Pac-Man has always been at home within mazes full of enemies trying to kill you, so the move to a Metroidvania doesn’t feel like that big of a leap. Having said that, Shadow Labyrinth takes Bandai Namco’s 45-year-old mascot in a wild new direction, placing him in a dark, sci-fi world that the casual onlooker may not realise is related to the arcade hero at all.
This is a side-scrolling Metroidvania that follows the blueprint pretty faithfully. You navigate a labyrinthine map with numerous pathways, many of which are blocked off until you find new abilities. Combat starts off feeling very simple, but again, abilities and upgrades make it more complex.
It’s a structure many will be familiar with, and it’s executed competently here. The game’s map is vast and intricate, full of secrets and unreachable areas teasing you with their presence.
As with many Metroidvanias, it takes a while for Shadow Labyrinth to warm up. Once you start unlocking new abilities, such as an air dash, parry, and grappling hook, it becomes a more interesting game, but it takes a few hours to get there.
The story is similarly threadbare at the beginning. You play as Swordsman No. 8, a soul summoned into a physical form by Puck, a floating yellow orb. The purpose of this is the prevailing mystery, as is what exactly has happened on the strange planet you explore.
Obviously, the layers are peeled back as you make progress, but frankly, the narrative isn’t particularly engrossing, suffering from myriad meaningless proper nouns and character names you’ll likely never remember.
The gameplay and design must carry it forward, then, and while much of the game is by-the-numbers in terms of what’s expected of a Metroidvania, the Pac-Man touches and unique aspects give it a lift.
Present in certain locations are rails that, when activated, you can navigate as Pac-Man, controlling as you’d expect him to. This allows you to navigate to new areas and provides a touch of traversal variety.
This isn’t the only transformation you’ll make, though; once charged, you can turn into a mech, a limited-time power-up handy for clearing rooms of enemies or dealing a big blow to bosses.
You charge up the mech by consuming enemies you’ve defeated, and this also gains you various resources you’ll need to purchase or make certain items and upgrades.
When you defeat a boss, Puck will transform into a nightmarish black-and-red vision of Pac-Man and eat them, granting you a new ability.
It’s elements like these that provide Shadow Labyrinth some much-needed distinctive features, because, as we mentioned, it is otherwise a pretty standard Metroidvania action platformer.
There’s some nice variety in environments as you move through, though — harsh metal facilities, desert lands, a giant tree, and more. The art style can look quite nice in places, but there are some areas that look quite blurred, and it can come across as looking quite cheap.
The same can be said of enemies; there are some interesting foes and bosses you’ll go up against (and hardcore Bamco fans will no doubt spot some far-reaching references here and there), but animation work and some odd designs left us a little cold.
Later into the experience you gain access to a selection of stages that are more recognisably Pac-Man. These more arcadey sequences are fun asides that change up the well-worn formula, and are arguably some of the more enjoyable parts of Shadow Labyrinth.
The fast pace and immediate fun of these stages unfortunately leaves the main game looking and feeling quite bloated.
It’s not a short game; you’re looking in the tens of hours, and while that’s fairly normal for a Metroidvania like this, Shadow Labyrinth doesn’t quite have the quality needed to sustain that playtime.
Platforming and combat can feel a little wishy-washy. They aren’t terrible, and later on when you have a few abilities and perks these aspects are much improved, but they’re never as tight as you’d hope for.
We’re also not fans of the checkpointing; major save points are just a little too few and far between. It makes going back to previous areas feel like a chore, as you’ll have to trek through large stretches to reach new items or areas, and they may not be that rewarding.
It’s a tricky game to recommend. There are some fun elements in here, but they’re surrounded by a just-okay Metroidvania action title. At times the formula works and it can feel novel and fun, but only really when it feels most like Pac-Man and least like the game it actually is.
Conclusion
Shadow Labyrinth is an admirable big swing that places Pac-Man in a strange new space. Unfortunately, while there are some fun elements taken from the arcade classic and a few neat ideas sprinkled in, the majority of the game is a by-the-numbers Metroidvania that doesn’t quite come together. It feels like a game built to please Pac-fans and hardcore players that lap up the likes of Hollow Knight, but the end result is something that underserves both. It’s not bad, but with so many incredible 2D Metroidvanias these days, this one doesn’t quite do enough to measure up.
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