Latest news with #Metroidvania
Business Mayor
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Business Mayor
Shadow Labyrinth might just pull off its oddball elevator pitch
45 years after the release of Pac-Man, Bandai Namco is finally answering the age-old question: 'How would it play as a 2D Metroidvania?' Surely you've all been wondering that, right? Well, ask no more because we'll soon have an answer to that head-scratching question with Shadow Labyrinth on July 18. At PAX East 2025, Digital Trends went hands-on with the upcoming game and chatted with Seigo Aizawa, producer at Bandai Namco, about Pac-Man's new look. Aizawa showed us how the oddball game is more true to Pac-Man's core tenets than it looks at first glance. It may be a gritty Metroidvania with intense boss fights, but this is still the same maze-navigating eat-em-up you've been playing for decades, albeit in a very different light. In Shadow Labyrinth , players wake up in a strange world where everything is trying to kill them. The only thing aiding their survival is a Pac-Man-like creature that gives them abilities and guides them through a savage planet. Amazon's Secret Level episode starring Pac-Man serves as a prequel to Shadow Labyrinth , and watching it will give players a better understanding of what to expect. 'To expand our audience, we wanted to make something new,' Aizawa tells Digital Trends. 'We wanted to get people who never played a Pac-Man game to play [ Shadow Labyrinth ]. When we thought about the concept of the game, 'Dark Pac-Man' came up. When you think about a dark atmosphere and a maze concept, [the] Metroidvania [genre] matches it perfectly.' Shadow Labyrinth is especially fast-paced for the genre. Every attack must be executed with a plan in mind. But that's not to say Shadow Labyrinth isn't a Pac-Man game at its heart still. There's still a maze for players to run through, you just won't see it from a bird's eye view. Instead, players navigate 2D environments and you have to figure out where they're going as they explore. Pac-Man's tendency to eat everything in sight plays a role here too, though in much more sinister fashion. After players are done chopping up your enemies, they can perform an action that essentially turns you into a Pac-Man Kiju that lets them eat their foes to gain abilities. Aizawa revealed that this was by design, as the game needed three key pillars for which Pac-Man is known for: eating, mazes, and power ups. That's not the only thing my Pac-Man companion can do. As I was making my way through mazes, I was presented with paths that had rails on them. The only way to cross them was to turn into that iconic yellow sphere from the arcade classic. The catch was that the rails were packed with all sorts of traps that were trying to kill me. If I wanted to make it through alive, I needed to evade them. While the Shadow Labyrinth itself is a new location, it still connects to a familiar universe. Bandai Namco decided to toy around with the UGSF (Universal Gaming Simulation Framework), a narrative device that the company uses to connect many of its games. A clear example of this appeared towards the end of my demo. After defeating the main boss, I uncovered a Dig-Dug easter egg that played a bit of the game's music. Bandai Namco Aizawa says that this is just one example of how all of the games are connected thanks to the UGSF. Shadow Labyrinth takes place in a distant future, whereas Dig Dug took place 3,000 years before this game. As players progress through the story, they'll find remnants of other beloved Bandai Namco properties. Sometimes these will be simple winks and nods to other games, and other times they'll play a bigger role in the story. The overall gameplay doesn't disappoint based on what I've played so far. There's a clear sense of Metroidvania progression that gives players plenty of new abilities to unlock, changing their tool set. The boss fights are engaging clashes against larger than life monsters and the platforming almost feels like a game of its own. Every aspect of it is working for me so far, which is a pleasant surprise considering how left-field the pitch is. Shadow Labyrinth is dark, edgy, and grim, but still very much a Pac-Man game at its core. As different as it is from anything else in the series history, I'm still having fun exploring mazes and eating enemies at the end of the day. Shadow Labyrinth is taking a big swing and hopes to capture a new audience with its latest iteration of Pac-Man. From what I played, Bandai Namco may just pull that off with something entirely new. Shadow Labyrinth launches on July 18 for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch 2.
