Shadow Maze Review – You are Cavania

For my money, Pac-Man: Circle is an outstanding plot in the Amazon anthology series Secret Level. While the other 14 episodes feel like an extended ad for the game they are based on, Pac-Man: Circle accidentally spins Namco's iconic character, completely reimagining Pellet-the Pellet-Gobbling's yellow ball by introducing some painful violence and body horror. It's bold and imaginative, and proves, still an extended ad for the upcoming game.

Bandai Namco announced Shadow Magyrinth a few days after the release of Secret Level, and just like that episode, this 2d Metroidvania maintains a deeper classic character. Unfortunately, it puts the execution in a dull, opaque and ultimately memorable story while frustratingly further flawed by operations and shocking checkpoints, a disappointing reinvention of the 45-year-old character.

If you haven't seen Pac-Man: Circle in advance, don't be afraid. The 12-minute plot helps to establish the basic premise of a shadow maze, but it does not require viewing. Either way, you may feel lost as the story of the Shadow Maze quickly becomes a mesmerizing with the layers of self-regret of Tropes, Sci-Fi terms, Technobabble and Blo the boted.

This may be intentional, as you wear an amnesia swordsman's robe and summon it from another dimension to help Pac-Man escape a hostile planet. Except that it is not technically Pac-Man, it is a hockey (referring to his Japanese name). You are the tool of his will. He is the manipulative devil on your shoulders. It's an interesting setting, but the story never capitalized. Even though Puck obviously curated, everything will basically happen around you without any hitback or sense of agency. You're riding, it's a dull ride that doesn't match the ominous and disturbing tone achieved by Pac-Man:Circle.

Unfortunately, because in the past of Bandai Namco's Store, there are some callbacks that can land better in more compelling games. Shadow Maze is the first PAC-Man game to become part of the United Galaxy Space Force timeline – a shared universe that combines many of Bandai Namco's older games. So you'll find enemies like Bosconian NPC Village, Dig Dug, Galaga and Galaxian as well as multiple references to the Xevious series. They help enrich the world, but when they are frustrated with the same dialogue and plain plot points, it feels like a wasteful opportunity.

As a 2D Metroidvania, the shadow maze is linear in the first five hours or so. There are still paths for forklifts, resulting in upgrades, secrets and impassable areas, but they won't really open until later. At this point, you can give you multiple goals and freely explore any direction. Often this can be exciting, but there are many factors that can prevent the shadow maze from reaching the heights of many contemporaries.

First of all, the artistic design and repetition of the area itself. Apart from a slightly different palette, there is not much deviation between these areas from the locations of rich caves and industrial areas. This makes the exploration particularly rote except for a few areas where you try slightly skewed. From the cave system shrouded in the dark, to the activation of various glowing skulls, to the valley full of deadly flowers.

Another thing that stands out is the level design of the game. As the title suggests, the Shadow Maze is a proper maze, and over time, the map reveals its various intersections, leading to new areas and hidden secrets. However, the game doesn't provide you with any guidance. There are no waypoints and the clues you can buy are intentionally vague in position, so you need to figure out where to go. Obscure signposts and literally nowhere to guide this makes this more annoying than possible.

Progress is also very slow, with hours between unlocking different upgrades, such as the grapple hook and double jump. Not only does this stop you from entering new territory, but it also causes the game's platform to become very stale. I like the platform of the Shadow maze for most of the time. There are some interesting navigation puzzles and platform challenges, and the best navigation challenges remind me of Celeste. However, the gap between the upgrades did make some steam disappear.

Each area is also filled with a large number of sudden combat rooms that lock you inside until everything is dead, with the focus on the battle of the shadow maze. You start with a basic three-hit combination and stun attack, plus a Dodge roll and a stronger attack, each consuming stamina (called ESP). This is the standard fare for this type, and unlock the Parry and Air Dash later. The strong influence makes the battle fun enough on the basic level, but all the moves are caused by the lack of enemy breeds, inconsistent Hit boxes, the location of a terrible checkpoint, and the lack of meaningful progress.

