Review – Shadow Labyrinth Nintendo Switch 2 Edition

Note: This review is of the Nintendo Switch 2 upgrade of the base Nintendo Switch Shadow Labyrinth game. The upgrade is available for free upon purchase of the Nintendo Switch edition of the game. The Switch 2 upgrade enables the game to run at a smooth and consistent 60 fps with quick loading times and, aside from a few choppy moments after entering a new room, I experienced no technical issues. If you’re playing Shadow Labyrinth on Nintendo Switch, keep in mind that the game will run at 30 fps, not 60 fps and load times will be longer. 

 

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The week of July 18th, 2025 will be remembered for bringing not one, but two legendary arcade game mascots back into the limelight. That’s right, it’s not just Donkey Kong that’s receiving a new game after a long dry spell, but Pac-Man as well. And while Donkey Kong is getting top billing with the title of his game, Pac-Man is nowhere to be found in the title of Shadow Labyrinth. Don’t be fooled though; Shadow Labyrinth is a Pac-Man game through and through, and in ways you may not expect. 

With the 45th anniversary of Pac-Man, the mission statement has been to “Make an imPACt” and one of the ways Bandai Namco is seeking to do this is to take Pac-Man to a place he has never gone in the video game landscape before. Shadow Labyrinth is the result — a dark, twisted post-apocalyptic Metroidvania with brutal combat, dense exploration across a sprawling interconnected map and the ability to take the form of Pac-Man to traverse walls and ceilings. This Labyrinth is equal parts Metroid, Hollow Knight and Pac-Man Championship Edition. More on that later. But for now, let’s talk about why we’re here. 

 

 

If you’ve followed Pac-Man, you know that his games take place in mazes, labyrinths if you will. With this in mind, the dots between score attack arcade game and 2D Metroidvania connect pretty naturally. And this is taken to its logical extreme when your character, Swordsman Number 8 (All 7 previous swordsman before him failed to escape the labyrinth) fuses with his Android companion and tour guide, Puck, to take the form of Pac-Man to munch pellets, fight enemies and get through crawl spaces. These are locked to specific sections that require activation of a neon blue path, directly calling back to Pac-Man’s origins. Puck also enables, of all things, a short-breathed mech-suit form that doesn’t look too dissimilar from something out of Neon Genesis Evangelion. And did I mention that you can eat your enemies to restore the mech’s energy and gain new abilities? Pac-Man is all over this game, even if the character you’re controlling most of the time appears to be a generic Soulslike hooded swordsman, and controls like it too. 

All of this takes place in Namco’s shared timeline dubbed the UGSF (United Galaxy Space Force) that links all of the classic Namco arcade shooters like Galaga, Galaxian and Xevious to Namco staples like Dig Dug and Mr. Driller. Shadow Labyrinth is Pac-Man’s entry into this timeline. This timeline isn’t required reading as the game does its best to tell you the significance of what a Bosconian is and why you shot at aliens in Galaga. It does add another interesting feather to Shadow Labyrinth’s cap though and plenty of future YouTube video essay fodder. 

 

 

The gameplay loop in Shadow Labyrinth lends itself well to variety and this is not something I can typically say about your average everyday Metroidvania, of which there are many. Exploration mixed with combat is still the calling card here, but it gives way to the aforementioned morph ball-like Pac-Man traversal on ceilings and walls. There are many bosses to fight along the way, and your mech suit can take a good chunk of their health out if you play your cards right. Boss FIGHTS are only one portion of the equation. There are also boss mazes and this is where the Pac-Manisms come full circle. 

Built into Shadow Labyrinth is essentially Pac-Man Championship Edition 3. These mazes can be entered after achieving a specific amount of progress in the game and entering one for the first time is quite jarring. For one, the visual style completely changes from the gritty, 2D animation to the slick, neon-lit aesthetic of the Championship Edition games. If you’ve played the co-op mode on Championship Edition 2, you’ll feel right at home with the jumping, speed boosting and boss ghost-busting antics of these exclusive mazes. They’re numerous and quite fun, even providing a timer to beat in order to defeat the boss ghosts, or as Shadow Labyrinth refers to them, G-HOSTS.

I had worried that with such ambition, Shadow Labyrinth would stand in its own way. Unfortunately, there were such moments for me and they primarily have to do with the pacing. You see, while combat and exploration tend to be balanced, there are instances where you’re gated from progressing any further until you complete combat challenges. And these slowed the pacing down to a halt. I had hoped these would be optional, but no such luck. The three Galaga Trials in specific took me a good amount of attempts and became pretty frustrating with enemies filling the screen to a comical degree. Your reward for completing these challenges is that you get to move forward. This, to me, is likely why the developers are billing Shadow Labyrinth as a 2D action platformer rather than strictly a Metroidvania. But the game is at its best when embracing the fact that it is a unique take on Metroidvania conventions. I could have done without being forced to learn the game’s fighting mechanics intimately. 

 

 

Thankfully, the game does have an upgrade system paid for with gold obtained from defeated enemies and plentiful save points on the map, but after awhile these upgrades are gated by finding certain materials. I could only do so much to alleviate the pain of these challenges and powerful special moves that help out with this run on an energy meter that’s shared by the mech suit form. Wouldn’t you know it, the upgrades for it also become gated behind rare materials after a few level-ups too. Certain rooms also force you to fight without certain abilities and movesets. This is especially grating when the combat rooms require you to fight without the mech suit ability or in Pac-Man form, jumping from block to block as you rotate around them and attempt to combo on enemies with only a singular sword spin attack that can be comboed into air attacks and special moves. I did not find platforming or fighting as the classic arcade version of Pac-Man to be enjoyable in execution. 

There’s enough ideas in the 30 hours of Shadow Labyrinth that it’s a dizzying affair. I reckon turning 45 years old might also lead me into a midlife crisis where I take the form of an eldritch horror that devours the souls of my enemies by fusing with an unnamed just born warrior. It’s too early to say. But if Shadow Labyrinth is anything, It’s downright entertaining. If you found out Bandai Namco were making a dark Pac-Man game and hoped to see Pac-Man say “Damn,” I’m enthused to say that you won’t be let down. Thankfully, the end result on the other side of this memeable moment is a fully-realized, occasionally clever and fascinating take on a beloved character. Pac-Man has always been more of an icon than strictly a character and it’s with this mindset that Shadow Labyrinth pulled off such a dramatic interpretation of an arcade legend. Just go in expecting some gaps in the maze. 

 

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