Denshattack! Review — Trains Never Looked This Cool

Denshattack! is a very special game, and I can confidently say that I have never, ever played anything that even closely resembles it. I must confess that when I loaded it for the first time, I had zero clue what it was actually about. The first images showcasing an anime-like visual and art style misled me a bit, I must say.

However, the game doesn't waste any time making any meaningful introductions or anything; as soon as the first couple of scenes are over, Denshattack! throws you into your first train, and there is the moment when my jaw literally dropped. A game that borrowed all the mechanics from Tony Hawk's skateboarding games, but instead of surfing skateboards, you actually surf trains. Are you serious? This is actually a thing? I simply couldn't believe it, but it is what Denshattack! is really about.

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The climate disaster that reshaped Japan sits quietly in the background of almost every scene, told through the people still trying to live off the land rather than through exposition.

Story

Denshattack! isn't a game that will blow you away with its highly sophisticated story or a game you'll remember for its story, memorable characters, or anything like that. This is a game about surfing trains (however weird this might sound), and all its assets will be subordinate to this very fact. However, narrative in this game does exist.

Denshattack! follows Emi Araki, a 19-year-old ramen delivery driver from Beppu in Ōita Prefecture, living in a future Japan heavily hit by climate disaster. Most of the population now lives inside massive domed cities built and controlled by the Miraidō Corporation, a company that also operates the high-speed VACTRAIN system through which they keep people in check. Mostly over intrusive propaganda and AI that keeps everyone under its tight grip.

After Emi meets with Fernando by pure chance, he shows her something that will change her life forever. She gets introduced to a special sport in which players do special stunts with trains, jumping from one railway to the other, doing flips and backflips, pirouettes, and whatnot. Soon after, this small thrill will turn into something much bigger, because train stunts will become their way to oppose the government and fight against the idea of putting people inside those domes.

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Oita Prefecture sets the tone early, a small coastal town that makes Emi's eventual leap into Denshattacking feel like a real departure from her old life.

I say again, the story in Denshattack! isn't something that will make you remember this game by, but it is there; it has a head and tail, and it will serve its purpose as it is supposed to: to give the gameplay shape and to connect the dots between the gameplay sections.

Gameplay

The core idea of the gameplay in Denshattack! is actually very simple: you ride a train, and instead of driving it like a normal train, you use it to pull off skateboard-style tricks. Flips, backflips, spins, grinds, wall rides, you name it. Every track has its own course of obstacles, and getting past them means picking the right trick at the right moment. The controls feel smooth and responsive, which really matters here because timing in Denshattack! is everything.

You don't just move forward the whole time, either. As you play, you'll switch between tracks, jump gaps, traverse over thin rails, ride sideways on walls, and even squeeze through tunnels. As you progress through the game, new tracks get unlocked, and the game piles up new moves and new ways of traversal, so a run near the end of the game looks and feels a lot harder than one from the first hour, which is totally okay. That can be quite exciting, but it also means the game throws a lot at you fairly quickly, and you'll be forced to learn a lot of new stuff, especially if you're not used to such games.

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Emi is the game's protagonist who will do all the stunts and mischief along with you.

Better scoring means getting bigger combos. Chaining tricks together without messing up multiplies your points, so the real skill isn't just clearing a track; it's clearing it properly as it is intended, and, of course, in style. Go big, land clean, and keep the chain going for as long as you can if you want the best possible score.

Now, despite being a very unique and special game, there is something in Denshattack! that didn't sit well with me personally: games in which fast reactions are everything have never really been my thing, and that feeling shows up here too. There's a lot going on at once, especially later on, and staying on top of it all takes real focus. Luckily, the game won't punish you severely if you miss a jump or break the combo chain. If you crash, the game simply takes you back a bit, and you can start over; it will mess up the combo, of course, but you won't be forced to repeat the whole track, which makes things a lot easier than it might seem. That forgiveness makes experimenting with new tricks a lot less stressful than it could have been.

