‘Shadow Labyrinth’ Creators Give an explanation for Percent-Guy’s Gritty Redesign

There are only a few gaming gaming characters as right away recognizable throughout all of pop culture as Mario or Sonic the Hedgehog, however Bandai Namco’s Percent-Guy is one in all them. The yellow fruit-eating circle’s iconic “waka-waka” dining soundbite is among the maximum recognizable sounds in gaming. Debuting in 1980 in arcades (a complete 12 months forward of Mario himself), Percent-Guy is celebrating its forty fifth anniversary in 2025, even though he’s carrying an overly other glance.

To commemorate the instance, Bandai Namco is taking Percent-Guy to uncharted territory, a ways clear of its family-friendly roots. The puck-shaped icon is now born once more within the grimdark 2D action-platformer, Shadow Labyrinth.

Introduced at The Recreation Awards 2024, Shadow Labyrinth provides Percent-Guy an edgier, extra mature makeover extra in keeping with different Bandai Namco video games like Elden Ring (2021), and even though it felt like a wonder within the second, this isn’t in truth the primary we’ve observed of the brand new tackle one in all gaming’s vintage persona — it’s without delay tied to episode six of High Video’s Secret Degree streaming collection, which debuted on Dec. 10.

Rolling Stone sat down with Shadow Labyrinth manufacturer Seigo Aizawa and Percent-Guy logo advertising supervisor Knoah Piasek to speak about the franchise’s milestone, the inspirations at the back of Shadow Labyrinth, and why Bandai Namco made up our minds to move in a darker route.

Born once more

Shadow Labyrinth follows the occasions of the “PAC-MAN: Circle” episode in Amazon’s Secret Degree anthology (sure, the episode used to be in truth a prequel). A swordsman has been woke up via a yellow floating ball known as P.U.C.Okay. that follows him round. Already, that’s a large connection with Percent-Guy origins, however would possibly monitor for fanatics who’re neatly mindful that “Puck-Guy” is the nature’s identify in Japan. Bandai Namco may’ve long gone in any route for its gritty tackle Percent-Guy, corresponding to creating a soulslike sport like Elden Ring, or possibly even an RPG, however its manufacturer selected an overly particular direction as an alternative. 

“After we sought after to discover a brand new form of sport for Percent-Guy, it got here all the way down to the important thing part, which is the maze,” Aizawa tells Rolling Stone. “After we concept in regards to the maze, the 2D motion platformer used to be the most productive style fit.” This style of video games is often referred to as “Metroidvania,” which options non-linear exploration and gameplay, stemming from the Metroid and Castlevania franchises that pioneered it. Usually, when zooming out of the map in a Metroidvania sport, the map seems like a maze.

Aizawa and Piasek explain that Shadow Labyrinth is a standard motion platformer, very similar to that of Ori and the Blind Wooded area (2015) or Hole Knight (2017), and no longer a “roguelike” like Lifeless Cells (2018), a subgenre which may play like 2D platformer video games however whose stage design and enemies are randomly generated. “We don’t seem to be calling it a Metroidvania ourselves, even though we do recognize that individuals would completely categorize it like that,” Piasek explains. “We’re being somewhat tongue in cheek and in addition calling it a Percent-and-slash!”

Shadow Labyrinth additionally doesn’t have the Percent-Guy logo identify in its identify, and the verdict not to come with it used to be in order that the sport can usher in a brand new target market who’ve by no means performed the collection ahead of. “There have been many discussions on whether or not or to not come with the phrase ‘Percent-Guy’ within the identify. We in the end made up our minds to not do it,” says Aizawa. “Percent-Guy has traditionally been a relatives sport, and we needed to logo this sport another way.”

Piasek provides, “We all know that once avid gamers describe this sport outdoor of claiming the identify Shadow Labyrinth, they’re going to mention ‘that loopy, darkish Percent-Guy sport.’ So, we all know that the fanatics are going to try this heavy lifting for us.”

Surroundings the degree

Shadow Labyrinth’s surroundings is in truth impressed via the Ice Age, and the enemies and executives are designed round that idea. In vintage Percent-Guy video games, the eponymous persona avoids ghosts, however it’s recently unclear what actual function they’ll have in Shadow Labyrinth but. Within the sport’s key artwork, you’ll see a novel ghost within the sky, however Piasek hints that there’s extra than simply meets the attention. “Fanatics have already began to theorize that there are different video games being referenced right here, no longer simply Percent-Guy,” he says.

Taking a look on the divulge trailer, there are many gruesome monsters, and the swordsman must no less than consume the bosses the use of a large color-inverted black Percent-Guy as a way to get more potent and live on within the maze, which is a transparent callback to Percent-Guy’s dining motif.

Piasek additionally teases that there may well be an out of doors power influencing the monsters’ enlargement. “The Ice Age thought is a guiding design theory for core enemy design and probably the most monsters that will be local to this planet,” he explains. “However there are different issues that experience additionally come to this planet, which may have helped the ones monsters to become one thing larger and scarier.”

Shadow Labyrinth is about to free up someday in 2025 for PC, PS5, Transfer, and Xbox Sequence X|S. Aizawa additionally confirms that there are not any post-launch content material plans these days. “This sport shall be finished in a single bundle so there’s no DLC (downloadable content material),” he says.

For Percent-Man veterans, the builders know that Shadow Labyrinth is a wholly new take at the gaming icon. “The principle theme of the forty fifth anniversary is to ‘make an affect.’ So, we concept Shadow Labyrinth could be a suitable identify to give,” says Aizawa. Piasek provides, “Particularly because it’s the antithesis to anything else that you’d be expecting from Percent-Guy.”