That weird Pac-Man metroidvania just got a big update, adding a new mode that 'significantly lowers the difficulty of combat and exploration'

Shadow Labyrinth promo image - evil Pac-Man

(Image credit: Bandai Namco)

Part of me still believes Shadow Labyrinth is some sort of collective hallucination brought on by humanity's overconsumption of digital cherries, as the idea of a grimdark Metroidvania starring Pac-Man is just too ludicrous to comprehend. Nonetheless, the trailer, the Steam page, and our own Shadow Labyrinth Review all point to this being a real thing that happened.

Sadly, it seems Shadow Labyrinth landed with a bit of a thud (or perhaps that descending wailing noise Pac-Man makes when he dies). It only has a handful of Steam reviews, with many complaining about the experience being hindered by poor controls, sparse save points, and nasty difficulty spikes. But there is some good news. Bandai Namco has released an update aiming to address all these problems, while also adding a new mode that provides greater flexibility in play.

Said new mode is called "explorer mode", which is a fancy way of saying "easy mode" as Bandai Namco explains in a recent Steam post: "This mode significantly lowers the difficulty of combat and exploration, allowing you to better enjoy the story and world." This introduces some obvious adjustments, such as a more durable player character, increased damage output, faster energy recovery. But it also increases the number of save points within the world and tweaks the challenge of the more traditionally Pac-Man maze puzzles.

Shadow Labyrinth – Reveal Trailer - YouTube

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Meanwhile, Shadow Labyrinth's existing mode has been renamed to "Veteran Mode", with the game allowing you to switch between them at any point—always a welcome feature. As for those control changes, Bandai Namco has improved mid-air control after jumping and added a dedicated button for purely vertical jumps, with the developer commenting that this "reduces the chance of accidental inputs."

Bandai Namco says the update is "designed to enhance your enjoyment of the game", which you would hope goes without saying. Then again, it doesn't address the biggest problem Abbie Stone had with Shadow Labyrinth in her review, namely that the story isn't very good. "While the game isn’t completely humor-free, the self-seriousness of the majority of it is as baffling as it is boring." she wrote in her review, describing it as "An overly-talky technobabble festival, rife with cliches and dull stock characters."

This probably didn't help Shadow Labyrinth in a year where all the metroidvania oxygen has been sucked up by one game—Hollow Knight: Silksong. Which isn't to say there haven't been other good examples of the genre released this year: Possessor(s) and Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree were also fine side-scrolling adventures. But like Shadow Labyrinth, they seem to have struggled to gain much attention in the shadow of Team Cherry's insectoid behemoth.

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Rick has been fascinated by PC gaming since he was seven years old, when he used to sneak into his dad's home office for covert sessions of Doom. He grew up on a diet of similarly unsuitable games, with favourites including Quake, Thief, Half-Life and Deus Ex. Between 2013 and 2022, Rick was games editor of Custom PC magazine and associated website bit-tech.net. But he's always kept one foot in freelance games journalism, writing for publications like Edge, Eurogamer, the Guardian and, naturally, PC Gamer. While he'll play anything that can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse, he has a particular passion for first-person shooters and immersive sims.

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