No matter which area you are in, you will spend most of the game fighting the same enemies. Even if Shadow Magyrinth introduces new enemies, you will soon find that they are just Reskins of the same enemies you fight for the entire game. Most people can handle it in a few strikes, not a real challenge, not a real challenge. This is mainly because, although each enemy type usually has some kind of attack (whether it's melee or projectile), you get hurt whenever you touch the enemy. This outdated design can be frustrating when you've already handled multiple attacks from various angles, but it's especially shocking when some of the game's hitboxes extend beyond the 2D model. Although it was not within the enemy's scope, I threw away the number of damage I suffered after dodging.

You are also vulnerable, so you don't need to end up with much. Checkpoints that are too far apart from comparisons force you to replay the lengthy parts again, and the flaws of the battle are only exacerbated by its frequency. You can indeed use healing potions, but the game uses a two-layer method to check points. Miku Sol checkpoints allow you to teleport, upgrade characters, and replenish your health bar and healing items, but smaller, more regular checkpoints are just revival points when you perish. Without supplementing health potions, it can artificially exaggerate the difficulty and feel cheap, especially when the latter checkpoint is placed in front of the boss. If fighting with a boss who has no healing items is not enough to be at a disadvantage, you are also forced to spend more than 40 seconds running back to the boss arena every time you die. This is not a good time.

Most importantly, every boss fight is a fascinating thing. Often, there are usually few strategies involved in a strategy besides basic pattern recognition, so the challenge stems from cutting the time it takes for a boss’s health bar while avoiding harming yourself. You don't have many offensive options other than the basic three-hit combination and heavier attacks, but the latter needs to be used very little to avoid running out of ESP (if the gauge hit is zero), you can't dodge until it slowly replenishes. You can equip some privileges that offer bonuses, such as revealing the health sticks of enemies and reducing the ESP cost of dodging, but they won't change the battle in any significant way. You can also turn into a Pac-Man Dragon Mech for a short time, but that just involves more buttons. Recent games like the Persian Prince: The Lost Crown and Nine Sols have raised the bar for Metroidvania battles, so the stale One Note Design of Shadow Maze feels like a relic.

The most interesting design choices for the game come from the way you weave Pac-Man into the experience. Puck is a passenger for the most part, and even at the end of each boss’s battle, his body horror-style possessions are downgraded to cutscenes. Shockingly, the terrifying carnivore hockey isn't somehow integrated into the gameplay. Still, there are occasional moments where the yellow sphere can be controlled directly, as the specific surface allows you to transform into a puck and ride in the classic Pac-Man Fashion – the iconic “Waka Waka Waka Waka” sound effects are available every time you eat pellets. It's a novel way to explore, but even here, jumping is too annoying. You can only jump in three directions: straight, forward and diagonal. It's relatively easy to queue these jumps when you have time, but when you don't, its tedious nature will return to biting.

The worst moments of the game happen when you throw it into your enemy's gloves like a hockey. Not only can you not dodge, Parry even heal, but jumping straight ahead is the only option to avoid most attacks. The problem is that doing so brings you forward so that you often go straight into the enemies you want to avoid. Kindly, these parts are few, but I spent about an hour violently trying to get through one of them.

The maze section performs best, bringing you to a pocket size that throws you into a crazier version of the traditional Pac-Man level. New ideas like bait pacman and weapon platforms shake the formula, while its flashy colors and pumping soundtrack reminds people of the Pac-Man Championship Edition Ex-Aka-Aka is the best Pac-Man game. A strict five-minute timer can be a burden, though. It’s not always clear what you should do, and a thoughtful platform can stop you from doing anything quickly. Again, repeating these parts is not the worst thing in the world.

Despite everything I just said, I didn’t have a bad time in the shadow maze. There are so many frustrating moments, the story is incredible, and a lot of the things you are doing are monotonous. But, for a long time, it's just Beautiful. It's an occasional Pac-Man mix, which is a braided weave. Of course, a weird combo, I wish a better game around it, but at least we always have a secret plot.