Pac-Man 99 Power-Ups Explained

Being a battle royale game, Pac-Man 99 is all about staying alive and making sure all the other players do not. Unlike Tetris 99 and Super Mario Bros. 35, however, Pac-Man 99 provides you plenty of tools to make other players’ time in the game true hell.

Here’s everything you need to know about the four different power-ups available in Pac-Man 99.

Overview

Pac-Man 99 features four different power-ups that can be selected at any time by pressing the Switch controller’s face buttons – Standard, Stronger, Train and Speed. The effects of these power-ups, however, will not activate until you eat a Power Pellet. The fact that you can switch on the fly will let you adapt quickly to any situation, especially when only a few players are left and things are sure to have become quite hectic.

Standard

Standard, activated by pressing the Y button, is your regular Pac-Man 99 power-up. Unlike the three other power-ups, you get pretty much nothing from it, as eating a Power Pellet will just let Pac-Man eat the ghosts by turning them into Frightened Ghosts, get rid of Jammer Pac-Mans, and stop Red Jammer Pac-Mans from moving in case they are on screen. On the other hand, you do not get any undesired effect, so going for a balanced approach can be good for a variety of situations.

Stronger

By pressing X, you can activate the Stronger power-up, which is meant to be used when you want to go on the offensive. With this power-up activated, you will send more Jammer Pac-Mans to your opponents when you eat a Frightened Ghost. While this power-up is extremely useful, especially when you are eating a Ghost Train, it’s also extremely unbalanced, as it reduces the time a Power Pellet is activate.

Train

By pressing the B button, you can activate the Train power-up. This power-up makes it so that more Ghosts will join the Ghost Train when you eat the Sleeping Ghosts located on the sides of the maze. The downside is that you will get a Jammer Pac-Man on your screen for every extra Ghost that joins the Ghost Train. Not a power-up to use when there are a few players left in the game.

Speed

The Speed power-up is activated by pressing A on the controller. This power-up does exactly what you would expect it to do: increase your speed at the cost of your strength. While it is active, Pac-Man will move faster, but at the same time, it will reduce the number of Jammer Pac-Mans you send to opponents for each eaten Frightened Ghost. An extremely important power-up to activate while in a match’s final phases.