is a puzzle video game created in 1981 by Hiroyuki Imabayashi. In Sokoban, the player pushes boxes in a warehouse to get them onto storage locations. The game is viewed from a top-down perspective. Boxes can only be pushed, never pulled, and only one box can be pushed at a time. The principal challenge is planning moves correctly to avoid causing a deadlock, a situation where a box or the player becomes permanently trapped, making the puzzle unsolvable.
Imabayashi's company, Thinking Rabbit, released the first commercial version in Japan in 1982. Following that debut, Thinking Rabbit and its licensed partners developed a series of new titles until 2000. The game debuted internationally in 1988 with the U.S. release Soko-Ban. Falcon, a Japanese software company, acquired the Sokoban rights in 2001. Since then, new installments have been published either by Falcon under the Thinking Rabbit brand or by licensed partners.
Over its history, the Sokoban series has sold over 4.1 million copies worldwide, with more than 40 official games released across various platforms. Reviewers have highlighted the game's simplicity, its addictive and challenging nature, and the depth of thought required.
Sokoban's core mechanics have been replicated in numerous clones, and the game has inspired thousands of community-created levels. The Sokoban puzzle concept of pushing boxes to clear a path or move them to targets has also appeared in other video games. Furthermore, Sokoban has been studied in the fields of computational complexity and artificial intelligence.
Gameplay
Sokoban takes place in a warehouse viewed from above and composed of walls and floor squares. A floor square may be empty, occupied by the player, or occupied by a box. Some floor squares are storage locations. The number of storage locations equals the number of boxes. The objective of the puzzle is to push all boxes onto storage locations.
The player can move one square at a time, either horizontally or vertically, onto an empty floor square. Boxes and walls block the player's movement, but the player can walk up to a box and push it to an empty square directly beyond it. If a box is pushed against a wall or another box, it does not move. Pulling boxes is not possible.
Sokoban requires players to plan several moves ahead and consider all possible outcomes. Careless moves could leave a box permanently trapped against a wall or another box, stuck in a dead end, or permanently prevent access to boxes that still need to be moved. Any such situation creates a deadlock that makes the puzzle unsolvable, regardless of future moves, unless the player undoes enough steps.
History In 1981, Hiroyuki Imabayashi created the Sokoban video game for the NEC PC-8001 as a hobby, featuring text-based graphics and five original levels. He had long been intrigued by the movement of a character pushing luggage in action game Aldebaran #1 (1980), in which luggage was used as an obstacle to block radiation; he implemented that movement as a puzzle using BASIC in spring, envisioning a warehouse setting where incorrect box placement could make further progress difficult or even impossible. In autumn, he completed the design of levels that proved challenging even for his friends. That winter, his wife's parents owned a record store, and there was talk of setting up a small computer section in it; at the time, a salesman who happened to see the game suggested to Imabayashi that it had commercial potential. Imabayashi then began preparing Sokoban for commercial release; using a NEC PC-8801 in the computer section, he decided on the design, enhanced the graphics, and expanded the level count to twenty. He founded Thinking Rabbit, and Sokoban was released as its first commercial title. The timeline of these events varies across sources: official records report a 1982 founding and a December 1982 release, while other sources give 1983 as the release year, with differing months: April, May, and June, as well as a June 1983 company debut or incorporation.
In August 1983, the Japanese magazine PC Magazine published Sokoban Extra Edition as a type-in program with ten new levels, developed by Thinking Rabbit at the magazine's request. In 1984, Thinking Rabbit released Sokoban 2, which included fifty new levels and a puzzle editor. Throughout the 1980s, new titles appeared on various Japanese platforms, including home computers such as the MSX and PC-9801, and consoles like the Famicom, Sega SG-1000, Sega Mega Drive, and Game Boy. These releases were developed either by Thinking Rabbit or by other companies under license agreements. Spectrum HoloByte in California licensed Sokoban from Japan's ASCII and adapted the MSX version for IBM PC, Apple II, and Commodore 64, adding features for the U.S. market; it was released as Soko-Ban in early 1988. Falcon, a Japanese software company, trademarked the game's kanji name "" in 1988. New titles in the official series were released in Japan throughout the 1990s for platforms including the Super Famicom, Windows, Macintosh, and PlayStation.
Around 2000, Thinking Rabbit became inactive but remained a legal entity. In 2001, Falcon acquired the copyrights for Sokoban, and trademarked the Latin-script name "Sokoban" in 2003 and the name "Thinking Rabbit" in 2011. From 2004 to 2007, Falcon developed several titles for Japanese mobile phones. Between 2015 and 2018, Falcon developed five Sokoban titles for Windows and the smartphone game Sokoban Touch (2016), publishing each under the Thinking Rabbit brand.The source distinguishes between the former legal entity and the brand name owned by Falcon. Notably, Falcon bundled four of these Windows titles into the (2016) to commemorate the series' 35th anniversary, which was published by . Falcon developed three Sokoban titles for Japanese digital terrestrial television broadcasters in 2018. Unbalance developed and published an official title in 2021, The Sokoban, for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4.
Games Sokoban has a fixed set of gameplay rules; however, certain official releases have expanded the rules or introduced variations on the core mechanics. For example, the first commercial release of the game, (1982–1983), allows certain walls to be broken from level 11 onward. The PlayStation version of features a set of levels in which boxes must be stored in an arrangement that completes an electrical circuit. and each offer a game mode that follows standard Sokoban rules. Additionally, each offers another mode featuring action-oriented mechanics; in the former title, the mode allows the use of tools such as ropes, whereas in the latter title, the mode requires pushing enemies into holes and puppets onto magic circles. retains the classic gameplay and offers a versus mode where two players race to complete the same puzzle with random screen rotation. Conversely, is an action-puzzle game that deviates from the warehouse keeper mechanic; the player shoots orbs and fills holes with boulders.