Digital Trends
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Digital Trends
Shadow Labyrinth might just pull off its oddball elevator pitch
45 years after the release of Pac-Man, Bandai Namco is finally answering the age-old question: 'How would it play as a 2D Metroidvania?' Surely you've all been wondering that, right? Well, ask no more because we'll soon have an answer to that head-scratching question with Shadow Labyrinth on July 18. At PAX East 2025, Digital Trends went hands-on with the upcoming game and chatted with Seigo Aizawa, producer at Bandai Namco, about Pac-Man's new look. Aizawa showed us how the oddball game is more true to Pac-Man's core tenets than it looks at first glance. It may be a gritty Metroidvania with intense boss fights, but this is still the same maze-navigating eat-em-up you've been playing for decades, albeit in a very different light. Recommended Videos Enter the maze In Shadow Labyrinth, players wake up in a strange world where everything is trying to kill them. The only thing aiding their survival is a Pac-Man-like creature that gives them abilities and guides them through a savage planet. Amazon's Secret Level episode starring Pac-Man serves as a prequel to Shadow Labyrinth, and watching it will give players a better understanding of what to expect. 'To expand our audience, we wanted to make something new,' Aizawa tells Digital Trends. 'We wanted to get people who never played a Pac-Man game to play [Shadow Labyrinth]. When we thought about the concept of the game, 'Dark Pac-Man' came up. When you think about a dark atmosphere and a maze concept, [the] Metroidvania [genre] matches it perfectly.' Shadow Labyrinth is especially fast-paced for the genre. Every attack must be executed with a plan in mind. But that's not to say Shadow Labyrinth isn't a Pac-Man game at its heart still. There's still a maze for players to run through, you just won't see it from a bird's eye view. Instead, players navigate 2D environments and you have to figure out where they're going as they explore. Pac-Man's tendency to eat everything in sight plays a role here too, though in much more sinister fashion. After players are done chopping up your enemies, they can perform an action that essentially turns you into a Pac-Man Kiju that lets them eat their foes to gain abilities. Aizawa revealed that this was by design, as the game needed three key pillars for which Pac-Man is known for: eating, mazes, and power ups. That's not the only thing my Pac-Man companion can do. As I was making my way through mazes, I was presented with paths that had rails on them. The only way to cross them was to turn into that iconic yellow sphere from the arcade classic. The catch was that the rails were packed with all sorts of traps that were trying to kill me. If I wanted to make it through alive, I needed to evade them. While the Shadow Labyrinth itself is a new location, it still connects to a familiar universe. Bandai Namco decided to toy around with the UGSF (Universal Gaming Simulation Framework), a narrative device that the company uses to connect many of its games. A clear example of this appeared towards the end of my demo. After defeating the main boss, I uncovered a Dig-Dug easter egg that played a bit of the game's music. Aizawa says that this is just one example of how all of the games are connected thanks to the UGSF. Shadow Labyrinth takes place in a distant future, whereas Dig Dug took place 3,000 years before this game. As players progress through the story, they'll find remnants of other beloved Bandai Namco properties. Sometimes these will be simple winks and nods to other games, and other times they'll play a bigger role in the story. The overall gameplay doesn't disappoint based on what I've played so far. There's a clear sense of Metroidvania progression that gives players plenty of new abilities to unlock, changing their tool set. The boss fights are engaging clashes against larger than life monsters and the platforming almost feels like a game of its own. Every aspect of it is working for me so far, which is a pleasant surprise considering how left-field the pitch is. Shadow Labyrinth is dark, edgy, and grim, but still very much a Pac-Man game at its core. As different as it is from anything else in the series history, I'm still having fun exploring mazes and eating enemies at the end of the day. Shadow Labyrinth is taking a big swing and hopes to capture a new audience with its latest iteration of Pac-Man. From what I played, Bandai Namco may just pull that off with something entirely new. Shadow Labyrinth launches on July 18 for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch 2.
