Shadow Labyrinth

Shadow Labyrinth is a 2025 action-adventure 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.

Shadow Labyrinth
The game's Steam key art
Developer	Bandai Namco Studios
Publisher	Bandai Namco Entertainment
Director	Tomoaki Fukui
Producer	Toru Takahashi
Writer	Go Tanaka
Composer	Katsuro Tajima
Series	Pac-Man
Engine	Unity
Platforms	Nintendo Switch Nintendo Switch 2 PlayStation 5 Windows Xbox Series X/S
Release	July 18, 2025
Genre	Action-adventure
Mode	Single-player

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.

Gameplay

Shadow Labyrinth is a 2D action-adventure game featuring many Metroidvania aspects.^[1][2][3] The player controls Swordsman No. 8, who can swing his sword or charge a variety of "ESP" abilities. Alongside traditional fighting, No. 8 can 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 to attack.^[4] They can also fuse into GAIA, a bigger mecha that can used to combat larger foes.^[4] Occasionally, they are transported into enclosed mazes where they have to eat many sleeping ghosts in a similar fashion to Pac-Man Championship Edition 2.^[5]

Plot

The game is set within Bandai Namco's UGSF (United Galaxy Space Force) timeline, which consists of many of their previous games, in the year 3333. Thirty-three years prior, the Operation Panzer is disrupted by the Red G-HOST, crashing the Panzer GAIA on the planet Xevious as a woman watches.

In the real world, someone is seen playing a game on their console; suddenly they vanish. Led by an oloid, they awaken in a prison in the form of a hooded-armless body. A robot shows up and introduces herself as "PUCK," noting that this is her 8th summoning attempt. She takes him to a sword, but he can't pick it up, so the oloid grants him a prosthetic arm and he equips the sword. After setting off, in the Barren Volcano, they are stopped by a mysterious woman and later the Orange G-HOST, which took over the Panzer GAIA. Defeating them, the two acquire the GAIA and continue on to the Giant Black Tower.

At the tower, PUCK attempts to reactivate the Sheyenne GAIA by using the Panzer GAIA, however UGSF's Central Command proposes beaming energy to self destruct Sheyenne instead which will destroy the entire planet. The woman shows up again, but her master, a supercomputer known as GAMP, warps the entire planet away, cutting them off from UGSF. The three are launched off the tower, with the Swordsman saving the woman while the oloid reappears to protect their fall. PUCK taunts the woman away, and reveals the plan was to destroy GAMP, the ruler of Xevious, using Sheyenne.

On the surface, the two meet a race of Bosconians, who have also captured the woman. They settle through a fight, where the woman reveals her name as Thebe, however PUCK says that's also her name. PUCK realizes that Thebe was a lost part of her self that GAMP brainwashed. The Bosconians send the two to get materials to restart the Giant Black Tower, defeating the Pink, Blue, and Red G-HOSTs while running into the G-HOST Bug in the process. With the help of the Bosconian, Anpulane, they reach the top of the tower, however Thebe shows up and summons a Dark G-HOST that consumes herself and PUCK. The Swordman defeats it, freeing PUCK and Thebe, who renounces GAMP. Thebe agrees and allows herself to be consumed by PUCK to recover her true form, who activates Sheyenne and successfully breaches down to GAMP's base, Startend Guileness.

The four G-HOSTs return in the form of Bragzas, which the Swordsman and PUCK are able to defeat. With the help of the oloid, they warp into the giant supercomputer itself, where GAMP sends bosses in the form of its eyes, corrupting PUCK with Panzer, and the G-HOSTs. Finally, GAMP takes them to an astral field to face them directly as the Xevious Gamp Replica. They are able to weaken him, exposing his true Bragza form.

PUCK merges with No. 8 to split into the Swordsman, Thebe, and the Panzer GAIA core, however GAMP strikes down the Swordsman. The oloid finally reveals itself as Aegina, Thebe's sister, and holds off GAMP while Thebe tries to wake up the Swordsman. He does, launching his sword at GAMP, weakening him again. All together, they shout the code "We are Galaxians. Mission: Destroy all enemies" which activates Panzer, turning into a giant Pac-Man like object. It eats GAMP and finally self-destructs, taking GAMP out with it. Floating in orbit, Thebe decides to join Aegina in destroying all other replicas of GAMP, so she says goodbye and severs the Swordsman's link to the real world.

Development

Bandai Namco Studios began developing Shadow Labyrinth in 2020.^[2] 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.^[2] 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.^[2] The game's development team is joined by Katsuhiro Harada, the producer of the Tekken series. It is being developed using the Unity engine.^[1] 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 release

During 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,^[1][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.^[2] 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]

Reception

Reception

Aggregate score

Aggregator	Score
Metacritic	PS5: 68/100[11] XSXS: 76/100[12] PC: 63/100[13] NS: 73/100[14] NS2: 65/100[15]

Review scores

Publication	Score
4Players	PS5: 5.5/10[16]
Famitsu	32/40[17]
Game Informer	NS2: 5/10[18]
Gamekult	PC: 7/10[19]
GameSpot	PC: 5/10[20]
Hardcore Gamer	PC: 4.5/5[21]
HobbyConsolas	NS: 85/100[22]
IGN	PC: 5/10[23]
Nintendo Life	NS2: 7/10[24]
Nintendo World Report	NS2: 8/10[25]
PC Gamer (UK)	PC: 73/100[26]
Push Square	PS5: 6/10[27]
Shacknews	NS2: 8/10[28]
The Games Machine (Italy)	PS5: 7.5/10[29]

The PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, 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][15]} 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.^[17]