More than 20 official Sokoban titles have been released across over 30 platforms. The following table lists titles in the Sokoban series; it is not exhaustive.
TitleReleasePlatformDeveloperPublisherRegion1982–1983NEC PC-8801NEC PC-6001mkIINEC PC-8001mkIIFujitsu FM-7Sharp MZ-2000Sharp X1Thinking RabbitThinking RabbitJapan1983NEC PC-8801Thinking RabbitJapan1984NEC PC-9801NEC PC-8801NEC PC-6001mkIINEC PC-8001mkIIFujitsu FM-7Sharp X1Thinking RabbitThinking RabbitJapan (ROM pack)1984MSXASCIIASCIIJapan (Tape pack)1984MSXSeiji Nishikawa1985Game Pocket ComputerEpochEpochJapan1985SG-1000SegaSegaJapan1986Famicom Disk SystemASCIIASCIIJapanSoko-Ban1988IBM PCCommodore 64Apple IISpectrum HoloByteSpectrum HoloByteUSMirrorsoftUKNorth America, Europe1989NEC PC-9801Thinking RabbitThinking RabbitJapanNEC PC-8801Thinking RabbitSharp X68000Thinking RabbitSharp X1Thinking RabbitFM TownsThinking RabbitMSX2Micro CabinBoxxleNA,EU1989Game BoyAtelier DoublePony CanyonJPFCINAFCI FranceEUJapan, North America, Europe1990NA1991EUShove It! The Warehouse GameNA1990Sega GenesisJPDreamWorksNAJapan, North America1990NABoxyboyNA1990TurboGrafx-16Media RingsMedia RingsJPNECNAJapan, North America1990NABoxxle IINA1990Game BoyAtelier DoublePony CanyonJPFCI AmericaNAJapan, North America1992NA1990Namco System 1NamcoNamcoJapan1990Game GearRiverhill SoftRiverhill SoftJapan1991NEC PC-9801Thinking RabbitThinking RabbitJapan1993Sharp X68000Thinking RabbitSharpJapan1993Super FamicomPack-In-VideoPack-In-VideoJapan(for Windows/for Macintosh)1995WindowsOutbackItochuJapan1996MacintoshOutback1996PlayStationThinking RabbitItochuJapan1998WindowsOutback1997PlayStationOutbackItochuJapan1997WindowsOutback1997MacintoshOutback1998WindowsOutbackFujitsu ParexJapan1998PlayStationSoft OfficeThinking RabbitUnbalanceJapan1999Super FamicomAtelier DoubleNintendoJapan1999Game BoyJ WingJapan1999PlayStationThinking RabbitThree DUnbalanceJapan2000WindowsUnbalance2000WindowsUnbalance2004EZwebFalconSquare EnixJapan(1/2/3)2004EZweb2004i-modeFalconDwangoJapan(1-1/1-2/1-3/2-1/2-2/2-3/3-1/3-2/3-3)2004–2005i-mode2007i-modeKonamiKonamiJapan2015WindowsFalconThinking RabbitJapan2015Windows2016WindowsFalcon2016WindowsFalconSokoban Touch2016AndroidiOSFalconThinking RabbitWorldwide2016WindowsFalconJapan2018WindowsFalconThinking RabbitJapan2018Digital terrestrial televisionFalconChukyo TelevisionJapan2018Digital terrestrial televisionMiyagi Television2018Digital terrestrial televisionNippon TelevisionJPThe Sokoban2019JPNintendo SwitchPlayStation 4UnbalanceUnbalanceJapan2021Worldwide
Reception The first Sokoban title became a bestseller in Japan, with over 25,000 copies sold by July 1984. Junji Tanaka wrote that the first level of the PC-8801 version perplexed puzzle enthusiasts upon release. Titles for Japanese home computers, such as the NEC PC-9801 and Sharp X1, were said to have sold more than 100,000 copies combined. The MSX version alone, published by ASCII, sold over 400,000 copies and was considered a commercial success. The U.S. release, Soko-Ban, sold over 50,000 copies by mid-September 1988. By , after 13 years of availability, the series had sold over one million copies; By , after 15 years, total sales, including for PlayStation exceeded 1.4 million units across all platforms, including game consoles, word processors, and electronic organizers. By 2018, Chukyo Television Broadcasting reported that the series had sold over 4.1 million copies worldwide since its 1982 release.
The 1990 book described Sokoban as "the king of PC puzzles", listing Sokoban 1, Sokoban 2, and Sokoban Perfect. It included Sokoban 1 (1983) in its top 10 games of the 1980s, a list selected by 71 industry experts based on titles they considered most memorable rather than personal preference.
Reviewers often emphasized the game's addictive nature. In 1983, Micomgames staff remarked that players would find it difficult to stop playing Sokoban. In 1988, Roy Wagner of Computer Gaming World suggested that anyone trying the US version, Soko-Ban, would likely remain absorbed for an extended period. The Computer Entertainer newsletter described the game as "fascinating" and "almost impossible to stop playing". In its console reviews, Computer and Video Games magazine called Sokoban for Game Boy "an infuriatingly addictive little title" and said its appeal was "not far off" from Tetris. In 1990, recognized Sokoban as a staple puzzle game, citing its difficulty, depth, and continued presence across multiple platforms.