed caps at 532 px. He can jump, and combo up to 3 butt bounces by repeatedly pressing B in the air. He can combo up to 3 punches by repeatedly pressing A. He can wall jump by pressing A, but only if his Y speed is between -299 and 299.
He can charge a rev-roll by holding down the Y button, and tapping the touch screen will initiate it. While rev-rolling, Pac-Man's speed caps at 1434 px, which is ~2.7x faster than running. The longer you charge a rev roll, the longer it will last. The rev-roll timer starts count at 10 frames, and increases by 1 each frame, until it caps at 120 frames. This means for a fully charged rev-roll, hold the Y button for 111 frames before tapping. You can stop a rev-roll early by pressing Y again. You can't change your angle in a rev-roll.
Riding an elevator will disable Pac-Man's movement until it stops.
General Optimizations
- Even though you can stop a rev-roll early (by pressing Y), you don't want to charge it for 120 frames if you only need 60.
- The starting animation for rev-rolls isn't the same, the sooner you start one the longer it takes for Pac-Man to do it. If you don't need a long rev time, then 25, 27, and 29 give you a faster start than 21.
- You can drag keys to the left before they are visible.
- You can buffer when to charge a rev plate by tapping/holding before you get on it. It skips a small delay from when you hold to when it starts turning.
Glitches and Tricks
Double Jumps
Double jumps are any jumps performed while not grounded.
After some state changes, Pac-Man can double jump by pressing B the frame on/before the change. The most useful (and used) is after a rev-roll to maximize distance. But you can also double jump after wall hanging, respawning, and after spawn into a level.
Early Elevator Exit
If you jump the frame before the elevator locks you in place, it doesn't get the chance to do so. Useful on any elevator to start moving a little earlier.
Wall Clips
There are now 3 ways to wall clip.
The first is to have an enemy push Pac-Man into it. Enemy manipulation is usually required for the enemy to keep running without attacking instead. Otherwise, you can jump above their hit detection and they'll keep running into you.
Enemies have boxes that they aren't allowed to leave, so you can't drag them along the map to go OOB anywhere. It has to be done near where they spawn.
"As far as I know with this method, you can only clip into 90° walls, or less than that. Otherwise you end up scaling the wall. --
inconsistent"
The second is to
rev-roll jump /
butt bounce into an acute corner. Given you're at a good angle, you can clip through them just like you can with enemies. Falling into the wall might play a key part, as I haven't been able to do this while grounded.
Punches & Infinite Wall Jumps
Pac-Man's punches preserve Y momentum as he's falling, and also let him jump out of it while airborne (which isn't intended). This can be used to punch off a stage's boundaries then jump from underneath a wall / ceiling.
Wall jumping while inside a wall lets you regrab off of the same wall, letting you infinitely jump off it. If the wall is slightly angled towards the floor, you won't be able to jump off it forever as after a while you'll be outside the wall jumps allowance. If the wall is slightly angled towards the sky, you won't be able to spam A on every frame. Instead you'll have to wait a frame or two to move slightly backward, and be back inside the allowance.
Both of these tricks are used in the
21:10.73 submission to save time.
TODO:
- EU is fairly undocumented, find more potential differences from US
- add level by level strats