See all these power ups? It may be overwhelming to decide which one you should pick. Some are OP, some are better than others, some are useless. However, thanks to my knowledge, I can describe and rank every power up in the game and show their pro and cons. I won't count the Power Pellet since it technically isn't part of this family.

Do not take words for granted. You can think differently than me, as you know)

Key:
(Power Up Name)

(General Thoughts and description)

+ Something good about the Power up
= Something between good or bad, depending on one's thought
- Something bad

Ranking: (Self explanatory description in 10 words or less)


This was made for fun, anyway lets start this shin dig.

Your first power up. Yippee! :)

Pac Man gains the ability to shoot a laser in front of him, basically out of his mouth. Any ghost unfortunate enough to touch the beam is met with a terrible fate. Not a terrible power up to start with, but it'll be replaced with a future one later. It makes for an ok starter power up; It's just that the laser only hits whatever is infront of Pac Man. It can get blocked off by walls, and on top of that your sides and behind are still vulnerable to death. Just watch your 6, 9's and 3's and you'll be fine.

+ Whatever is infront of Pac Man is basically dead
+ You can aim it, obviously. Especially with how quick you turn.
= Laser Distance can depend on if a wall is blocking the way
- Ghosts can still hurt your sides and behind you.
- Can be blocked by walls

Ranking: Easy come...Izzy glow Easy go.

Gonna have to let this one go, chief.


Freeze kinda sucks. Using it will freeze the Ghosts...well, rather make them slow as molasses. It sounds good, and it could be, but...You can still die when using Freeze, you have no invincibility using it. The ghosts also still can move, even if slowly; And they'll go back to normal as soon as the timer ends. Not to mention, you might get stuck in a bad position if RNG screws you over with bad ghost spawns. You can't even get points with Freeze, so best if you use something actually offensive rather than relying Freeze to help you out.

Spoiler warning: This won't be the last time I think of a power up not having offensive properties.

+ Slows ghosts speed to a crawl
- Ghosts can still move, even if so
- Bad RNG spawn can mess you up big time
- You can still die from ghosts when using it


Ranking: Potential left out cold.

EXPLOSIONS!!!...and more.


Pac Man now glows red, presumably with spite. Anyone who dares touch him is left to wonder a decently sized explosion that nukes anyone else in the way. More of a strategic power up if anything. The moment you touch a ghost, the explosion will set off. Meaning Bomb will last until you hit a ghost or the timer runs out. You can try to save it until you reach a huge pack of ghosts, but more often then not you'll end up wasting it on a mere 2-3 ghosts. Not a terrible power up, it's just that it requires some strategy to use to its potential.


+ Red Pac man
+ Explosion is decently sized.
+ Can take care of a huge group
= Lasts until timer runs out or you hit a ghost
- Only one explosion
- Easy to waste on an inconsequential encounter


Ranking: Just a theory, a single BIG BANG THEORY

Insert Giant Mushroom Theme


Pac Man grows big...That's it! To be fair, you do get a unique death animations for the ghosts, in which you squish them on the ground and leave their remains. Ew. Pretty much Diet Power Pellet. Except you're BIG!


+ Beeg Pac Man
+ Unique Ghost death animation
+ Nothing can stop you, except the glitch.
- Much like Mario Kart wii where the star is better than the Giant Mushroom, Power Pellet is better than Giant


Ranking: Insert TF2 Heavy laugh

I don't remember Wizard of Oz looking like this.


A tornado spawns at your side...and it does what it wants. It's able to chase any ghost that it can track. Sometimes it goes up and clears the path for you, other times it'll go backwards and kill ghosts that you practically avoided. At least you get some points out of it though. And it admittedly has ok speed.

+ Reaps what it can sense
+ Ok Speed
+ Effective if it goes forward.
= Sentient, so it decides where it wants to go.
= Might end up going backwards, but at least you'll get some points.
- Can go backwards


Ranking: Put a spin on thi...Hey come back!

Ninja Dog difficulty, activate!


Pac Man becomes invisible...No ghost can see you or sense you. Blinky and Pinky won't know what to strike....Ok look, you may not be able to die, but come on. Unless you're doing some sort of pacifist run, I don't see much of a point in Stealth. You're playing Pac Man to kill these ghosts, not simply pass through them, right? You don't care about that fabled high score?


