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The Vault · 2026

ROUTE16R

Sunsoft goes back past its own name to revive a 1981 arcade maze game.
DeveloperWit One
PublisherSunsoft
Released2026
PCArcade

ROUTE16R is an arcade action game developed by Wit One and published by Sunsoft, released for Windows on August 5, 2026. It is a modern revival of Route-16, the 1981 Sun Electronics arcade maze game, and the first new entry in the series since Sunsoft's Japan-only Famicom release Route-16 Turbo in 1985.

The structure follows the original. The player drives a vehicle, the MAD X-R, through mazes made up of sixteen rooms, collecting items and avoiding enemies while managing fuel. Two views are available: Maze Mode for driving the labyrinth itself, and Radar Mode for seeing all sixteen mazes at once, a direct descendant of the overworld map that distinguished the 1981 game from its contemporaries.

Where the original was built purely around evasion, ROUTE16R adds combat. Colliding with an enemy transforms the MAD X-R into a combat robot and begins a battle, fought with attacks and SP items collected in the mazes. Money recovered from stages is spent on upgrading vehicle attributes including fuel capacity and speed, and clearing a stage's items triggers a boss encounter with the Kanharoo Gang. A local split-screen versus mode offers flag-capture mini-games; there is no online multiplayer.

The revival is unusual for reaching so far back into its publisher's history. Sun Electronics is the company behind the Sunsoft name, so Route-16 predates the brand itself and sits well before the NES catalogue that built Sunsoft's Western reputation. ROUTE16R launched on Steam at $19.99 for Windows, with no console versions announced at release.

In the News1 mentions
Aug 62026
Sunsoft has revived a 1981 arcade maze game nobody was asking about, and I mean that as praise
ROUTE16R is out on Steam at $19.99, a modern sequel to Sun Electronics' 1981 arcade maze game Route-16, from before Sunsoft was even called Sunsoft.
Release