Shadow Labyrinth

There are some massive flaws in this game. The kind that you would commonly see in an Alpha Build, but never, ever, in a competent, or even mediocre, retail release. Sometimes contact with an enemy or boss damages you, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes contact with a projectile or attack from an enemy or boss damages you, sometimes it doesn't. When you actually take damage from a boss attack or contact, sometimes it does one damage, sometimes it does 3 damage. Then if you get hit the same way again, it may do the same damage, or it'll switch to the other number. The erratic nature of getting hit at all makes the parry and shield abilities completely useless. When you get access to an extender perk for the ACTIV, and test the before & after, you see what the new range should be. Then during actual use the extended reach is sometimes longer, which can mess up timing or aim when doing multiple grab-jumps. Also the ACTIV is supposed to let you grab enemies and pull yourself into slashing range of them, I've never had this actually work. It just hits them for a tiny amount of damage, if any, and sometimes a minuscule stun. After you buy damage increases for the sword, enemies that take multiple hits to defeat sometimes take the same amount of hits to defeat, and sometimes take less hits to defeat. This continues to happen after multiple sword upgrades. The hitbox for doing a downward slash attack varies from enemy to enemy of the same type. Sometimes it's right on top, that allows you to pogo off them appropriately, sometimes the hitbox is in the middle of the enemy, and it doesn't bounce you as high. The MAZEs are a cool idea, but suffer from being hard due to really poor design choices, bad controls, and odd time limit choices, not from actual difficulty. The overall story seems like it could have been really cool, but very much feels like the Pacman and Xevious/Galaga IPs were shoehorned in as an afterthought. The little bit of Dig-Dug content is a cool easter egg and well done. This game is definitely a waste of money in it's current state.

bro please, i'm a fan of the checkpoints existing in the new patch but breaking all disjointed attacks and projectiles from doing ANY damage to you regardless of difficulty is waaaaaaay too much, please, please god, someone notice this and fix this i will fix my review if they actually fix this i swear i genuinely want to play and enjoy the edgy pac man game edit: so I found out about the workaround involving turning off vsync and changing your fps to something that's not 60 and it worked FOR ME but until they make a patch making sure this isn't a problem for ANYONE i'm leaving my review negative as-is. the game is genuinely fun once it's no longer lobotomized, and I will gladly change my review back to positive if they fix the issue

Most aggressively 5/10 game you'll ever see. The game plays "fine" but the combat isn't really interesting and it takes too long for you to get anything besides the 3-swipe attack (the first thing you get is a 4th swipe lol). The locales/zones are kinda too big and too samey, about 4 different zones are caves of different flavors and there are multiple "machine" zones. The obstacles are obnoxious and for most of them you're locked into the Pac-Man mode, which controls wonky at best. Would've liked that the map gets an indicator of where to go next to progress the story because at one point you need to go to 2 different locations and the adjacent zones are too ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ big so you don't know if you're going the right way and keep going on until you hit a wall and have to backtrack. Game's inoffensive in the end, but it's not interesting enough to justify dealing with how tedious and monotonous it is most of the time.

I want to like it given the plot and how massively hyped this game was, but after a couple hours of early gameplay I can't. It just feels too redundant and like too much going back & forth and grinding to figure out how to get around dead-ends. If you want to check it out, wait for a really good sale, but so far I'm disappointed with it and would not recommend it. The "Mixed" sentiment is certainly justified

Excellent game! Far better and more fun than I expected. Every bit as fun as Axiom Verge which is a huge compliment. It’s got plenty of those moments where you get lost, stuck, and frustrated. Like Super Metroid all over again. And of course many parts of the map even earlier in the game are not accessible until you have the right equipment. A bit of Castlevania Symphony of the Night also has some input into both the gameplay and atmosphere to a lesser extent. It’s a Metroid type game alright. The Namco themes are really fun. I just wished they had a Mappy area with trampolines and such. That would have been interesting. But there is Pac-Man, Dig Dug, Galaga, etc. The game feels more fun and rewarding getting deeper into the different areas. It’s quite overwhelming when you lack equipment and currency items for upgrades but don’t worry. You will eventually find your way through at later times in the game than expected. This is a pretty big game with plenty of map areas to explore. The important part is learning the mechanics and keeping your eyes opened for openings to areas you might miss. I will admit I watched a few walkthrough videos and looked at maps when getting stuck. But it didn’t take any fun out of the game. Despite the Pac-Man theme expect Metroid. There are Pac- Man elements and eating bosses for dinner. But really it’s a Metroid game with Pac-Man. And a really great one. This is retro gaming at near best. A great pickup for the Switch but I have a PC. 8/10 and nothing lower. Games like this are why I have been playing video games for almost 50 years now. Highly recommended! Getting 100% achievements was a massive nightmare. That I won't recommend.

A convoluted story and frustrating controls at times make an otherwise decent game frustrating to play. Despite this, if I could, I would give it a mediocre rating rather than bad or good.

this is literally one of the worst, most vapid, most nonsensical, most idiotic garbage games I have ever played in my entire life, there is nothing redeeming about this other than the occasional Namco refrence, it is not fun, the mechanics are not fun, the level design is not fun, the visuals suck, the characters are non-existant or laughable, there is literally no reason you should ever consider picking up this game unless you want to buy it as a joke, or to experience an ostensible bad video game.

A great metroidvania that knows exactly what it wants to be. The Pac-Man references are a fun touch that add personality without feeling gimmicky. If you're a fan of the genre, this one deserves your time.

Terrible game that doesnt even support ultrawide monitor..

This is a pretty decent game. The gameplay is pretty similar to Hollow Knight, even though i don't think it's as good, it's still fun in my opinion, and it's a decent challenge. The story is somewhat interesting, although a lot of it is in the "lore entries", and I think it could have been handled better. There was also a few annoying parts of the game, but i don't think it ruined the experience. Also the visual's were kind of cool. Overall I'd give it a 6/10.