PAX East 2025: Shadow Labyrinth Reinvents Pac-Man

When you’re thinking about giving Pac-Man a new twist, there’s a lot you could do—maybe even too much? Like, imagine Pac-Man 2, but with rocks being lobbed at him to make him move left or right. Sounds kinda off, right? I mean, not exactly how you’d wanna reinterpret the guy. But then, picture him in something like a Metroidvania game—let’s call it Shadow Labyrinth. Now that’s a bit more intriguing.

So, I got my hands on this preview of Shadow Labyrinth at PAX East 2025. Played it on a Switch in handheld mode because why not? While this other person—I think they were with some media outlet—was trying it on a PC with this massive screen. Sensory overload much? Anyway, there’s apparently an episode of Secret Level on Amazon that’s kind of a prequel to all this. No idea why I noticed this, but it stuck with me. The game runs at 30 FPS on the Switch, which kinda grinds my gears. But hey! On PC, it’s 60 FPS, smooth as butter. And they promised it’ll be 60 FPS on the Nintendo Switch 2. Thank goodness for that, right?

Platforming and combat make up the core of Shadow Labyrinth. You’re controlling this character, Swordsman No. 8 or something. Lots of jumping, double jumping, dashing—you get the picture. And then, hol’ up, you get to turn into a tiny Pac-Man! PUCK is what they called it. You’re gobbling pellets and dodging buzz saws, which sounds kind of ridiculous, but also fun? There was this intense platforming section I tried, but yeah, a good ol’ convention isn’t the place to master anything. I need my solitude for that kind of dedication.

Now, combat—oh man. Thankfully, there was a move list onscreen because, let’s face it, I’ve got the attention span of a squirrel sometimes. Attacking, dodging, healing, shooting—kind of a full buffet here. Oh, and Pac-Man as a giant? Devouring enemies? That was cool. Difficulty felt spot on—challenging but not hair-pullingly so. Was it me, or did the boss seem a lot like that first Metroid Dread villain? Maybe I was just daydreaming.

After I took down the boss, I gained this laser attack. Handy, because the next section had this wall that was begging to be blasted down. In this maze-like part of the game, there were these enemies you couldn’t just slice and dice with your sword. Imagine my face when my colleague figured out you had to use the grapple hook to inflate them until they popped. Seriously! And get this—there are more sneaky nods to Bandai Namco games throughout, like Dig Dug here. I chuckled, not gonna lie.

Release date? July 18, and it’s hitting multiple platforms—Switch, PS5, Xbox, Steam, you name it. Three versions are up for grabs: Standard, Deluxe, and Secret Editions. One even comes with a black light??? Less than a hundred bucks for all that nifty stuff seems unreal.

Honestly, I was pretty intrigued walking away from that demo. A gritty Metroidvania with Bandai Namco flavors doesn’t sound like it should work, but it totally does. And anything inspired by Hollow Knight? Yeah, count me in.