On December 12 2024 at The Game Awards Bandai Namco announced their unique, dark action-based sci-fi game Shadow Labyrinth. The game draws inspiration from one of the company’s most iconic characters PAC-MAN. The reveal of Shadow Labyrinth comes off the heels of Prime Video’s Secret Level, an adult-themed anthology series featuring a 2D platformer where players must ‘consume’ to survive and where this new iteration of PAC-MAN was first kicked off. Shadow Labyrinth is planned to launch on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch and PC.
Shadow Labyrinth takes place on an alien world ravaged by war and monsters. You will assume the role of Swordsman No. 8 partnered by PUCK whose aim is to escape the world by consuming everything and becoming the apex predator.
Shadow Labyrinth’s developers draw inspiration from the source material and wider catalogue of Bandai Namco’s Games; Players will traverse a maze-like world, fight enemies, solve puzzles. You’ll gain abilities and skill upgrades through exploration and defeating bosses.
In an interview at GameRant, Producer Seigo Aizawa had this to say about the choice to create Shadow Labyrinth within the action platformer genre “We understand there is a high demand for 2-D action platformers. We wanted to challenge ourselves by creating a really high-quality game that could be great competition within these kinds of titles. Again, we wanted to explore PAC-MAN‘s key element, which is the maze. When we thought about the maze, a 2-D action platformer with a Metroidvania vibe was the perfect fit to explore our challenge of introducing the “dark Pac-Man.”
The development team has admitted that the game will not appeal to everyone though have acknowledged the game shares similarities to titles like Hollow Knight and Ori and Blind Forest. The game will be released sometime in 2025, marking the forty-fifth anniversary of PAC-MAN.