In the cross-section of video game characters with legendary status and those that are very easy to draw, PAC-MAN is the one that springs to mind as occupying the overlap of both of those circles. For forty years, his quest has involved the tireless consumption of dots, fruit, and, when the right mood strikes, ghosts.
His insatiable hunger was the singular premise of a Secret Level short from last season. ‘PAC-MAN: Circle’ frames the central idea of PAC-MAN through a darker, horror lens, and it serves as a prelude to Shadow Labyrinth, an upcoming and wonderfully creative spin on the video game icon’s whole deal—power through devouring the weak, and breaking free from a prison-like maze.
Shadow Labyrinth reworks the original game’s essence, adapting its instantly recognisable maze layout to the only genre that’d do it justice. No matter the course of action, PAC-MAN wasn’t a game where you’d win. No matter the grind, the result would always be the same; it’s a game where loss is inevitable. Metroidvanias aren’t known as fruitless endeavours in quite the same way; however, they do go hand-in-hand with the same kind of punishing, moreish misery.
Although the demo we played didn’t exactly serve to onboard us into the game’s mysterious story or world, the general idea is that you, as Swordsman No. 8, awaken on a strange planet after being summoned by PUCK, a rather familiar little orb. While I’m sure its motivations, sinister or not, will become clear throughout, however, I didn’t get any impression of story direction outside of a couple of lore drops that I won’t dive into for fear of spoiling the world’s splendours.
I got to experience three core locations within the game for this preview. The first two were plucked from about a third of the way through the full game, whereas the latter is from much deeper in the experience. Without an enormous amount of onboarding, I took a few attempts to find my feet. If you’ve played a challenging 2D platformer, you can expect several of the core tenets to carry over from genre contemporaries—things like swift, sharp, parry-focused combat, an intoxicating setting full of clever routes and surprises, and titanic, haunting boss battles all play a big role in establishing what Shadow Labyrinth is all about.
The first area is the Land of the Fugitives, home to the Bosconians, a group that has come to the planet in the interest of quelling the evil present, as it poses a threat to their own world. I feel like this gives the game’s world a lived-in feeling to a degree, as I feel most worlds in this genre feel quite isolated.
That said, the remainder of this stage beautifully demonstrates the three-legged stool that is Shadow Labyrinth’s gameplay promise. As you pursue and gather the scattered pieces of a key, you’ll be exposed to the game’s combat, its environmental challenges, and PUCK’s nostalgic brand of platforming. All ultimately come together to, when combined with the sense of place that accompanies most Metroidvania titles, create a well-rounded, tireless adventure with exploration as the central focus.
While on first blush the combat feels like a repetitious flurry of singular slashes, which perhaps speaks to its ease of entry, delving deeper into the systems, I realised there’s a swathe of tools at your disposal to survive within the planet’s punishing innards. It’s a combat system that encourages improvisation while demanding careful management of your ESP meter, which is exhausted by dodging, dashing, and extra strong ESP slashes that can break through some shields. You’re also able to shapeshift into GAIA, a huge mechanised form that can grant both temporary invulnerability and power. It’s knowing how to best juggle all of this, in tandem with the perks, to get the most out of the combat.
As is standard for the genre, a lot of these same abilities are useful for exploring and gaining access to parts of the map. Given the parts I played were only small, curated sections, I didn’t get a grander sense for how gated parts of the world are to Swordsman No.8’s abilities; however, I could see how certain abilities could help in discovering new avenues to explore. In my experience, a lot of opening of proverbial doors came from making it through the PUCK platforming areas, which would take you around the back of a blockade or boulder, which you could then destroy from that side.
So, in that sense, the progression would be rather unlike any other Metroidvania.
The aforementioned PUCK platforming sections, which see you attach to d-line tracks and chomp your way around in a most prototypical PAC-MAN way. As a big fan of getting swept up in nostalgia, I found these sections pretty endearing. Although it’s “on rails,” the need fast emerges to jump from track to track to avoid oncoming enemies it very much resembles a twitch-platformer in this way.
The only parts of the hands-on I had any trouble with at first were the big boss encounters. Not only are they all throwbacks to Namco IP, PAC-MAN or otherwise, but they’re also grotesque, misshapen, and yet recognisable versions of the characters in question. I’m glad the game doesn’t shy from challenging the player, and I do expect most will take a run or two at each of the encounters I struggled with—there’s a frenetic pace to the battles that makes it hard to grasp the patterns on the first go around. The two bosses I saw were takes on Pinky, one of the ghosts from the original game, and Terror Mask from Splatterhouse, a beat ‘em up game from Namco’s arcade stocks. Not having seen the Secret Level short, I didn’t quite expect Shadow Labyrinth to go as dark as it does.
The animation is a little weird and stiff, which gives the impression of a lower-budget title; however, the art direction itself can not be denied. It’s utterly phenomenal, and I’m so excited to see what other lesser-known classics can plumb from the archives.
Shadow Labyrinth is shaping up to be a weird as fuck PAC-MAN game, but it feels earned considering the little yellow bastard has been a cultural touchstone for literally longer than I’ve been alive. It’s hauntingly dark, and it’s got all of the brutal battles and exploration fans of the genre would be hoping for.
