Remember Bomberman: Act Zero? The ultra gritty and grimdark take on the cutesy Hudson Soft mascot character that came out in 2006 on the Xbox Live Arcade Marketplace? It was a bizarre, tone-deaf game that seemed designed to appeal to the West, barely resembling what people liked about Bomberman. Almost two decades later, Pac-Man is being reimagined as a serious, dark sci-fi Metroidvania… A far cry from the cute, ravenous yellow orb hounding colored ghosts.
Everyone thought it was a joke when the Amazon Prime show Secret Level featured a dark and serious take on Pac-Man. It depicted the character as a cunning droid that guides a scrawny naked guy with a sword to fight and eat, culminating with a metaphor for dying and restarting a credit of the old arcade game. Little did everyone know at the time that it was an early look at the direction Pac-Man was heading.
When Shadow Labyrinth was finally revealed, things started to make sense, but even more surprising was that there had been an elaborate Namco arcade universe tying everything together. How does this strange reinvention tie in to the United Galaxy Space Force universe?
It turns out that Pac-Man and Metroidvania go together like chocolate and peanut butter. The ominous undertones are established immediately as Swordsman No. 8, a silent amnesiac warrior, is roused from stasis by a floating yellow orb named Puck, a cunning and maybe duplicitous reimagining of the yellow mascot. It’s apparent early on that Puck may not entirely be on the level. He’s a scheming, otherworldly entity with motives as murky as a swamp. Swordsman No. 8 wakes in a labyrinthine prison, a sprawling, interconnected maze crawling with grotesque monsters and relics of a long-dead intergalactic conflict.
The United Galaxy Space Force (UGSF) timeline, Bandai Namco’s obscure shared universe, anchors this tale, tying it to classics like Galaga and Bosconian. The narrative unfolds as No. 8 and Puck make their way through this alien hellscape, battling mutated beasts, ravenous natives, and others fused with off-world horrors. The labyrinth itself is a character: a maze of lava-filled caverns, high-tech ruins, and eerie valleys blooming with deadly flowers.
No. 8 wields a sword, hacking and slashing, while Puck devours the fallen enemies’ essence to fuel upgrades. Together, they fuse into GAIA, a towering mecha form for crushing bigger foes, or slip into arcade-style mazes that echo the classic Pac-Man gameplay, complete with ghosts and a five-minute timer to keep things frantic. The plot is cryptic and almost oppressive in its vagueness. Puck’s true purpose is shrouded, but hints suggest he’s using No. 8 to climb the Black Tower, a looming structure tied to the planet’s dark secrets.
The connections to the Secret Level episode are surprisingly tenuous and don’t align with the show as much as one would expect. It’s less about clear answers and more about dread-soaked atmosphere: cycles of survival, betrayal, and transformation. Shadow Labyrinth further distances itself from the Amazon Prime show with its intro, which reveals an isekai protagonist, yanked from some other reality into this nightmare, lost and outmatched, yet driven to become an apex predator. The worldbuilding references Namco’s arcade legacy with connections to Bosconian villages, Dig Dug mazes, and Xevious, but it’s the sense of being a pawn in Puck’s galactic diabolical chess game that lingers.
In the pantheon of Metroidvanias, they always come in two flavours: shooting or melee. Shadow Labyrinth opts for swordplay, which is evocative of Hollow Knight‘s combat, but with slightly weightier swings. No. 8 has a basic combo with palpable heft to his strikes and can attack downward in mid-air for pogo attacks. His dodge roll has generous i-frames when avoiding attacks, which is helpful since No. 8 can only take a few hits before he’s wiped out. Fighting is generally fast paced, with bosses having a fair amount of health, keeping the balance tight and challenging, but never so hard that it feels like hitting a wall.
Like in any Metroidvania, No. 8’s kit gradually expands, pushing players to revisit old places to reach upgrades or optional areas. Some moves lean in on the Pac-Man connections, like the rail grinding and air dashing, reverting the protagonists into a classic Pac-Man-like form. The rail-grinding is especially a tricky mechanic that pushes gamers to adapt to the original maze controls from the early Pac-Man games. Control becomes deliberately limited, and No. 8 is shrunken to a smaller size to make evasion easier. These rail sequences are great diversions and spice up the exploration. As fun as platforming and swordplay can be, it can get exhausting sometimes, so messing around with retro maze gameplay offers some variety.
Fans of Hollow Knight will adore Shadow Labyrinth, as it also incorporates a similar badge system for perks. There seems to be no end to the ways No. 8 can be customised to fit any preferred play style. Another key gameplay distinction is Puck’s need to devour defeated foes. When enemies die, their corpses remain visible for a few seconds before vanishing. Pressing in the right stick makes GAIA appear to eat the dead enemy, which gains materials for upgrades and boosts the GAIA meter for transformations. When fighting bosses, it works slightly differently because Puck takes over and becomes a nightmarish and demonic version of himself when he eats a fallen boss. Like Metroid Fusion, this is how major abilities are learned.
The level design and scope of the maps are vast and sprawling. It’s easy to get lost and forget where to go sometimes. The world is so large that map markers are a crucial item to pick up. Each area is themed and leans into the level design, making every area memorable. Landmarks stick out, and the visual style is distinct in every location. There aren’t noticeable repeating patterns. Everything looks handcrafted and grounds the setting in considerable believability.
