Denshattack! is finally here. This arcade action game from developers Undercoders and Fireshine Games pits your reflexes against Japan’s rail system in a dystopian future where people race train carriages for fun and profit. What’s not to love?
Some years from now, the ultra-rich have sequestered themselves into impenetrable, air-purifying domes, leaving the rest of Japan to rebuild a world governed by gang rule. You play as Emi, a young ramen delivery woman who stumbles into the thrilling underground world of train carriage racing — and discovers she’s a natural.
The world of Denshattack! is rendered in vivid, Japanese cartoon detail, built on the same cel-shaded aesthetic seen in games like Jet Set Radio or Auto Modellista. It’s a look that suits the material perfectly, giving the game’s crumbling, gang-run Japan the feel of a playground instead of a wasteland.
This playground exists for one purpose: flipping trains. Not off the track, mind you, but through a series of trick shots that wouldn’t feel out of place in a Tony Hawk skateboarding game. Emi learns to queue up sequences of moves to switch tracks (this is a dystopia. Sometimes there is no track!), jump obstacles and falling debris, power through sharp bends that would otherwise send her carriage careening off the rails, and occasionally, when the chaos calls for it, to hit the brakes.
The goal, ultimately, is to become the greatest train driver in Japan, which entails working your way through more than 50 different stages spread across the country, with each one throwing a new rival or objective at you. The controls themselves are easy enough to pick up in a few minutes (the game really holds your hand in the opening chapter) but there’s a real skill ceiling here. Getting your train to the end of the line by chaining moves together takes some practice.
As if simply staying on the track wasn’t enough, players can also chase a full suite of point-earning Tricks. These feats of prowess, learned along the way, include risky dodges, grinds, kickflips, heelflips, ollies, and more. The design, execution, and choreography of these various manoeuvres is extremely well thought out, and forms the beating heart of the game’s core mechanic. Thankfully, you’re not expected to memorize them all on your own. As you unlock each trick, it gets logged, along with a handy visual reminder of how to pull it off, in the game’s aptly named “Tricktionary.”
Territory in this world isn’t up for grabs so much as already claimed. Each region of Japan answers to its own gang, and every gang is ruled by a boss with a distinct look, attitude, and musical identity, drawing heavily from the fashions and subcultures found in Japan’s suburbs. That local flavor pays off nicely in the boss fights, which solve a tricky design problem of how to stage a big boss showdown when your only weapon is a train stuck to a rail? Undercoders’ answer is to stop treating the rail as a limitation at all. The same gravity-defying moveset that lets Emi jump, wallride, grind, and trick her way through a level also lets her juke incoming punches, deflect projectiles, stomp through a raised shield, and even slam a fifty-ton hit straight into a towering mecha.
The fights unfold in phases, requiring Em to size up an attack pattern, stay clear of the damage, and hunt for an opening to strike back. In practice that might mean chaining tricks and combos just to reach the boss, darting across rails to slip past a flurry of blows, then unloading with a grind or a ground pound the moment an opening appears. The game spends its first chapter teaching you those exact tools, so by the time an actual boss fight arrives, it feels less like an ambush and more like a final exam. So long as you can remember those button sequences.
Along her journey, Emi also faces off against rank-and-file rivals, collects upgrades, and climbs the ranks in pursuit of becoming the best in Japan. Between runs, you can customize your train with stickers and upgrades, collected by grabbing spray cans scattered across each nail-biting circuit. Frenetic, colourful, and backed by a bombastic arcade-style score, it’s a game that rarely lets up.
A fast and furious button-mashing fest like Denshattack! would be nothing without its musical score, and this is where the game truly goes all-out. Main composer Tee Lopes (Sonic Mania, TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge) is joined by an all-star lineup of contributors, including Ryo Nagamatsu (Splatoon series, Mario Kart series), Richard Jacques (Jet Set Radio series, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy), and Takenobu Mitsuyoshi (Daytona USA, Sega Rally Championship), among others. The result is a soundtrack packed with certifiable bangers that matches the on-screen chaos beat for beat.
Denshattack! is going to appeal to a certain type of arcade action gamer. If you love the lure of non-stop movement, vibrant visuals, a thumping musical score, and the mechanics of trick shots and high scores, or if you just really, really want to flip a train, then this one’s for you.
Denshattack! launches today, July 15, on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch 2.
Thanks to Fireshine Games for the review key.
Denshattack!: Denshattack! is a kaleidoscopic button-mashing extravaganza. However, beneath a neon-drenched, rail-bound joyride lies a surprisingly meticulous core. Hop on, hold tight, and try not to derail while chasing that perfect kickflip. – jgriffin