+ Purple Pac Man
+ Ghosts can't sense you
+ You're more transparent than the ghosts.
- Can't kill ghosts
- No points for merely dodging the enemy


Ranking: No, there's no pacifist ending. Stop it.

Minecraft Creative mode.


Now you leave fire behind you to burn anything that wants to touch it. So rather than taking it from behind, your enemies will now take it from YOUR behind. Nothing is able to touch you, you inflict pain on any side. The trail itself is ok, it's just that you really only damage what is behind you. At the very least Pinkys and Blinkys won't pose much threat.


+ Damage ghosts at any angle of Pac Man
+ Leave decent sized trail of fire behind
+ Pinky and Blinky killer
= Fire left behind. No upwards offense
- Only so much covered.


Ranking: Hot Dog!

No.

Just don't. Trap isn't good. Randomly placed traps spawn and kills any ghosts that touches it. They CAN kill multiple ghosts should they run into them, but Trap only affect the area you're around in, and makes you rely that the ghost will run into it. No. No. Terrible Power up.


+ Traps at least kill a ghost that run into it.
- Random Spawn
- Time extending Trap is a waste.
- have to rely on a ghost running into it.
- Arguably one of the worst power ups in the game


Ranking: No.

That's only a little better.


I'll be honest, I was gonna consider Magnet one of the weaker power ups; Mostly because you're not invincible during it and can't harm any ghosts, but after some thought it's more of a risk reward power up. A small ring surrounds Pac Man and grabs any dots or time extension cubes surrounding it. This can help with the grind to unlock all the power ups if you wanna speed up the process, but the true potential lies in the 256 bonus. Eating 256 dots in a single combo will do a screen nuke that kills everything on screen, so it can help there and even score you that achievement. But if you want something more offensive, well this ain't it.


+ Small ring helps grab other pac dots.
+ Helps with power up grinding
+ Helps getting the 256 bonus and the related achievement
- No defense or offense of any kind
- Ring starts shrinking as soon as time starts reaching its final 3-5 seconds.


Ranking: Each their own.

What is this?


Small Pac Men spawn in and kill one ghost per. That's it! Nothing exciting about it. Once they've done their business, they're done. Not great of a power up.

+ Pac Men kill one ghost per
- Only one
- They die once they killed one ghost
- Have to rely on their AI


Ranking: More expendable than Pikmin.

Oh no, we're running out of ideas.


Yeah Pac Man 256 has clone power ups, and they're arguably better than their OG counterparts. The first being Shatter, a clone of Freeze. It functions the same as such, but now tiny icicles spawn, which you can smash to gain bonus points...Hurrah?


+ Icicles spawn, smashing them gets you points.
+/=/- Same as Freeze


Ranking: Frozen 2: Electric Boogaloo

"Pyro will tear/turn you into toast!"


Fire is back, except more deadly than ever before. The trail seems bigger for one thing, and the fire will actually split into multiple paths, causing more, albeit smaller, mayhem. Most definitely better than Fire.


+ The trail seems to be much bigger (?)
+ Now it spreads to other paths, extending its rate of effectiveness.
+/=/- Same as Fire


Ranking: Minecraft lava irl

This is getting out of hand, now there are two of em!


Tornado has a twin brother now. This is what they call a heart warming family reunion, eh? Two tornadoes equal twice the carnage, and seeing two tornadoes go behind you instead of infront...Epic.


+ Two of em!
+/=/- same as Tornado


Ranking: The storm that is retreating...PROVOKING-

Optic Blast!


Laser has returned, and it learned from the school of deflecting lasers. Now the laser will deflect off the wall ONCE!...to its right. Better than nothing, huh? At least that means Laser now has more reach.


+ Deflects off the wall, increasing its reach
= The deflect only happens to the right of the laser
+/=/- Same as Laser


Ranking: You didn't SEE that, did you!?

Yes Rico, Kaboom.


Bomb has returned, but it functions differently for some reason. (A rebel among clones). Now the big explosion only happens WHEN the timer goes off. Any ghost you hit gets killed by a mini explosion. Whether or not you see it as an upgrade or a downgrade is up to you.


