Shadow Maze Review – IGN
Blog Andrew Joseph 24 Jul , 2025 0
remember Secret Levelis that the Amazon main series of popular video game-inspired short films? Did you know that episode re-demonstrate Pac-Man as a kidnapped stranger to help it leave the prison planet? Well, Bandai Namco fleshed out the idea to a lengthy silver medal called Shadow Magyrinth – a rare street fighter: the rhythm of the movie genre – This bizarre reimagining of the industry's oldest Eater was a truly challenging experience. Not necessarily because it's difficult because it's not a cake walk, but a rock thrown away from the past with more twists and turns. No, my biggest struggle was to be interested in the secretive, slow and frankly boring stories of the shadow maze, while also fighting through some difficult spikes and cruel checkpoints.
In theory, I'm not entirely opposed to the idea of a tough restart of Pac-Man, but in practice, the execution here is not a good reason. This story makes you hang down in the rag of the sword swinging by the Read: pacman's sword, and it exists around it. Given that you're awake, it makes sense, without any memory or understanding of the wreckage of war, you're led by a curated yellow companion, but the Shadow Maze insists that you stand around and watch the broken, vague, vague, trope feet conversation between several active characters is tough.
The 10-minute secret-level plot is done more effectively in weaving interesting allegorical by using the story of “Survival Cycle” as the similarities in the periodic nature of Pac-Man's Eat-Die-Repeat gameplay. As a brief sequel, the Shadow Maze expands exponentially, but fills this new space with rote science fiction legends, with few convincing plot events scattered throughout the process. Even with a big turn in the hockey and swordsman journey, these twists and turns didn’t take much time to consider its amplitude or potential consequences. Just like I did after a few minutes, I always dive.
The Shadow maze looks pretty good. A moving paper doll animation is very useful in the game Salt and shelter It's solid here too. The details in many monsters have a surprising detail, especially the mechanical monster, all its fragments and all monsters. The animation will feel a bit harsh and floating like a puppet on the string, but will not affect the action in any meaningful way. These levels themselves make good use of the front end and background of the color, although I wouldn't call it the many stories of lava-filled caves or high-tech towers, which are unique. Disappointingly, similar backgrounds that use colors mixed with similar backgrounds are not underground caves or high-tech foundations. My favorite area is how it looks and how you have to browse its most interesting area, a valley full of sometimes deadly flowers, which is completely optional and can't be accessed until late.
Unfortunately, the actual task of traversing these expansion areas takes too long. The platform is never too out of control, with the greater challenges being downgraded to lateral paths, occasionally leading to more dangerous mini spellings and obstacles to test your timing and reflexes. I show up a lot and turn you into a round yellow crushed machine we all know. These tracks allow you to be around the corner and around the ceiling and across the ceiling Waka Waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka. At first it was fun to jump from line to line or fire pucks on enemies with a spinning sword attack, but on the one hand I could count on when I encountered the parts of the time, and these passages initially existed outside the fact that gimmick was, which was so clever. They are such an isolated experience that I wouldn't miss any of them if you remove all of these parts from the shadow maze.
While walking, obscure signposts and a large number of intersections often lead me to stumble upon key paths, which sometimes lead to good things like rewarding health, and other times I haven’t upgraded. Hanging around these corners is a danger of oppression, as death abandons me back to a checkpoint, almost always feeling my fall almost for miles. Thanks to the two-story checkpoints: the larger miku sol point, you can upgrade the warriors and teleport between, while between smaller towers, and with the strictest old school realization, this is the smaller tower. As resources diminish, the roads gradually fade away, seemingly endlessly multiplied by, or some mistakes here, or there might be so much progress there that I was trapped in these places like Parker. Maybe that's the point, they don't like it.
One thing I really like is the maze, small pocket size, unlocked midway through the journey, bringing you into the messy version of the Pac-Man Level. What you do is not just zoom in and eat, but also all kinds of incredible obstacles, such as moving walls that are essentially obstacles thrown at the enemy’s ghosts to make it edible. Gorgeous colors and arcade music provide a Champion version DX Energy is a welcome thing for most people’s dungeon drilling, and I undoubtedly did it before approaching their glowing tombstone and once it’s over, they’ll return.
Battles are full of your standard fare. You can dodge from the beginning and swing the sword in the basic combination. You can unlock power attacks that provide a lot of remotely damaged when used alone, or you can link the end of the basic combination to a satisfying finisher. There is also an air dash, a grapple hook, Parry and more waiting to be discovered and added to your track, each costing your ESP gauge. Running the meter brings you in Street Fighter 6– Style burnout conditions, which means there is nothing you can do except recharge again. It's a heavy and meaningful fine that requires you to really pay attention to how many crimes you are trying to uninstall at once.
Meanwhile, the allowance can change you in smaller ways, such as making your Dodge cost less, or showing the remaining health of the last enemy you hit. For me, the most effective are those who make your special abilities stronger or allow the puck to passively collect debris for you. But despite these usefulness, none of these privileges changed the battle in a major way, or made me just mash the attack until everything died feels less repetitive.
Puck sometimes joins the action and uses it in conjunction with the swordsman to become a mechanical dragon creature that tear and tears until its timed energy bars go on. It's fun to be big enough to ignore enemy damage and adverse terrain for a short time, but you're still largely just mashing the basic attack buttons until you can't do it again. To charge this mode, you have to swallow down enemies, which also gives you a variety of materials that can be spent at a specific supplier. I have little time to try to find specific enemies to the farm, so my list of available privileges is understandable and therefore slim. That said, nothing on the vendor's shelf makes me think the chances of beating Na's boss or a tough jump puzzle would be greater.
There are many different types of enemies that can use all of these crimes, but you spend a lot of time in the big area to transform bad guys from new challenges to nuisance. You can't simply see dead enemies rarely and far apart and rarely to make them really threaten your progress, occasionally standing on the platform, you still need to jump up to hit. Overall, bosses don’t need to do too many strategies outside of basic pattern recognition. A giant cock mini boss gave me a chance to use the air dash best after unlocking it, but until long after about 30 hours of movement, any big enemy forced my combat strategy to force an extra layer of technology. When the challenge finally improves, it is fully adjusted. The time between damage output explosion and attack is narrowing down, turning some late game into a frustrating shameful choice from the checkpoint closest to the boss.