Where things get properly difficult is chasing a perfect score. Clearing a track is one thing. Nailing it with flawless timing and reflexes on every single trick is something else entirely and something that will give you a proper challenge. This alone gives the game very good replay value, and you'll definitely want to repeat some tracks that seemed too difficult earlier, but once you get your bearings, you'll want to reap more points on some difficult tracks.

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Every jump and stunt requires very fast reflexes and split-second reactions.

In essence, the gameplay in Denshattack! is really fun, and once you get a full feel of the controls, it all becomes a very smooth ride, the one that will surely widen your horizons on where the simple gameplay can reach, and how seemingly impossible mechanics to mix can successfully go together and make a small masterpiece of gameplay in the process.

Visuals, Sound, and Performance

Denshattack! is a very charming and good-looking game, with graphics that fully blend in with the overall theme of the game. The game uses a cel-shaded, anime-inspired art style full of bright colours and flashy effects, and it seems like a perfect choice. Characters are showcased in a hand-drawn, anime-like art style as well, and once you engage in conversation with each of them, you'll notice a beautiful contrast between them and the background that looks like it jumped out from the best anime colour book. The world around you looks and feels very lively, with things like an active volcano or a giant robot boss showing up without warning. I can say I was left speechless more than once when such scenes occurred, and the game, apart from parts with good gameplay, can really make an entrance with its graphical presentation, too.

The character designs are something I must praise above everything else. Everyone you meet along the way looks different, and a lot of them are more than obviously directly inspired by Japanese pop culture and fashion. Seriously, almost all the characters just radiate an aura only by looking at them, without any need to engage in conversations with them, and that alone tells you a lot about how well they are portrayed.

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Characters in Denshattack! are designed just perfectly.

Between missions, you can visit hot springs scattered around the map, where characters relax and chat, and this is where you can see the real beauty of Denshattack!'s visual presentation, with all different characters gathered up in the same place, with all the differences coming together and forming a beautiful mixture of everything the game has to offer from the visual point of view.

The soundtrack, much like the graphic presentation, is probably the second best part of Denshattack!. While you're riding and pulling off tricks, your ears will be treated with the finest hard rock and metal melodies, which makes every run feel bigger and more intense than it already is. What impressed me the most was the fact of who actually is "guilty" for such a killer soundtrack. Undercoders brought in a huge list of composers for this, including names like Tee Lopes and Richard Jacques, both known for their work on games with a similar high-energy, stylish feel.

The music in Denshattack! is not just a background noise or something to fill in the silence, no. The music here hits differently, pushing you to be better, to try harder, and to pull the best score possible, because the music has that kind of power, especially if done correctly, and in this game, it is surely done perfectly.

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Each ride is backed with the killer soundtrack that elevates the experience on a whole new level.

As for performance, I played Denshattack! on PC, and it ran beautifully the entire time. I kept everything on the highest settings and still saw frame rates sitting above 80fps consistently, with no stutters or slowdowns even during the busiest, most chaotic moments. For a game this reliant on split-second reactions, that kind of steady performance isn't just nice to have; it's necessary, and Denshattack! delivers on that front without a single complaint from me.

Final Thoughts

Denshattack! takes a concept nobody asked for, and nobody saw coming; at least I didn't: trains as extreme sports vehicles, and somehow makes it work flawlessly. The stunts feel great, the soundtrack hits hard, and the visuals match the energy of everything happening on screen, with one of the best-looking characters, which, by their looks alone, screams charisma and originality.

If, like it's the case with me, fast-paced gameplay with heavy reliance on quick reactions and fast reflexes is not your thing, you might find Denshattack! harder and kind of frustrating than a usual game can give you; however, the forgiving gameplay where you can easily correct your mistakes somehow compensates for it. If, on the other hand, you love quick reactions, I don't think anything will get in your way of fully enjoying this strange yet perfectly designed game.