Look how they've massacred my boy: The newest Pac-Man game will have mechs, airdashing, and a 'dark sci-fi' story

Shadow Labyrinth invites players to "become the apex predator."

Watching the new trailer for Shadow Labyrinth, which dropped during yesterday’s Nintendo Direct, you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s just a sidescroller about a sci-fi world beset by otherworldly monsters and wreathed in tragedy. I mean, it is all of those things, it’s just also a Pac-Man game, which you might have gleaned from the protagonist’s yellow, spherical companion named Puck. He goes around eating pellets and stuff.

We first saw this world in the Pac-Man-themed episode of Amazon’s Secret Level anthology series, which was inspired by a conversation with Bandai Namco where the showrunners were encouraged to make audiences “wonder what the fuck they did with Pac-Man.” This game was revealed around the same time that episode came out, but the latest trailer shows off more of its metroidvania gameplay.

It’s nothing new for an arcade icon to be subject to edgy reinvention: the critically panned Bomberman Act Zero and the cancelled Maverick Hunter take on Megaman come to mind. But in a press release accompanying the new trailer, Bandai Namco said the makeover aims to please fans new and old.

Bandai’s statement emphasizes the game’s story, which may include more than just Pac-Man: “The game features an engaging narrative, where venturing deeper into this maze of a world begins to unravel the mystery of the planet … [it] draws wider inspiration than just Pac-Man, tapping into Bandai Namco’s broader library of beloved classic games, and promising to delight fans with familiarity and nostalgia for classic arcade games.”

As protagonist Swordsman No. 8, players will explore the titular hell maze with the help of Puck and the newly revealed mech, Gaia, who the press release notes “inflicts devastating damage to enemies.” It also points out that “[players’] aim in this treacherous world is to escape it, and to achieve that they must consume everything that waits in the darkness to survive,” which might have something to do with the game’s tagline: “You must eat.”

I’ve enjoyed Pac-Man for about as long as I’ve been able to read, and all this is very interesting, but I admit I’m a little attached to the version of him that eats strawberries and co-writes cookbooks in his spare time. That said, Bandai’s past experiments with the character have yielded some pretty incredible results, like Pac-Man Championship Edition, so I’m eager enough to see how this shakes out.

Shadow Labyrinth releases on July 17 and is available to pre-order on Steam.