GAME CLEAR No. 262 -- Shadow Labyrinth

Shadow Labyrinth (2025, Multiplatform)

Developer: Bandai Namco Studios
Publisher: Bandai Namco Entertainment
Clear Version: PS5
Clear Platform: PS5
Clear Date: 10/23/25

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Why should I care?
Namco’s crazy, self-reverent search action platformer isn’t always great, but it delivers plenty of intrigue if you’re a sicko for the company’s arcade history.

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I am not a number! I am a free man!

It may not be the best, but I think Shadow Labyrinth has a pretty compelling case for most interesting game of 2025. It is a search action title that is ostensibly part of the Pac-Man series (and ostensibly released to celebrate its 45th anniversary) but that has at least as much to do with titles like Galaga, Bosconian, and Xevious as the famous dot eater. It’s a game that hearkens back to the Bomberman: Act Zero grimdark sequel years of the aughts, telling a story about a last-chance, grassroots resistance against an alien menace. It’s not a game I think would appeal to everyone, but it’s an exploration of Namco’s past that I hope doesn’t die on the vine.

Shadow Labyrinth opens on an unspecified planet with a little Pac-Man-shaped, floating robot anxiously trying to summon a soul. It finally succeeds on this, its eight attempt, and the player character is born. The little guy you control is an anonymous, hooded figure with a mechanical arm named simply “Number 8” for obvious reasons. In short order you’ll get him a sword. The robot, named PUCK, explains to Number 8 that it has a mission it can only complete with a full-bodied ally, hence the summoning. It thanks Number 8 for its cooperation, and off they go.

The opening several hours are pretty standard genre fare. You’re in a big, 2D, multidirectional platforming world. You don’t have many abilities and see how having more could probably open some more paths for you. After the first boss fight, you unlock the Panzer GAIA mech suit, which is the first such major enhancement. It’s basically also a Pac-Man with big, goofy arms and legs and the ability to eat enemies. This is how you get the precious materials you need to craft trade for upgrades. At this point, you have your fundamental kit. Although it is a far cry from the original 1980 Pac-Man, the game is still about navigating a maze and eating bad guys. Credit where it’s due.

As you toddle along with PUCK, it becomes clear that PUCK is operated by the consciousness of someone with a score to settle that has been on this planet a long time. Specifically, an officer of the United Galaxy Space Force (UGSF). This is where the game gets a lot of its intrigue. In addition to being a spacefaring military organization, the UGSF is also used as a shorthand for the universe in which a dizzying array of Namco games take place. You can see the full list at this website Namco has quietly but diligently maintained for years. It includes everything from Galaga to the lovely Starblade I played at a Shinjuku arcade earlier this year. It even describes how more surprising things like Dig Dug, several canceled games, and even a fucking blog series about Mizuiro Blood all fit in. It’s a lot of dedication to something probably not a lot of people care about. I appreciate that it’s clearly someone’s pet project at Bandai Namco.

Shadow Labyrinth seems like company’s most sincere in-game effort yet to really tie these franchises together in some sort of cohesive way. As you and PUCK, a Galaxian, traverse the world, you encounter Bosconians and Galagans as you form a tenuous alliance to defeat a greater threat from yet another classic Namco franchise. Logs scattered about the planet contain further lore explaining why all these folks are here for those that are really interested in a lore dive. I’m sure there are great explainers on blogs and YouTubes. It’s cool that there’s so much there, and although I hadn’t thought of it before, it’s surprising Namco had not previous capitalized on their vast science fiction catalog in this way. I enjoyed getting to know the alien species and societies behind Namco’s classics. I hope they don’t allow the underwhelming sales of Shadow Labyrinth to prevent them from exploring them further.

Speaking of exploring further, you’ll do a hell of a lot of that. Shadow Labyrinth is a long game. It took me just shy of 50 hours to finish. I’ll grant that I 100% completed the game rather than simply gunning for the final boss, but that’s still much longer than any search action game I’ve played. I understand Hollow Knight is in that range, but I’ve not gotten to that one yet. Bandai Namco seemingly saw it as a challenge.

For a game of that size, they also keep things nicely open ended. Although the first several hours are somewhat linear, once you meet the Bosconians, the large middle chunk of the game becomes quite open. They give you a quest to go find two very important items and that’s more or less all the direction you’re given. Go get ’em!

I found this lack of direction invigorating. I began exploring for the sake of exploring and going where the winding paths took me. If I couldn’t access a certain path because I lacked an ability, I just marked it on my map, knowing my travels would get me the ability sooner or later. Each area of the game presents a nice new biome to explore and new enemies and environmental challenges to contend with. Most exciting of all are the bosses, which are varied, interesting, and tough. Although both Number 8 and PUCK learn some special moves over the course of the game that help in a pinch, the majority of the damage they deal comes in the form of Number 8’s regular ol’ slash attack. You have to be sharp with your attacks and dodges and patient as the bosses perform their attacks. They are challenging, and they are the most thrilling parts of the game.

A close second is some of the game’s platforming sections. It does not shy away from throwing some gauntlets at the player, with one grappling hook section being particularly notable. For me, they deftly stayed right on the line between motivatingly challenging and demoralizingly difficult, but that line will be different for everybody.

Part of what takes the edge off of any difficult challenge is convenient checkpointing which Shadow Labyrinth frankly often drops the ball on. Save spots are pretty few and far between, and the ones that allow you to change your loadout or warp to a store to buy new upgrades are even sparser. This was not a dealbreaker for me, but based on some of the criticism I’ve read of this game from journalists and players alike, this was a serious point of contention for some. The good news is Bandai Namco very recently announced a forthcoming update that will address checkpointing (among other things), so there may be help on the way. Even though I wasn’t super bothered by this shortcoming, I think I would have definitely appreciated more abundant warp points when I was cleaning up collectibles in the late game. There were a number of long walks I wouldn’t have minded not having to make.

I sincerely hope some QoL updates give this game some bounceback sales. There’s some really interesting stuff here that deserves to be seen by more players. I would love to see what Bandai Namco does with the UGSF next, and there is clearly internal motivation to do so. Ultimately, though, businesses respond to sales, which may doom that prospect if this game doesn’t do better.

Back on the topic of difficulty, nothing in the game is as hard as its most Pac-Man-esque aspects: the MAZEs. In each area of the game, there is a MAZE, which warps the player to a pocket dimension (or something) to play a game resembling Pac-Man Championship Edition 2. If you just want to finish the game, these aren’t so bad, even if the controls can take a bit of getting used to. If you want to get all items in the game, you must fill a meter at the end of each MAZE that demands nearly perfect play therein. It is brutally demanding. Coming up just short after several minutes of locked in play can be pretty demoralizing. I enjoyed the challenge, but it’s crazy, and I imagine many would not feel the same.

These sideshows also feel rather accessory to the plot and the proceedings in general. They and PUCK allowed Namco to market this as a Pac-Man game when it is in fact a vehicle for something far more interesting in the UGSF. It feels sort of silly, but it’s also quite possible I’d never have picked this game up without its weird Pac-Man hook. So credit to Bandai Namco for that, I suppose.

Anyway, this is a pretty rambling post, and I’m not locked in here because I’m watching the World Series (Go Blue Jays!). I’d love for more people to play this game and discover its intrigue. Hopefully some forthcoming tweaks make it more accessible and more enjoyable to more people. I know I’ll be bringing it up as one of the most interesting games in a long time for a long time.