+ Mini explosions if a ghost touches you.
= Big explosion only happens when the timer goes off
= Kinda diet Power Pellet, but with explosion at the end.


Ranking: Depends on how spicy you like it.

Heh.


Magnet always comes back, but now any pellet the ring touches causes more power pellets to spawn. Might make you go back and forward, probably better with multiplayer....look I'm sorry if these descriptions are getting smaller, it's just that the latter half of the power ups are just upgrades of previous ones, just with one extra perk added on top.


+ More pellets spawn should the green ring touch em
= Forward and backward, with one foot forward.
+/=/- Same as Magnet


Ranking: Attractive? You have opposing tastes.

Finally, something original for once.


It's less of a radar and more of a giant lightsaber that Pac Man swings clockwise. The range of this thing is HUGE. Basically covers 80% of the screen. It shreds ghosts like actual tissue paper, practically killing most ghosts in your surroundings. While the swing may not be fast, it's certainly a deadly weapon, well worth the use.


+ GIANT LIGHTSABER
+ I MEAN IT, ITS HUGE
+ A weapon to surpass Metal Gear
= Clockwise swing
= Ok swing speed


Ranking: Power. This. Is. Power.

Pick on someone your own size...wait.


It must be terrifying being on the receiving end of this. Pac Man now emits shock waves that turns any victim into a cherry. A cherry! It's played for goofs here, but it must be scary otherwise. Imagine Wily Wonka, but Violet can't be human again, being a fruit for all eternity, her soul, vanished...ok sorry for that dark twist. You can get plenty of cherries with this one. They may have the weakest multiplier of 2x, but at least it helps with the cherry collecting missions. Gonna have to pick em up though.

+ Turn the ghosts into cherries!
+ Don't underestimate the big shockwaves.
+ Helps with cherry collecting objectives
+ Basically have a 2x multiplier on stand by
- Still requires that you pick em up
- Weakest fruit multiplier of 2x.


Ranking: Cherry picking this ability!

Oh hey, a bad power up near the end game!


Sonar ain't good.... At least for scores. You emit shockwaves that push the ghosts. Not kill, push. You still thinking on doing a pacifist run? You don't get any points using it, and you might end up pushing the ghosts into less than desired spots. Best stick to Radar.

+ You're actually invincible.... Huh....
+ You can push ghosts away.
= Makes a cool sonar noise, though.
- Can't kill
- You might end up putting yourself in a bad spot.



Ranking: Take this power up and push it somewhere else.

UNLIMITED POWAH!!!!


Surround yourself with lightning and cast a concentrated bolt of lightning to a single ghost. It can even catch a ghost from off screen! Pretty cool. The range pretty much depends on what the lightning bolt wishes to target, but it seems to do a decent job. Its actually very good all things considered. Take it with multiplayer and lightning galore!

+ Lightning Barrier
+ Strikes a concentrated bolt at a ghost
+ Can kill off screen ghosts! Even ones that barely spawned.
= Bolt decides who to target.
- only one enemy at a time.



Ranking: Kachow.

No introduction needed.


The last Power Up in the game, for a good reason. Pac Man now emits a vertical beam that GOES through walls, upwards and downwards. Since Pac Man 256 is about vertical ascent, Beam is extremely deadly, no ghost of vertical distance is safe from this madness. Even though it doesn't have any horizontal reach, Pac Man is still able to kill the ghosts to his left and right. In fact, scrolling left to right, or right to left, pretty much erases the whole maze of ghosts. Definitely worth the end game.

+ GIANT GREEN LASER OF VERTICAL PROPORTIONS
+ NO MORTAL WALL CAN STOP IT
+ Off Screen kills
+ Hakuna Matata
+ left and right side of Pac Man is safe.
- No horizontal reach.


Ranking: You're Winner!

Subjective. results depend on your play style.

Kinda lame that some of the power ups are just previous ones just with a slight upgrade. And some just completely overshadow others with their OP-ness. The final power ups really take the cake as the best ones in the game. I mean it makes sense with them being the last few power ups you unlock, but Namco was never really one to look at balance. (Looking at you, Tekken!). Again, not exactly the definitive ranking, but just my look on it. again, depends on your play style. With that said, hope you enjoyed.