【Route-16】Three incandescent car chase action game titles in one! The king of tense car chase action retro games, the Route-16 series is decided to be released as a value pack!

If you thought, “It's just being able to play old games as they are, right?”, “ROUTE16 COLLECTION” might be a slightly unexpected content. Included in this work are a total of 3 titles: 2 series works that appeared in the 1980s, and the completely new work “Route 16R”. While enjoying the series' traditional car chase of controlling the beloved car “Mad-X” and collecting items while dodging pursuing enemy vehicles and monsters, you can experience even how the game system evolved through a time of about 40 years. Not ending with mere nostalgia, being able to play the origin and the evolved form together would be the greatest fun of this collection.

What I want to touch on first is the original “Route 16” that appeared as an arcade game in 1981. What is characteristic is the system of clearing while switching between “Maze Mode” which displays the maze largely, and “Radar Mode” where you can confirm the entire stage composed of 16 mazes. Because you need to grasp the overall situation and decide the next action rather than just fleeing from the enemy in front of your eyes, it looks simple but uses your brain surprisingly well. Immediately after advancing thinking “It seems safe this way”, you might be cornered, and the sense of tension judging escape routes from limited information can be called the origin of this series.

The following “Route 16 Turbo” is a successor work released in 1985, where Mad-X runs around the mazes again to take back money stolen by the evil organization “Kanharu Syndicate”. While inheriting the basic system, graphics evolved, becoming able to enjoy multiple maze maps with different individualities. And as the name suggests, what is important is the Turbo feature that accelerates all at once by consuming fuel. Whether to use it to escape from a pinch, or to deploy it to boldly gain distance. Because fuel decreases if you keep using it just because it's convenient, judgment is demanded even in the timing to step on the accelerator. Furthermore, this time, stages that could not be reached in the 1985 version are also playable. Even for people who have experience playing in the past, elements that make you want to confirm newly are prepared.

And what surprises is the completely new work “Route 16R”. The “Mad-X R” this time is not a machine that just keeps fleeing from enemies. Customizing using funds collected inside stages, you can enhance fuel, speed, combat capability, and so on. Just being able to think of your own policy like “Where should I develop from?” expands the breadth of play, but furthermore, when crashing into enemies, it transforms into a robot form. Battles greatly expanding the image of the series lie in wait, where you fight small-fry enemies and powerful bosses from there fully utilizing enhanced abilities and SP items. With the choice of “fight and defeat” added to the car chase that was main in fleeing, you seem able to clearly feel the difference from past works.

In “Route 16R”, for the first time in the series, it corresponds to local multiplayer of up to 4 people as well. Here, players snatch flags from each other, expanding a car chase competing while running around at high speed. In single player, the sense of tension being pursued by enemies is the charm, but if the opponent becomes friends or family, it's a different story. “I won't hand over that flag!” “Are you coming from there!?”; it is a rule that seems to become noisy not only inside the screen but even among the people playing. Because it is dedicated to local multiplayer rather than online, it can be called a mode that plays an active role when gathering in the same place to play.

The charm of “ROUTE16 COLLECTION” lies in being able to trace history within a single package rather than looking at classic works and new works separately. Knowing the sense of tension of clearing mazes in the 1981 original, experiencing tactics utilizing acceleration in “Route 16 Turbo”, and finally moving to customization, transformation, boss battles, and multiplayer in “Route 16R”. Leaving the fun of car chases at the root while boldly expanding play according to the era is where it is interesting. Giving nostalgia and freshness to people who know the series, and giving discoveries like “Old games had this kind of idea?” to people touching it for the first time, it is a single title where you can run through the charm of old and new all at once.