Shadow Labyrinth – Review

Wow, just WOW. Bandai Namco KNOCKED this one out of the park! This is a rare peek into the combined old and new, from the old NAMCOT/NAMCO and Bandai Namco, which I’ll explain further later on. Released July 19, 2025, for the Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch/Switch 2, with Steam hosting the PC release. An entry to Bandai Namco’s UGSF Timeline, which includes games like Galaga, Galaxian, and even lesser-known ones like Dig Dug and Mr. Driller, to name a few.

We’re starting off with the story. You’re a shambling humanoid being summoned by PUCK, a Pac-Man-like robotic being who refers to you as Number 8, and is leading you through a volatile path that puts you at odds against the denizens of the planet where PUCK is seemingly sent to after the intro area, where you use a large mecha to fight. Making your way through the prison and out of it, to the forests and the volcanoes, uncovering the greater picture of the war you’re thrust into. Who is the mysterious girl whose face is obscured from you? What is everything headed to? What is PUCK?

All those questions will be answered as you progress through the story. No spoiling because there are fun surprises and twists to enjoy, nay, SAVOR with each revelation landing onto your vision and carving themselves into your mind for a surprising ending.

The gameplay feels like a mashup of a Metroidvania carrying undertones of Splatterhouse considering the dark undertones of the story and the skill obtaining cutscenes where PUCK takes over your body and eats the body of the broken enemy before you matched with a darkened and, shall I dare say, dreadful flavor on Pac-Man which is a direct inversion of how we used to perceive him in his mazes and other games.

Combat, be it from the weaker to the larger enemies, is always tense considering their damage keeps up with however strong you get, always keeping you on the ropes, not to mention the Boss battles which are designed to put your mastery of every powerup you’ve gained so far to the test, so always make it a point to backtrack and get lost exploring the areas and try every gained powerup so you can complete the map and get all powerups. You’ll need every single HP and DP up that you can get your hands on to face the enemy’s scaling, even overwhelming high-powered attacks which would shave off more than 4 life bars, or in a few instances decimate your entire life stock and leave you with only 2-3 bars left, prompting an emergency heal if you can’t find a way to dodge it.

The map is MASSIVE and with various hidden areas, there are a lot of areas to explore and hidden powerups or collectibles to obtain, which is sure to give you lots of much-needed legs up to last the exploration, no matter how many times you hit spikes or land in a pitfall or fall into lava or toxic water and such.

The music is, at the very least, filled with the feel of Splatterhouse 2 in the sense that it makes you uneasy wherever you may be, with a boss battle soundtrack underlining how dangerous the battle is, be it an area boss or an ambush, or a story-related boss. It’s enough to make you shiver quite a bit, either with fear or excitement if not a mixture of both. It goes down well like a solid gulp of iced tea after a while in the hot sun, that kind of blend that frames every scene and the tense moments of every encounter well.

Now, let me mention the other titles being referenced, or subtle references to other old titles are aplenty in Shadow Labyrinth. It’s set in the UGSF Timeline, so there’s Galaga and Galaxian references aplenty here and there, with other characters you interact with being part of the Galaga Forces or even enemies originally appearing in Dig Dug requiring you to pump them full to burst them open being the only way to kill them, and even some characters being explicitly stated as being Galaxians as a full faction in-universe, and even GAMP which is the final boss originally appearing in Super Xevious: Mystery of GAMP in the classic Japanese Nintendo Entertainment System, the Famicom.

Others, like one boss you encounter at a later point being a massive berserker with a mask and gross fleshy mutation referencing Mutant Rick from Splatterhouse Part 3 on the SEGA Genesis, and you even get the boss’ mask after defeating said boss, you’d find yourself staring at the mask for a long time, wondering if maybe, just maybe, there’s hope for a return for the Terror Mask.

To sum everything up, Shadow Labyrinth is an amazing entry for the UGSF timeline, putting you in the middle of a battle against GAMP in a roaring rampage of revenge, making piles of corpses along the way, both from the various enemies you face to your own, and a wonderfully flavored Metroidvania to experience. The various old NAMCO game references add a nice touch and flavor to it, which I personally love. In the immortal words of “Joe Bob” Briggs, “Four stars, check it out!”

This review is based on a PC review code provided by the developer/publisher