Shadow Labyrinth
Shadow Labyrinth is a 2025 action-adventure video game developed by Bandai Namco Studios and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. It is part of the Pac-Man series, serving as a re-imagining of the franchise's core concepts. The player takes on the role of "The Swordsman" while traversing through a large "maze", fighting against enemies and upgrading their abilities as they progress; initial reactions upon the game's announcement widely considered it to be a Metroidvania game. The game was initially promoted by the release of the Secret Level episode "Circle", which serves as an official prequel to the game. Shadow Labyrinth was released on July 18, 2025, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC via Steam. GameplayShadow Labyrinth is a 2D action-adventure game[1] that is considered to be a Metroidvania.[2][1][3] The player controls a figure known as "Swordsman No. 8" while he is guided around a giant "maze" by an orb known as "Puck".[1] Throughout the game, the player will explore while fighting against monsters through a variety of methods,[4] acquiring new abilities and items throughout.[1][3] Alongside traditional fighting, No. 8 will be able to fuse with Puck and traverse around surfaces reminiscent of the original Pac-Man, while also being able to control their speed and jump off the surface.[4] They can also fuse into GAIA, a bigger mecha that can used to combat larger foes.[4] Various challenges will appear where No. 8 and Puck are warped into a arcade-styled maze, and they have to eat ghosts in a similar fashion to Pac-Man Championship Edition 2.[5] DevelopmentBandai Namco Studios began developing Shadow Labyrinth in 2020.[1] When conceptualizing the game, they made expanding the audience of the Pac-Man series, which is a predominantly family friendly franchise, their primary goal. They decided to do this by creating a more "dark" entry in the series.[1] They went back to the original concepts for the first Pac-Man game, and boiled it down to "the maze concept, the eat concept, and how the table can flip all of a sudden". Using that basis, the team began creating Shadow Labyrinth.[1] The game's development team is joined by Katsuhiro Harada, the producer of the Tekken series. It is being developed using the Unity engine.[2] Per the development team's vision behind expanding the appeal of Pac-Man to those who had never played a game in the series, they chose to leave any references to it out of the game's title.[6] The darker setting and art direction behind Shadow Labyrinth is based on what the development team described as the "Ice Age" concept.[6] In an interview with Rolling Stone, marketing manager Knoah Piasek said that this concept referred to the idea of the game's enemies and bosses being monsters that were native to the planet it takes place on, rather than basic enemy designs that the series was known for like ghosts. Furthermore, Piasek said that alongside the enemies that originated from the planet, some will have also fused with beings from other worlds, allowing the game's enemies to develop into something "bigger and scarier".[6] Marketing and releaseDuring the development of Shadow Labyrinth, an episode of the animated anthology television series Secret Level was created to serve as a prequel to the game and help promote it. The episode, titled "Circle", follows a "Swordsman" as he explores a wasteland while accompanied by "Puck", the latter of whom eventually fuses with the former to become a monstrous version of Pac-Man.[7] The swordsman in the episode is referred to officially as "Swordsman No. 7", while the player character in Shadow Labyrinth is referred to as "Swordsman No. 8".[7] During development of that episode, series creator Tim Miller was shown a sneak peek of the game and commented on its differences from a traditional Pac-Man game.[7] The game was formally revealed at The Game Awards 2024,[2][8] and its release date was revealed during a Nintendo Direct in March 2025.[9] It was released on July 18, 2025 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC via Steam.[8][9][10] The game is part of the 45th anniversary celebration of the original Pac-Man game.[1] The game's producer Seigo Aizawa commented that the theme of the 45th anniversary celebration was "making an impact", and stated that releasing a game like Shadow Labyrinth that was the "antithesis" to previous games in the series was their way to following that theme.[6] The game is also not planned to have any post-launch downloadable content, with Aizawa stating that the game will be "completed in one package".[6] ReceptionThe PlayStation 5, PC, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch 2 versions of Shadow Labyrinth all received "mixed or average" reviews from critics, according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.[11][12][13][14] In Japan, four critics from Famitsu gave the game a total score of 32 out of 40, with each critic awarding the game an 8 out of 10.[15] References
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