Irish Independent
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Revenge of the Savage Planet review: Gorgeously goofy game emerges from shadow of Google gorilla
One of the casualties of Stadia's closure was Typhoon Studios, a Canadian developer that made its mark with 2020's enjoyably wacky Metroidvania-style space adventure Journey to the Savage Planet. Google had bought Typhoon before the game's release but shut the studio down the same day a Stadia version of Savage Planet hit the shelves in 2021. Fast-forward to 2025 and a sequel has just emerged from the ashes of the sorry saga, made by former Typhoon alumni who bought the IP rights for their company, Raccoon Logic. Savage Planet was never a mega-budget AAA title despite Google's deep pockets and this follow-up echoes that approach. It's a reasonably compact mid-priced romp laden with slapstick humour and cartoonish worlds, poking fun at consumerism and rapacious corporations. Wonder where the developers got that idea? As in the original, your astronaut crash-lands on a far-flung world, leaving you to gather scattered pieces of his shattered ship in the hope of eventually escaping. Thus follows a Metroidvania loop of resource-gathering and equipment-recovering, all wrapped in a third-person platformer-shooter design. The local wildlife isn't particularly hostile, albeit with some exceptions, and progress depends mostly on exploring small areas of a handful of planets, platforming around cliffs, forests and caves in low gravity slow-mo leaps. It's an agreeable gameplay loop well worn in its concept – farming the elements to make new gear, finding key equipment and then revisiting areas that are further opened up thanks to your new tools. It supports a full co-op mode, though solo play is equally fun. Raccoon Logic ladles on the satire with some live-action video clips parodying the corporation that abandoned you on the savage planet. But the storyline functions as just a thin fig leaf for its anarchic gameplay, which puts acid, lava and electrically conductive goo at your disposal. The modest size of the team at Raccoon Logic becomes apparent sometimes – the awkward physics and occasionally funky enemy behaviour can hamper the gameplay mechanics. But this a goofy little treasure, a passion project for a small team bruised by their encounter with a corporate gorilla. They're still here and Stadia is long gone. Who's the monkey now?
Metro
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
Revenge Of The Savage Planet review - the best 3D Metroidvania returns
The sequel to Journey To The Savage Planet is bigger, better, and funnier than the original, as you get to explore multiple alien worlds with friends. 2020's Journey To The Savage Planet was the epitome of a cult hit – a game that was little known before its release, yet was great to play and chock full of personality. In the interim, its developer has been on something of a rollercoaster ride, as demonstrated by the fact it is now called Raccoon Logic rather than Typhoon Studios. But its return for a second bite of savage planetary action shows little sign of that upheaval. Like its predecessor, Revenge Of The Savage Planet is a Metroidvania disguised as a third person action adventure. Structurally, visually and story-wise, it's very much a sequel, progressing logically from the first game and endowed with the same cheery, hyper-colourful palette and endearingly goofy vibe. But it also feels much more polished and honed and considerably meatier, thanks to a welter of side missions and hidden activities – addressing criticisms that the first game was too short. If you're in the mood for a game whose story is utterly frivolous and tongue-in-cheek, with a leavening of gentle satire that pokes fun at the likes of boneheaded influencers and excessive consumption, you'll love Revenge of the Savage Planet. Once again, you're unceremoniously dispatched to an uninhabited planet, where you must establish a base in anticipation of colonisation. But this time around, your deadbeat employer, Kindred Aerospace, has been acquired by the rapacious Alta Interglobal. When you reach your base, you find two messages from Alta, one welcoming you and the next informing you that you've been fired. Most of your gear is scattered around the planet you land on and four neighbouring ones. Each world has a distinctive set of ecosystems, including flora, fauna, and climate. You must explore to find items that will add new abilities and upgrade your attributes, as you return to previously inaccessible areas when you acquire things like a whip, a grapple hook, an underwater scooter, and helmet-filter that allows you to breathe in poison gas-filled areas. Everything in each environment can be scanned and the whip lets you capture