Shadow Labyrinth - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition

Shadow Labyrinth offers a fresh look at a beloved franchise, throwing you into a dark new world where danger lurks around every corner. It's one of the best Metroidvanias I've played for some time, offering enjoyable combat, good boss fights, and a mysteious world with a story that begs you to unfold it.

Shadow Labyrinth is a title that honors the legacy of Pac-Man and other Bandai Namco classics with a dark twist. With a balance between retro and modern, this metroidvania excels in offering challenging gameplay, but can be frustrating for less experienced players. While its art style is somewhat dull, it's a game that fans of the company's more classic arcade games will enjoy.

I admittedly thought Shadow Labyrinth was a dumb joke game when it was first announced. As Bandai Namco showed off the game though, it is clearly made by people who want to just make a fun game with the wild Pac-Man lore as a mechanical overlay. I had a blast exploring this dark corner of the Namco multiverse that is essentially Pac-Man’s mid-life crisis. Shadow Labyrinth is assuredly the most interesting Pac-Man evolution since the hero’s 20s. Sometimes the biggest series left turns wind up being a hell of a good time.

One of the best parts of running into a game like Shadow Labyrinth is there’s no telling what kind of audience it has. It’s weird, difficult, janky, ambitious, and did I say weird? Let’s go with bizarre. Absurd. Deranged, even. The announcement was met with confusion, and I think the end product will be met with even more confusion than anticipated. But there’s also some gas here, with an experience that almost never slows down, never lets you rest or breathe, but is always wrenching your brain and making you think. This is an utterly fascinating experience, and a wonderful exercise in a team taking something mundane and being relentlessly creative. Tons of people will probably hate it. But folks who gel with this particular brand of crazy have a potential new cult classic in their libraries.

It's clear that Bandai Namco aimed to deliver something bold and original with Shadow Labyrinth, but the execution fell short and was short on providing an entertaining experience. Yes, it's a game with many brilliant moments, but the deficiencies are such that you can't help but wonder if this title could have improved with better elements in its production.

Shadow Labyrinth moves Pac-Man from his traditional mazes to the caverns of a dying planet, and will likely lose classic arcade fans along the way. But although it makes some gameplay and design mistakes that should have been avoidable, it’s weird enough to provide some fun for fans of 2D platformers.

Shadow Labyrinth itself is a few updates away from being amazing. I already love the core of what is available right now, but it has a few too many annoyances holding it back. Shadow Labyrinth Nintendo Switch 2 Edition is a great handheld experience, but the docked performance issues are disappointing right now. Hopefully, we do see the game itself see some balance adjustments while this version of the game gets some optimization for 4K play when docked.

While I appreciate its basic and gimmick-free gameplay, it feels a little too sparse. A little more depth to the game would have been nice. But if you want a cosy metroidvania that cleverly ties into gaming history thanks to Pac-Man and is no longer than you can manage on your holiday, it's definitely worth checking out.

If you're intrigued by Shadow Labyrinth's fresh approach to Pac-Man, I recommend giving it a shot on Switch 2. It provides an intriguing narrative in a foreboding world with varied environments throughout, and PUCK proves to be a compelling character. The short bursts of Pac-Man-style gameplay help mix up the experience, and this is very welcome since the game never really delivers a 'wow' moment. Much of it has been done better elsewhere, but this is nevertheless a promising new direction for an ageing franchise; one I hope to see continue in the future.

Shadow Labyrinth has some ideas that really connect, but the game they’ve been placed within rarely feels more than serviceable. Once you gain some power-ups and can take advantage of the full suite of abilities you have, it’s fine, but seldom interesting, and, considering how unique its premise is, that’s a problem. There are much worse games in the genre, but there are so many better options available that I expect Shadow Labyrinth will be mostly remembered more for just how weird it is, rather than the journey it offers.

Shadow Labyrinth has a really great premise, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. The progression is too slow to keep things fresh and interesting, the story is lacklustre, and the gameplay just doesn't meet the expectations you would have for what is supposed to be a big new turning point for Pac-Man.

Pac-Man really wanted to go dark and chose a genre in which the bar had been set very high over the last decade. In the end, Shadow Labyrinth is a generally solid experience, but of little relevance to Metroidvanias overall.

All in all, Shadow Labyrinth makes for a pretty bog-standard metroidvania. This clever twist on the Pac-Man maze makes room for some cool ideas, but so much of the best stuff about Shadow Labyrinth gets diluted by straightforward metroidvania design so that it doesn't differentiate itself from the rest of the pack (sorry). Supplemented by awesome translations of classic Namco games, there's still a lot of cool stuff here and there. But frustrating mechanical and meta game choices make it hard to really connect with this world.

Nostalgia for a character like Pac-Man can only do so much, and I fear the uneven nature of Shadow Labyrinth could prove too off-putting. The story isn’t handled well and can plod along, many gameplay elements aren’t precise enough, progression isn’t well-balanced, and the 2D skeletal animation with its paper doll puppets don’t feel like the right choice. There are too many other titles that do what it does better in every way. If you love Bandai Namco classic series, that are some fun references, but you need to put up with a lot to see them.

Shadow Labyrinth isn’t an awful game. It is fairly competent on a technical level and provides a lot of weapons and abilities to unlock. Unfortunately, it is lengthy and the way it is paced means the majority of it ends up dull and repetitive. The strength of its story and the occasional high points in gameplay prevent it from being terrible, but in a genre as oversaturated as search-action, this is just not good enough.

Shadow Labyrinth is such an odd concept that I optimistically assumed it came from a specific, focused creative pitch, but it's one of the least focused games I've ever experienced. The story, art design, and structure are messy and underbaked. It's middling at best and maddening at worst. It doesn't have enough Pac-Man for fans of that franchise, and its Metroidvania elements are too weak to appeal to fans of the genre, so why did they make a Pac-Man Metroidvania? After spending 40 hours with the game, I still don't know, and that makes it difficult to recommend.

I wish I had enjoyed Shadow Labyrinth more, but unfortunately that wasn’t the case. The game has a very slow pace, is “punishing” for the wrong reasons, and ends up being more irritating than actually challenging. Whenever I defeated a tough boss, what I felt was relief that I didn’t have to do it again — not happiness.