I think Bandai Namco missed the train on this one. The time to be edgy was two decades ago, when Shadow the Hedgehog was hurling family-friendly curses and Jak was quite literally teleported away from his home world to be tortured into becoming a poor man’s Grand Theft Auto protagonist. I think the closest edgelord example I can think of between an old franchise like PAC-MAN would be when Bomberman had its emo ‘Bomberman Zero’ phase, but unlike that game, Bandai Namco’s latest 2D Metroidvania ‘Shadow Labyrinth’ is actually pretty good. Surprisingly so, even. Maybe I’ve been conditioned to find these sorts of ideas for established franchises, one no less from what’s really just a deformed hockey puck that’s supposed to eat pixels and run from ghosts.
A Nameless City
Shadow Labyrinth starts us off with an isometric view of a video game player out in the streets of some unnamed city. A few moments after slamming the start button, that hooded game enjoyer disappears into the night, and we find ourselves in some decrepit wasteland being awoken by PAC-MAN himself in all his robotic fervour. Sorry, no, this thing’s name is actually “PUCK”, which is a shortened version of what I learned was supposed to be PAC-MAN’s original name: PUCKMAN. Apologies, my NAMCO history stops squarely at Ace Combat, PAC-MAN World, and ‘THE IDOLM@STER’. But you don’t need any of that to appreciate what can only be a twisted take on the developer’s beloved properties. Like “what if we gave Bugs Bunny a few more sharp edges and a meaner demeanor”. Wait, no, that already happened.
The player will find themselves accompanied by PUCK as they leap through an assortment of biomes made of rock, grasslands, alien technology, and the like. This being a 2D Metroidvania platformer, you’ll be making quite a few jumps without your more advanced moves and it’s a bit hit or miss, how it feels to play Number 8. Our player character is generally quite responsive, but the creepy hooded figure has this forward momentum to his jumps that can be difficult to manipulate and can cause quite a few missed jumps and that leads to a bit of frustration. There is also a PAC-MAN style bit of movement that you’ll come across where you’ll control PUCK as you dart between rails and fight baddies that impede on your path. This movement mechanic is fine, but it can be difficult to land certain jumps, and the player is only allowed to either jump off the rails or do a rising-slash style of attack which can limit options. I myself missed an embarrassing number of jumps with this style of movement, even when it wasn’t that difficult of a mechanic.
Puck This
Speaking of attacking, you’ll be fighting plenty of baddies. There’s a decent enemy variety in Shadow Labyrinth, even with boss types. You have your typical three-way combo that can expand as you progress through the game and, once you unlock PUCK’s GAIA form (a giant PAC-MAN infused mech thingy), you can begin eating all the enemies you see to collect resources (such as spines and shells) to unlock perks from the shopkeeper. As if the game wanted you to know how edgy it is, PUCK will eat enemies and bosses whole, God Eater-style, complete with a crude and vile version of everyone’s favourite yellow hockey puck as he comically lets out a burp after his meal.
Enemies can be a hassle, but they’re generally easy to trick as long as you keep moving and position yourself right. But they can overwhelm you and, thanks to how slippery Number 8 can be, you’ll likely crash into groups of them and die a few times. Thankfully, there’s a decent number of “Miku Sols” and checkpoints littered about. Miku Sols are points of travel and fill up your heals, while checkpoints simply respawn you closer to your last location of death. And following up on the baddies, they’re not hard. Bosses are easy and you’ll likely only die if you’re flailing about and/or not giving it your all. All though, to be fair, not every boss is engaging enough to care with only some key fights really kicking off the adrenaline.
Besides that, level design is quite good. There’s a lot of secret paths to take and you’ll find them naturally as you roam about. I never found myself getting lost and the maps themselves were complex enough to have platforming variety and interest points without becoming overbearing. Except for the occasional enemy ambush, because of course.
Edginess Done Well
I have to say, I was enamoured with the whole idea of Shadow Labyrinth. The art style is quite nice, and the music does a good job of conveying a level’s themes, if not occasionally falling back to cliches. But I do want to note that the game is fairly ugly, akin to a 2D platformer from Miniclip blown up to a 4K screen except this is coming from a conglomerate. Assets in the background tend to be low-resolution and the foreground can be busy at times to a point that you might end up missing out on checkpoints as you’re zooming past. But the NAMCO references stand out, if not covered in scratches or melded in ways that only a mind raised in the 2000s would really be able to accomplish. I love it; it’s really cool to see PAC-MAN in this “twisted” way and the story at least keeps the intrigue going. I won’t say much on this, it’s quite the maze after all.
I also learned that there was some sort of TV show that featured Shadow Labyrinth. Secret Level it was called, and we did actually review it. Did I personally watch it? No. TV and movies aren’t my cup of tea; I’ve not the attention span for it—I’d much rather minmax games to oblivion. Just throwing this out there in case you’d like another medium to watch PAC-MAN bleed his foes out dry. But I digress.
Shadow Labyrinth is a solid 2D Metroidvania and I enjoyed it quite a bit. Its edginess has a lot of spunk and charm, level design is solid, platforming is varied, and progression is paced well. If you dig the idea of PAC-MAN eating people as you explore a world purveyed in turmoil, this one’s worth checking out. ∎
Shadow Labyrinth
Played on
Xbox Series X
PROS
- An intriguing world of NAMCO turned violent.
- Solid level design and good progression pacing.
- Good bit of enemy variety and platforming challenging
CONS
- Clumsy platforming.
- Visually hideous.
- Not all bosses are engaging.