alien creatures (some of which must first be stunned) Pokémon-style, which can then be researched by your habitat's computer, often yielding crucial upgrades. There's some varied and inventive puzzling to be done – for example, unlocking crates by spraying metallic goo to create connections between electrified mushrooms. Plus, there's some pretty challenging platforming involved, along with some memorable and challenging boss battles. Tinkerers can 3D print all manner of furniture and appliances to decorate their bases, while the whole game is playable in two-player co-op, either in split screen or online. One of Revenge Of The Savage Planet's many strengths lies in its tactility. Hostile creatures explode in showers of colourful goo, while others detonate after you've aimed a hefty kick at them. Different enemies require wildly different strategies and equipment; for example, green balls of slime filled with eyes can only be defeated by a good spraying with a water gun, which turns them progressively bluer until they melt. Tiny spiky balls are impervious to your blaster but susceptible to your whip. Others have armour which must be whipped or ground-pounded before they will take damage. As you progress, you acquire tanks of differently coloured goo to fire, which must be deployed both against specific enemies and in the cause of puzzle-solving. In lesser hands, Revenge Of The Savage Planet's welter of liquid-shooting guns and gadgets could have ended up as a disjointed mess, but Raccoon Logic has integrated them into a coherent and logical whole – it's definitely one of those games which is way cleverer than it looks. Whether dealing with waves of varied enemies, solving puzzles which can often be arcane but always seem to make a weird form of sense, or returning with a new gadget to a previously explored area and uncovering something new, its maps are packed with activities that are all very satisfying. More Trending And while it's longer than Journey To The Savage Planet, you should still be able to finish it in 20 hours or so, so it isn't one of those games that is intimidatingly long. Its least impressive aspects don't seriously detract from the fun but we did have to undergo a period of grinding before taking down one of the later bosses and sometimes found our drone assistant both a tad annoying and not as helpful as they should have been. The parody adverts piped to your habitat's screen also grate after a while, but at least they can be switched off. This is a well-constructed and cleverly designed game, that refuses to take itself at all seriously. It's genuinely funny, very distinctive in terms of both looks and atmosphere, and offers a pleasing amount of varied and satisfyingly gameplay. Metroidvanias may be a favourite of indie developers but there's still very few 3D examples of the concept, and Revenge Of The Savage Planet really makes you wonder why. In Short: One of the best 3D Metroidvanias ever made, with the same endearing sense of humour as the original but several welcome improvements and a more substantial adventure. Pros: Great gadgets and clever Metroidvania style puzzles and platforming. Genuinely funny at time, with some nicely distinctive visuals. Suite of two-player co-op options are very welcome. Cons: Some forced level grinding and some of the wackier humour can grate after a while – especially the annoyingly unhelpful drone. Score: 8/10 Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, and PC*Price: TBAPublisher: Raccoon LogicDeveloper: Raccoon LogicRelease Date: 8th May 2025 Age Rating: 12 *available on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass from day one Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter, and sign-up to our newsletter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. MORE: Half-Life 3 could finally be released after 18 year wait says insider MORE: Call Of Duty 2025 will lock game modes behind battle pass claims insider MORE: How to get Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga for free – but you have to be quick
The Star
27-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Star
Review: 'Rusty Rabbit' a refreshing but dull take on a 'Metroid'-style game
