Denshattack arrives as the kind of game that feels custom-built for a specific audience, yet somehow works for anyone willing to ride along. Picture Tony Hawk's Pro Skater crossed with Jet Set Radio, then strip away the board and replace it with a train barreling through dystopian Japan. The premise sounds absurd. The execution is anything but.
The game's setup is pure anime energy. You play Emi, a train delivery driver in a future Japan carved into protective domes by the megacorporation Miraido. Those outside the domes live rougher lives, free from corporate control but exposed to a ravaged climate. When Emi discovers the underground sport of Denshattack, a high-speed competition where skilled train pilots perform tricks and race, she finds her calling. Partnered with Fernando, a zine curator documenting the scene, she sets out to become the best Denshattacker alive.
Emi herself is basically Goku: relentlessly optimistic, naturally talented, and always chasing improvement. Her rise through the ranks follows a familiar playbook. She faces gang leaders scattered across Japan, defeats them through skill, and they join her crew one by one. The rival character who respects your talent before grudgingly aligning with you. The wealthy fashionista with a good heart. The grizzled engineers coaxed from retirement. None of this breaks new narrative ground, but Denshattack sells it with punk rock conviction and infectious charm.
The story exists primarily as scaffolding for what matters: piloting a train that ollies and kickflips. The game maps tricks to the right analog stick, scaling from simple flicks to complex fighting game inputs for the truly flashy maneuvers. Learning to chain tricks without repeating the same move too often becomes the core skill. Style matters as much as speed. A built-in Tricktionary lets you reference moves on the fly, making the learning curve steep but manageable.
What separates Denshattack from similar games is the relentless creativity of its level design. The roughly 10 to 15-hour campaign takes you across increasingly wild environments. You trick over giant stone heads, ride a Ferris wheel through abandoned cities, and demolish Miraido's surveillance towers. That's just the start. Volcanoes with rideable rails, sequences where you get swallowed by a shark, kabuki theaters transformed into trick courses, elaborate optional rainbow-colored tracks that unlock when you chain enough moves together. The variety never stops surprising.
Every level branches into multiple routes with distinct objectives. One mission might ask you to clear a bridge, restore censored public art, and deliver soba noodles across scattered checkpoints. You decide the order and path. Generous checkpoints mean failure never ends a run, just costs time, and your crew offers encouragement when you stumble. The game keeps escalating its toolset too, introducing monorail attachments, air current riding, wall runs, manuals, horn interactions, and more, each adding another layer to the orchestration required to stay clean through complex courses.
Between missions, you collect parts to unlock new trains, each with unique stat trade-offs. One might prioritize trick speed at the expense of manual distance. Another buffs your energy bar fill rate but reduces trick scoring. These aren't cosmetic choices, they fundamentally alter how you approach courses and incentivize replays to master different strategies. You can customize trains with spray paint and stickers, but the mechanical differences matter most.
Boss encounters at the end of each region showcase Denshattack's most anime sensibilities. You face enemy trains that merge Megazord-style, a mobile sand snake you can grind across, a moving castle bristling with cannons. Each boss feels distinct yet integrates smoothly with mechanics you've already mastered. Where games in this genre often stumble with boss design, Denshattack nails it, maintaining the flow and style of the campaign while throwing legitimate challenges your way.
The soundtrack pulses with catchiness, and Fernando's photo opportunities let you contribute images to his zine issues between missions. These zines flesh out regional lore, character backgrounds, train specs, and even Emi's ramen reviews. It's thoughtful worldbuilding wrapped in charm. Optional dares challenge you to crash-free runs, derail rivals, find hidden exits, or nail specific trick sequences at precise moments. Score-chasing modes track both time and trick scores, leaving plenty of room for players to hunt better medals on repeat visits.
Denshattack absolutely could have been a novelty, a one-joke premise that wears thin fast. Instead, it's a genuinely deep trick system wrapped in a love letter to arcade game design and anime adventure storytelling, buoyed by level design that consistently finds new ways to delight.
Author Emily Chen: "This is exactly the kind of unhinged, earnest game that proves indie developers understand what made the genre fun in the first place."
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