Shadow Labyrinth. Wait… is that?

Shadow Labyrinth is a 2D action platformer game developed and published by ‘Bandai namco‘. Shadow Labyrinth is said to be coming out the 18th of July 2025 on the Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2 & 1, PC and PS5. X35 Earthwalker likes seeing recognisable things in games. Shadow Labyrinth is bringing a whole new take on a familiar face. Let’s take a look.

In Shadow Labyrinth, players control a dude referred to as Swordsman No.8. You have been awoken by this strange yellow orb that floats. Yeah that’s right. Shadow Labyrinth already playing with gamers right from the start. It’s Pac-man… sorry but Shadow Labyrinth says it’s called PUCK. We know pac-man when we see him but whatever. This game already bringing some pleasant laughs.

Shadow Labyrinth takes place on an unknown planet. The only clues are that you are awoken amongst “relics of wars past”. This Pac- we mean Puck has ‘chosen’ you to be the instrument of its will. That’s right. You are it’s bitc- we mean tool- no no we mean friend on this journey. Now games like this veteran and seasoned gamers know what to expect here. 2D action platformer. You’re going to travel to the right or left, face dangerous foes, upgrade and improve yourself. Back track to areas you couldn’t access or interact with before. Take down dangerous bosses and look cool doing it. 

What’s unique about Puck is that when you defeat mighty foes, especially, it literally consumes them. Give it time and lots of lunch and you’ll go from a simple prey or floating yellow ball to a full fledge monster/apex predator. That’s scary when you think about it. Imagine you in a fight, but if you lose said fight then you WILL be eaten by the victor. Knife and fork with 2 napkins.

Now obviously there’s lore for players to get into and learn about this place, Puck off course and yourself sort off. Clearly a major league, intergalactic war took place here. Long before you even arrived. Not only that. You have monsters and dangerous foes to meet and deal with.

There’s many abilities to use and combine in combos for some serious combat and fire power. Do not be naive though. Find out what Puck wants and why it choose you. Keep that in your mind. 

We checked out some Shadow Labyrinth gameplay and it’s what we expected. Like we said earlier we know games like this. The graphic style is handled well here and they make it work most of the time. Not a fan of some of these animations including the run one. We like the whole you evolve and become bigger and powerful with Puck. That’s the star mechanic here for sure. The action here is real though.

Overall Shadow Labyrinth looks like a good game so far. We definitely believe more can be done with this game. We know this game will get more crazy in the story, the transformations, the monstrosities and the action. The developers ‘Bandai namco’ have done a good job with this game so far. We at X35 Earthwalker will have to see what happens with Shadow Labyrinth. Now Shadow Labyrinth may have pac-man but even he isn’t as iconic as… the ‘Earth Walk!’