Shadow Labyrinth

Shadow Labyrinth
Cover art for Shadow Labyrinth.
Developer	Bandai Namco Studios
Publisher	Bandai Namco Entertainment
Series	Pac-Man
Game system(s)	Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Microsoft Windows
Genres	Action, Platformer
Release date(s)	July 18, 2025
Number of players	1

Shadow Labyrinth is an upcoming 2D action platformer game, based on the concept of the original Pac-Man game. The game is developed by Bandai Namco Studios and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment, released in commendation of Pac-Man's 45th anniversary.

Compared to previous Pac-Man material, Shadow Labyrinth departs from the usual colorful, family-friendly tone of the series and features an original, dark and gritty take on the original Pac-Man arcade game's concept. Due to the nature of the game's theme and environment, it lacks the Pac-Man name in its title.

The game was teased on the Pac-Man social media accounts a day prior to The Game Awards 2024, and then formally announced at show. The game is scheduled for release on July 18, 2025.

Plot

A humanoid creature known as Swordsman No. 8 with no memories awakens from a stasis chamber in an underground complex. He is greeted by a floating yellow droid sphere, PUCK, who is "chosen" as the instrument of its will and guides the swordsman to a giant tower to uncover the mysteries surrounding the alien planet they are trapped in.

Gameplay

Gameplay of Shadow Labyrinth. The player guides Swordsman No. 8 through a vast labyrinth.

Shadow Labyrinth is a 2D "Metroidvania"-style action platformer where the player controls the unidentified Swordsman No. 8 through a mysterious labyrinth filled with monsters, guided by a droid orb known as PUCK, in order to escape a monster-infested "maze". Swordsman No. 8 must use his sword to defeat the numerous monsters residing within the labyrinth. Throughout the game, Swordsman No. 8 will gain new abilities and items to aid combat and traversal throughout the labyrinth, such as PUCK fusing with Swordsman No. 8 to create a large shadow blot that can devour giant enemy characters. The game does not have a set path on progression, allowing the player to explore the game world in any order.

A pre-order bonus DLC which will launch with the game will allow the player to toggle sound effects originating from the original Pac-Man.

Development

Shadow Labyrinth features a dark, eerie and graphic tone for the game's characters, a departure from the colorful and family-friendly atmosphere the Pac-Man series is known for.

Shadow Labyrinth began development in 2020, simultaneously with Pac-Man World Re-Pac and Pac-Man Museum+. Seigo Aizawa, who previously produced Pac-Man 99; produced Shadow Labyrinth alongside Katsuhiro Harada, who previously produced several games in the Tekken series. Bandai Namco had begun the project on the concept of creating a "dark" entry for the Pac-Man series, in order to expand the audience appeal for Pac-Man. According to Katushiro Harada, Toru Iwatani is "on-board" with the plan to take the Pac-Man IP in different directions, as “Iwatani-san seems to realize that that's something that's needed at this point". In order to create a basis for the project, the Bandai Namco Studios team brainstormed and boiled down the original game and series into three fundamentals: “the maze concept, the eat concept, and how the table can flip all of a sudden.” Using the basis of the three fundamentals, the project evolved into Shadow Labyrinth. Using the maze fundamental, the team eventually settled on making Shadow Labyrinth a 2D action platformer. The game is being designed as a complete experience, and no post-launch DLC is planned. The game is slated to be approximately 30 hours long, notably longer than any other Pac-Man game previously released. The game is being developed in the Unity engine.

While Shadow Labyrinth was in production, Amazon MGM Studios had proposed Secret Level to Bandai Namco Entertainment; in a request from Bandai Namco for Secret Level to create a story based on Pac-Man. Upon receiving the proposal, the development team proposed the then in-progress Shadow Labyrinth to the Secret Level producers to see if they were interested in using the game as an inspiration, which would result in the creation of the prequel story, "PAC-MAN: Circle".

According to Segio Aizawa, the producer of Shadow Labyrinth, there were internal debates at Namco as to if the "Pac-Man" name should be used in the game's title or not. It was ultimately decided not to use the name, both to market the game to a new audience (i.e. non-preexisting Pac-Man fans) and to separate it from the family-friendly nature of the Pac-Man series otherwise. Knoah Piasek of Bandai Namco Entertainment America also commented that the game would garner a notoriety of being "that crazy, dark Pac-Man game" regardless of its title. While Shadow Labyrinth was not initially conceived as an anniversary title, the branding of the 45th anniversary promotions being themed around "making an impact" ("Make ImPACt") made the development team believe it would be fitting around the themes of the 45th anniversary.

Trivia

• Shadow Labyrinth is:
  • the first (and currently only) Pac-Man video game to receive a T rating by the ESRB.
    • Though it is the first Pac-Man series video game to receive said rating, Pac-Man has previously been featured in several T-rated video games such as Street Fighter x Tekken, Namco Museum (2017), and Fortnite.
  • the first Pac-Man console video game to be developed in-house at Bandai Namco Studios (or any direct branch of Bandai Namco) since 2018, following the release of Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 Plus.
• Prior to announcement, the game was first trademarked in August 2023.
• Shadow Labyrinth is connected to the animated film "Pac-Man: Circle", an episode of the "Secret Level" anthology series. The Pac-Man episode is a direct adaption of Shadow Labyrinth, reportedly acting as a "prequel" to the game.
  • Marketing material before Shadow Labyrinth's announcement implied that the Pac-Man episode was a wholly-original adaptation based on the original Pac-Man arcade game. However, the Secret Level episode was actually based on Shadow Labyrinth (rather than the other way around); which had not been announced at the time, and had mentions of it sidestepped until the game's official announcement (which occurred two days after the episode's release).
• While Shadow Labyrinth prominently characters inspired by Pac-Man, the game also features enemies that are based on other Namco arcade games, such as Pooka from Dig Dug and the Galaxian Flagship from Galaxian.

Gallery

Main key art

Game cover art

Key art

Promotional art for Pac-Man's 45th anniversary

Logo

Swordsman No. 8

PUCK

External links

• North America website
• Japan website
• Official Twitter account (Japanese)
• Official Instagram account

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