July 18th 2025.
The new game Shadow Labyrinth has caught the attention of many gamers, but not necessarily for the right reasons. It's a strange mix of influences, drawing inspiration from the Pac-Man episode of Amazon Prime's Secret Level show. This may sound like an odd combination, but 2025 has already seen its fair share of weird games, such as one where a boy is stuck in a T-pose and befriends a singing giraffe, and another from Hideo Kojima where you take orders from a talking shop mannequin and fight ghosts with a blood-soaked boomerang.
Interestingly, most of these bizarre games come from Japan, including Shadow Labyrinth – a 2D Metroidvania with a dark and gritty twist. This unconventional idea may remind some of the infamous Bomberman: Act Zero, which turned the colorful party game into a dystopian nightmare and was widely regarded as one of the worst video games ever made.
Thankfully, Shadow Labyrinth is not nearly as bad, but it also falls short of being great. The game is based on a 10-minute episode of Secret Level, which reimagines Pac-Man as a sci-fi tale where a starfighter pilot crashes on an alien planet and is manipulated by a malevolent Pac-Man. We haven't seen the episode ourselves, but we hope it was better than the game tie-in.
Initially, we thought the game was inspired by the popular fan art "The Madness of Mission 6" for Pac-Man, which often appears on T-shirts at gaming conventions. However, it turns out that the game's backstory is actually a cliché-filled sci-fi tale that lacks originality. It starts off with nonsensical names and jargon, but the gist of it is that you play as a swordsman revived by a floating yellow orb named Puck – who everyone else would recognize as Pac-Man.
After a confusing introduction, you are thrown into the game, which immediately feels like a homage to Metroid. You'll be fighting weird alien bugs with your sword and navigating 2D platforming sections. While the gameplay is decent, the art style is bland and clinical, making it look more like an old Flash game.
If you enjoy Metroidvanias, you'll find familiar mechanics in Shadow Labyrinth, such as exploration and backtracking to unlock new areas with acquired abilities and weapons. However, this implementation of the genre lacks inspiration, and there are many better examples available, especially from indie developers.
As expected, Puck plays a significant role in the gameplay, taking over the morph ball function from Metroid as you squeeze into tight spaces. But the focus is on the Spider Ball upgrade, which allows you to stick to walls and tracks, just like in the arcade game, gobbling up white dots along the way.
The game also features mini-games that recreate the classic Pac-Man gameplay, with visuals and sound similar to the excellent Pac-Man Championship Edition games. This begs the question of why Bandai Namco didn't just make a new one of those instead of wasting time on this Metroid-inspired game.
Even the weird concept of Puck combining with your character to become a mechanical Pac-Man dragon doesn't make the game more enjoyable. And to add salt to the wound, Puck is an annoying character, making the whole experience feel obnoxious and abrasive. In fact, our favorite part of the game is the subtle references to other Namco classics like Galaga and Xevious, which speaks volumes about how unappealing the majority of the game is.
Pac-Man has been around for 45 years and has aged better than most other classic arcade games, thanks to the Pac-Man Championship Edition series keeping the gameplay fresh and exciting. However, Shadow Labyrinth fails to capture that same excitement, and its memory will fade quickly.
In summary, mixing Pac-Man with Metroid may have seemed like a bizarre but intriguing idea, but the end result is uninteresting and unimaginative. While the sword-based combat is mildly engaging, the game offers nothing notable of its own and pales in comparison to better Metroidvanias. The story is confusing and lacks engagement, and the visuals are unappealing. Overall, we give Shadow Labyrinth a 4/10. It's available on PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC for £24.99.
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