For hard-core gamers, Takaya Kuroda's voice should sound familiar, though his name may not ring a bell. The Japanese voice actor brings Kazuma Kiryu to life in Like a Dragon and Yakuza . His work is heard in dozens of other video games and anime, but his deep and intimidating timbre is so distinct that fans immediately recognise him. It's one of the reasons that Rusty Rabbit piqued my interest when it was first unveiled. When I heard Kuroda's voice coming out of the mouth of an anthropomorphic rabbit, I had to play the game. Initially, the campaign seems to follow the typical Metroidvania formula. Players take on the role of Stamp (voiced by Kuroda), a scavenger who digs through the ruins of Smokestack Mountain, using a mech he calls Junkster. A different postapocalypse He earns a living by finding screws, bolts and other parts in a postapocalyptic world where rabbits have inherited the Earth. Humanity has mysteriously disappeared and the bunnies evolved and developed a civilisation in the ruins. Stamp's home base is Brass Village, which is equipped with small-town amenities such as a bar, hardware store, diner and church. Initially, the campaign seems to follow the typical Metroidvania formula. The creatures have set up a curious civilisation with a religion based around the adventures of Peter Rabbit. Players start off delving through a dungeon fighting rust beasts, when Stamp runs into a ragtag group of youngsters who call their gang BB. He helps them, and in the process, his Junkster is destroyed, and he has to rebuild it and make it more powerful in a campaign where he constantly runs across the youngsters. As a grizzled veteran, he aids them when he can, but as he dives deeper in the ruins, players discover more about Stamp and his lost daughter. Slowly, the plot changes from a simple rebuilding mission into a rescue coated in a nefarious conspiracy. An unusual structure The narrative isn't the only unconventional element. The story also reinforces Rusty Rabbit's novel structure. Normally, Metroidvania titles are lonely experiences where the protagonist adventures across the map, acquires new powers and uses those abilities to access gated-off areas. It's contemplative, almost like a solitary meditation about personal growth. When I heard Kuroda's voice coming out of the mouth of an anthropomorphic rabbit, I had to play the game. Rusty Rabbit is different because it's centred on a town, and Stamp is a character that's introduced as an isolated old man set in his ways. That perception changes as players venture into Smokestack Mountain, which is divided into more than 10 zones. Stamp traverse these dungeons, which feature plenty of save points and portals that return him to the village. Players don't wander a wide-open map, but rather they pick a location and explore it before moving on. They'll scavenge junk to sell and level up Stamp so he acquires more skill points. He'll also find blueprints that allow him to build more powerful weapons with scrap. Because players operate in manageable chunky zones, it makes backtracking to unlock a new area more efficient. The structure also helps the campaign feel less lonely. Heading back to Brass Village is a requirement as players need to buy supplies and turn in quests at the Bar. Stamp can also chat up the locals at the Diner to earn more credits and unlock more Blueprints. As they interact with the inhabitants, players discover the lore in dense conversations. The hardest part of Rusty Rabbit is figuring out where to go next after finishing one objective. It shows that Stamp isn't a recluse, but part of a fabric of that society. He also takes on the role of the responsible adult watching over the young members of BB while also discover clues to the whereabouts to his estranged daughter. Not all the strands of the drama work, but it does enough to suck players into Rusty Rabbit's spell. Role-playing game elements and challenge The role-playing game elements work similarly, becoming a hook that pulls players through the campaign. Every dungeon dive makes players feel as though they're progressing and strengthening Stamp, through experience points. Players acquire them by drilling through rock and defeating enemies, levelling him up with skill points. Although the structure and approach is clever, the rest of the campaign feels rote. Players have four distinct weapons that are needed to unlock different parts of Smokestack Mountain. Players will power up these weapons and gain new abilities that make traversal easier, further opening up areas to explore. Meanwhile, each zone is punctuated by boss fights that are unspectacular and fail to present much challenge, especially when players can buy potions. Players don't wander a wide-open map, but rather they pick a location and explore it before moving on. The hardest part of Rusty Rabbit is figuring out where to go next after finishing one objective. Players can end up lost, unaware of what to do with a new ability, especially after the campaign broadens. A better way to track areas like the snapshot feature in Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown would have been helpful. Nevertheless, Rusty Rabbit does present a refreshing approach to the genre but lacks a compelling vision to make it standout, even with the mesmerising voice of Kuroda. – Bay Area News Group/Tribune News Service
