Review – Shadow Labyrinth – Gamerview

In its 45 years of existence, it has gone through several games, media and formats. His appearance in the Secret Level series brought a small demonstration of how the character can gain completely different rereading. And it is with Shadow Labyrinth, who has caught the eye since the announcement, that this dark new Pac-Man is finally consolidated.

Shadow Labyrinth is an action and adventure metroidvania, and that’s why it already creates huge expectation about what to expect from this rereading. After all, this is the first time we see the mascot venture into this genre, and even in such a deep and complex world. Curiosity is inevitable: How far does this dark maze go?

Why Puck-Man?

To celebrate the character’s 45th anniversary, Bandai wanted to bring something ever seen to the series (and got it), maintaining many of the characteristics we have known over the years, that is, the various paths as in the classics: which in a single window already had a maze. In Shadow Labyrinth we see this with a renewed look and from a new perspective, it is almost as if we were seeing that arcade screen from another angle and also much closer.

To contextualize, Puck-Man was the name adopted in the original release of the game for arcades in Japan in 1980, but upon arriving in America was renamed Pac-Man, as the previous name was easily susceptible to joke. Here it was chosen to keep only Puck, this maintains the reference to the character but also differentiates from the PAC-man we know. You can understand the importance of this disassociation since by the trailers themselves, we see a dark character, an interpretation that I had never done myself.

Shadow Labyrinth takes you to an alien planet, where the mysterious Puck has been stuck for decades. Spherical unity was a soldier with the mission of ridding the planet of a powerful AI – determined to master the entire solar system and beyond. Although his mission failed, Puck did not give up and continues to try to complete it. For this he has invoked help in the form of swords, being the number 8 on this list. It remains to be seen if you handle the message.

Beyond Shadow Labyrinth

To broaden the mystery I recommend watching the sixth episode of the series, available on Amazon Prime, it will serve as a prequel to the events of the game and will surely leave you with the flea behind the ear over your journey alongside Puck. So far there are enough reasons to surrender to this plot and try to unravel all your mysteries, but believe me, there is a long time to come.

In this 2D exploration game you will need to go through each corner of the map. As a good metroidvania, wait for many blocked passages and items that are not interactive at first. It turns out that there are many skills to be improved, and it is through them that Shadow Labyrinth guarantees revisions and interconnections in the extensive map. Doing this is rewarding, not only for progress in the game, but for all the surprises you can find. In addition, there are also items of improvements that will be useful in battles to come.

The game features 3 characters in 1, most of the time you alternate between Swordsman No. 8 and Puck, but you will also have access to Gaia, a type of robot that gives you more powers and allows you to go through dangerous places. Each form has its skills and rules, and it is necessary to combine them throughout the gambling to get along with combat and exploration.

Swordsman No. 8, clearly, is able to use the blade, perform combos and attack skills for most clashes, can also use a Dash command that will serve for dodge and jumps between the platforms. Puck, in turn, assumes its shape when you trigger the map tracks. In his control, you feel like in the old days, you can jump between the rails and act exactly as in arcades, feeding on small objects. If there are enemies, it is possible to attack instantly with No. 8.

Already in the form of Gaia, you get stronger blows, which will help combat with more difficult enemies, but the duration is temporary. Another detail is that the robot can only be activated in spacious places due to its size and when time is over, it will be necessary to feed on the corpses to restore energy. That is, it is no use trying to eat living enemies, kill them and before they disappear, feed their robot.

Surprises every corner

They are different mechanics that must be combined with each other to have a more effective advance in these bifurcations. The combat will increasingly ask the domain of these combos along with the timing to the dodge. If you are silly you will be eliminated and return to the last checkpoint, then be aware of health and rescue totems. Due to the spacing between them, it is necessary to be cautious about this exploration, despite this, everything is balanced to the point of not leaving the experience so punitive during progression. The items collected, for example, keep even when you return from death.

There are different types of totems in Shadow Labyrinth, the simplest is just rescue and transportation point, but there are Miku Sol, where it is possible to buy and equip improvements, there are several ranging from health or energy points, to new skills that are different for each of the 3 controllable forms. There are other monuments that are triggered as you get more experiences, revealing more paths, challenges, and unintentionally spoilers: some will give long -standing fans with classic mazes.

Advantages, improvements, skills are features that create a complex layer of customizations and make the game more and deeper, showing how much there is to discover and improve. And not there: there are items collectible to hills like memories, conversations and materials taken from defeated enemies. You will know what hides the most in the mazes on this planet.

Perhaps these answers are in the various NPCs you will find, some may be traders, others reveal a little more of this place and this story. There are several meetings waiting for you. Even a feature that can cause a certain strangeness to the look of NPCs and enemies, they are so distinct that they make up a curiously varied aesthetics.

At first we see gospels, spiders, but suddenly bears, humans. – It’s silly, I know, after all in the same place has a haunting sphere that eats everything around. But honestly, if you look for a totally new aesthetic, you can find some less coherent visuals, nothing that hinders the overall experience.

It’s just the tip of the iceberg

Shadow Labyrinth is a very stuffed game, brings a story full of mysteries, paths and items to find out in a gambling that is extremely fluid, free of trouble, with Portuguese texts, a wonderful art direction and soundtrack that lives up to the dark environment. It is undoubtedly a beautiful way to celebrate the birthday and honor our dear eats.

Want more? Have you heard of? If you don’t know what it is, here is another amazing detail: the game is part of the interconnected universe that connects many of Bandai Namco’s science fiction games. United Galaxy Space Force began in 1990 during the development of Galaxian 3 and continues to expand to this day! In all there are 33 games connected in some way, Puck is part of this and invites us to understand how all these pieces fit.

There is no doubt that this reimagination resulted in an excellent game. Shadow Labyrinth is a gift for all fans, a fun new way to play Pac-Man. It brought the unthinkable to reality: an arcade integrated into the action game that works extremely well, showing that there are no limits when one has creativity to reinvent an icon even after 45 years. It is an experience that is worth knowing completely.