- Publisher: Bandai Namco Games
- Release Date: Jul 18, 2025
- Also On: PC, PlayStation 5, Switch, Xbox Series X
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
- Unscored
-
Jul 17, 2025Shadow Labyrinth is a dark and gritty Pac-Man spinoff that somehow manages to be one of the best Metroidvanias in recent memory.
-
Jul 29, 2025Shadow 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.
-
Jul 21, 2025Shadow 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.
-
Jul 17, 2025I 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.
-
Jul 17, 2025One 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.
| This publication does not provide a score for their reviews. | |
| This publication has not posted a final review score yet. | |
| These unscored reviews do not factor into the Metascore calculation. | |
-
Jul 17, 2025It’s best enjoyed as a rare act of reinterpretation, flawed as it is, in a medium that’s so tightly wound about brand guidelines nowadays. In that way, it’s truer to the series’ ’80s roots than any nostalgia-focused Pac-Man game in the past few decades, a gonzo game destined to be remembered as a piece of weird video game trivia. There’s no shame in that if it winds up being its ultimate legacy. It’s better to be memorable than boring, and Shadow Labyrinth certainly isn’t the latter.
-
Jul 17, 2025Shadow Labyrinth is one of the best Metroidvanias I’ve played in years. Bandai Namco avoided making this a cheap gimmick title and instead crafted a brilliant reinterpretation of Pac-Man that takes advantage of its genre switch. With tight combat controls and challenging puzzle sections, this is one of 2025’s best platformer titles. [Highly Recommended]
Awards & Rankings
There are no user reviews yet.