Shadow Labyrinth’s Fascinating Take on Pac-Man Isn’t Without Flaws [Review]

With Pac-Man hitting its 45th anniversary, the gaming’s most recognizable icons has manifested his mid-life crisis into a Metroidvania called Shadow Labyrinth. Originating from a maze, Pac-Man’s transition into a 2D platformer game doesn’t seem like it should work all that well, but it does come together (mostly). Shadow Labyrinth’s combat and exploration gives charming nods to its Pac-Man origins, but the yellow ball’s gritty re-debut is held back by pacing issues and stiff controls.

Shadow Labyrinth follows the event of the Pac-Man episode of the Prime show Secret Level, where our mysterious protagonist, Swordsman No. 8, is woken up by PUCK, a floating yellow ball. As part of PUCK’s directive, he must navigate through maze-like labyrinths fighting enemies in order to uncover the world’s dark secrets. The story isn’t the most elaborate, but its association with the Pac-Man IP has just enough alluring strangeness to keep you engaged.

Pac-Man is known for gobbling fruit. In Shadow Labyrinth, PUCK takes control of Swordsman No. 8 and devours bosses after their defeat, granting them both more abilities. Interestingly, it also takes place in a wider Bandai Namco universe with franchises like Xevious and Bosconian showing up. It’s interesting to see how the implementations of core Pac-Man concepts have been reimagined in Shadow Labyrinth.

Shadow Labyrinth’s 2D action gameplay is rather straightforward. No. 8 has a three hit combo that can be augmented with special ESP abilities like an energy wave or a cannonball blast. As you progress, the combat becomes more surprisingly flexible and complex with unlocking additional ESP skills and abilities. These abilities act as equipment, providing you passive benefits like increasing the range of your ESP attacks or granting you an extra healing tank. Whether you like to optimize managing your stamina or increasing the amount of Ora (an in-game currency needed to purchase upgrades) dropped when defeating enemies, there are plenty of options to adjust to your preferred playstyle.

Going back and forth

However, the game’s biggest issue is pacing. There are save points and checkpoints spread throughout. Save points provide a full suite of benefits, including restoring your health, replenishing your healing tanks, upgrading your character, and fast traveling to other areas. 

Checkpoints on the other hand can only save your progress and heal you. They crucially don’t replenish your healing tanks, which can be frustrating. There were many instances where a mini-boss was around the corner, and I ran out of healing tanks, died, then respawned at the checkpoint with empty tanks. My only option to replenish them was to transport back to an earlier save point farther back and then make my way to the checkpoint again. Given how spread out the space between check points and save points could be, I felt like I was wasting time moving backwards and forwards between key spots.

Shadow Labyrinth fluctuates weirdly between being too easy and annoyingly hard. The boss battles are rather one-note and have predictable attack patterns, so defeating them isn’t that hard, However, the atrocious savepoint and checkpoint system makes the game feel artificially difficult.

Thankfully, this pacing issue tended to taper off as I got further into Shadow Labyrinth. I accumulated more healing tanks and became more familiar with the combat mechanics, so the underbaked checkpoints became less of an issue. As I reached the latter portion of the game, I eventually ended up having one or two leftover healing tanks to use for a new boss I came across, though that was mostly due to how formulaic their attack patterns were.

Another point of contention is the controls. While attacking with your sword feels perfectly smooth, not everything is. The invincibility frames on the dodge rolling never feels quite right. Oftentimes I would attempt to dodge roll behind my enemy but misjudge the distance. That put me right in the danger zone, taking damage. I also opted out of using the parrying mechanic entirely, as the window timing was too frustratingly narrow for me. Instead, I just relied on shielding instead.

Paying homage to its roots

There are also some on-rails sections where PUCK and No.8 will combine into a miniature Pac-Man-shaped figure, a clear homage to its origins. In this form, your movement is limited to jumping in a straight line or short arc. This isn’t a problem until later in the game where enemies start infesting these sections and the stiff movement causes you to take unintentional damage or even die because you accidentally jumped the wrong way.

With that being said, Shadow Labyrinth’s world is quite large and there’s plenty of content to sift through. Eventually, you’ll unlock other traversal tools like a grappling hook and mid-air dodges that’ll let you explore previously out-of-reach areas. It feels satisfying discovering these nooks and crannies throughout the map, as it does in all the great Metroidvanias. They often net you rewards like weapon upgrades and/or additional healing flasks to make yourself more formidable in combat.

You’ll also come across special mazes where PUCK can participate in a classic game of Pac-Man, often with a twist. For example, there are boost portals that PUCK can go through to gain invulnerability and speed up his ghost-eating, letting you clear them before the time limit runs out. There are also boss battles where PUCK can jump and attack giant ghosts like an old-school shoot ‘em game such as the aforementioned Xevious and Bosconion games. These mechanics are creative, and also offer a glimpse of what a modern Pac-Man game could look like.

All of these maze mini-games are drenched in a flashy neon aesthetic that’s reminiscent of Tetris Effect. They act as welcome colorful distractions to an otherwise bleak world, further building on the Pac-Man lore. Completing these mazes and achieving certain scores will reward you with upgrades too, so they’re well worth your time doing.

Shadow Labyrinth is still a competent Metroidvania game that, despite the surprising tonal shift for the franchise, works. Being based off of Pac-Man gives it a unique identity and the nostalgia manages to elevate the story. While the disjointed pacing and rigid controls leave some to be desired, the combat and exploration are fun enough to make this worth a playthrough.

Shadow Labyrinth launches on July 18 for PC, PS5, Switch/Switch 2, and Xbox Series X|S.

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