Shadow Labyrinth, the edgy Pac-Man Metroidvania, arrives on July 18

Shadow Labyrinth, an utterly bonkers riff on Pac-Man and sidescrolling Metroidvania games, will hit digital store shelves on July 18. It’ll be available for Nintendo Switch, PC via Steam, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

The game casts players as Swordsman No. 8 as he befriends a yellow orb called Puck. For the gaming historians out there, Puck-Man was the original name for Pac-Man. The gameplay involves switching from the classic sword-wielding hero to Puck, with the latter able to crawl on walls and (surprise) gobble up yellow dots. There’s also a third form, a mecha construct called Gaia.

The gameplay looks frenetic and fairly violent, which seems like an odd choice for everyone’s favorite perpetually hungry orb. Bandai Namco is making the game, however, and it made the very first Pac-Man all of those decades ago. I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt here. In any event, it’s not as if developers haven’t experimented with Pac-Man in the past. The famished fiend has been featured in racing games, platformers, endless runners, puzzlers and more. What’s one more genre to add to the mix?

Shadow Labyrinth will be available in the original version and as a Digital Deluxe edition. That one comes with a digital artbook and the soundtrack.

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