Shadow Labyrinth reimagines the Pac-Man franchise in the darkest and weirdest way you could possibly expect, but it manages to be a hell of a good time nonetheless. Whether you’re someone who loves anything starring the little yellow pellet-muncher, or just want a challenging Metroidvania to sink your teeth into, this one should be right up your alley. You’ve got quite a journey ahead, but the first few hours can be a lot to take in, so here are four tips to help you acclimate to Shadow Labyrinth.
Take it slow and steady
Shadow Labyrinth is a surprisingly tough Metroidvania with a lot of traversal between checkpoints, so surviving the powerful foes and dangerous environments takes patience and precision. Take your time and consider your next move when approaching groups of enemies or hazardous obstacles. You can even move your camera around to survey the vicinity when needed.
And make sure you explore each area thoroughly, too, as there are tons of well-hidden secrets to find. You’ll sometimes even find that the environment is hiding secret pathways that are only revealed when you come in contact with it. Sneaky!
Always be chompin’
One of Shadow Labyrinth’s most unique mechanics is Devour. By pressing in on the right stick, you can pick up and eat enemies after you kill them. Doing so will fill up your GAIA meter (more on that below) and reward you with materials you can trade for useful perks (stylized as PERKs in the game). So, yeah, you’ll want to be doing this constantly.
Dead enemies will disappear if you don’t Devour them quickly, so make sure you’re consistently jamming that right stick to grab ‘em up and toss ‘em down your gullet. Luckily, you can pick up multiple dead enemies at once, making things slightly less tedious when dealing with groups.
Save GAIA for bosses to make quick work of them
As you eat enemies and fill up your GAIA meter, you can eventually transform into GAIA, allowing you to dish out huge damage while taking none yourself. You’ll occasionally need to use this to traverse through otherwise impassable environmental spots, but otherwise, I’d really recommend you save it for bosses. At least early in the game, transforming into GAIA trivializes foes that might otherwise take a while to kill. I mean, I obliterated this stupid bear boss in the picture below so quickly I didn’t really even see its moveset.
And as I mentioned above, Shadow Labyrinth often has quite a bit of ground to cover to reach checkpoints. So, if you don’t want to have to make the long trek back to a boss, it’s probably best to use everything at your disposal to get past it. That being said, if you feel GAIA makes things too easy, go at it the swordfighter way. It’s your game — play it however you want.
For the love of god, manually control PUCK
You’ll spend a lot of time riding D-Lines as PUCK in Shadow Labyrinth. These segments function like on-rails Pac-Man levels, and they often require a significant amount of twitchy movement to overcome. As such, you’ll want to be sure you’re being as precise as possible and really thinking through how to handle D-Line movement.
By default, PUCK will automatically move in whichever direction you’ve recently faced it. You can brake by using the right trigger on your controller, but due to the constant hazards in your way during D-Line rides, I’d really recommend switching to manual control. By pressing the left bumper on your controller, you can take full control over when and how PUCK moves. It’s so much better.
Now that you know to do, get PUCKin’ in Shadow Labyrinth now on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and Windows PCs.