Shadow Labyrinth

The first time I played Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, I remember being constantly surprised as the world of the Metroidvania (of course, we didn’t call them that yet at the time) kept expanding beyond my expectations, proving to be rich and generous beyond anything I could have anticipated. 

No, I don’t expect Shadow Labyrinth to be the same kind of watershed moment for the genre that SotN was, but it does mark the first time since then that I’ve felt truly awestruck and mystified by a game like this. You play as a person revived for mysterious reasons by an android that bears a non-coincidental resemblance to Pac-Man, and if you think that’s where this game’s connections to Namco’s classic slate of arcade hits ends, well, you’ve got another thing coming. Beyond that, I’m wary of saying too much about it, because I think it works best if you dive in knowing as little as possible, though I will warn that this is in no way trying to be a game “for everyone.” It’s deliberately mysterious for its early hours, and you may repeatedly find yourself lost, unsure of where to go or what to do next to make progress. But I find that it’s uncompromising choices like these, a willingness to be opaque both narratively and gameplay-wise, that make Shadow Labyrinth so irresistibly compelling and that keep me coming back, even after a few dozen hours, determined to discover what awaits at the game’s core. I’ve had a few cases of Pac-Man Fever in my day, but never one quite like this. – Carolyn Petit