Trains doing kickflips and a rush of arcade adrenaline make Denshattack! one of the year’s most original indie games.
A locomotive should not be able to leap through the air, ride along a wall, and land back on the tracks after chaining together several tricks. Denshattack! does not try to justify any of it. Instead, it steps on the gas, cranks up the music, and trusts players to embrace one of the most absurd—and effective—ideas the arcade genre has delivered in a long time.
For those of us who grew up with Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and Jet Set Radio, the current state of the industry has left a difficult void to ignore. Denshattack! revives that philosophy of mastering tricks, chasing high scores, and replaying levels, combines it with music and Japanese urban culture, and replaces skateboards with something far less discreet: trains.
An Original Idea Executed With Complete Confidence
On paper, controlling a locomotive as though it were a gigantic skateboard sounds like the premise of a parody. In practice, it only takes a few minutes to stop questioning it. Trains leap between tracks, drift, perform wallrides, spin through the air, and chain together tricks with an agility that defies every known law of railway physics.
The controls are the real achievement. Inputs are precise, the mechanics are easy to understand, and it never feels as though you are fighting against the vehicle. Even when a maneuver ends in disaster, it is usually clear what went wrong and what needs to be corrected on the next attempt.
It is easy to learn and difficult to master. Reaching the end does not present an especially punishing barrier, but earning every gold medal requires learning the routes, reacting quickly, and making full use of every available move. The challenge is there for those who want it without preventing everyone else from enjoying the ride.
Four Minutes of Speed and Controlled Chaos
Most levels last around four minutes, a decision that fits perfectly with the arcade spirit of Denshattack!. Each run is short and intense, capable of triggering that dangerous “just one more” thought that usually leads to another half hour in front of the screen.
Objectives alternate between skill challenges, high-score runs, and races against rival crews. The latter add a more aggressive element: you need to drive well, slam into competitors, and survive a level of chaos that occasionally recalls Mario Kart, except the shells have been replaced by several tons of speeding metal.
Each area introduces a new mechanic. At first, switching tracks and jumping is enough; before long, the game expects players to ride along walls, perform increasingly complex tricks, and even fly through the air. The move set expands gradually, preventing levels from feeling like variations of the same route and always leaving another medal or path to perfect.
A Dystopian Japan Bursting With Personality
The aesthetic goes beyond simply covering a Japanese city in neon lights. Denshattack! draws from several of the country’s urban subcultures and transforms them into rival crews with distinctive, exaggerated, and frequently humorous identities.
Along the way, players encounter groups inspired by gyaru culture—including one member fascinated by nekos—baseball-loving school bullies, Japanese rockabillies, and the inevitable bōsōzoku biker gang. Each crew represents a different corner of Japanese popular culture and helps give every region its own identity.
Progression is also reflected in Emi’s growing crew. Whenever a defeated boss joins the group, the loading screen is updated to add them to the train, making the image increasingly crowded as the journey continues. It is a small touch, but it perfectly captures the feeling of gradually bringing a community together.
A Shonen Story Built to Serve the Action
The narrative is the least surprising part of the experience. Emi wants to become the greatest Denshattack competitor, mastering an underground extreme sport in which different crews race across abandoned railway lines and perform impossible stunts. Her adventure follows a traditional shonen structure: new rivals, increasingly dramatic confrontations, and former enemies who eventually join the cause.
Everything takes place in a dystopian Japan where the authorities are trying to eradicate the sport while the privileged classes live isolated inside their own bubbles. The conflict between a controlled society and young people reclaiming abandoned spaces connects directly with the rebellious spirit of Jet Set Radio: tricks, music, and urban culture become forms of resistance.
The plot is neither especially deep nor difficult to predict, but it serves its purpose without interrupting the action. What it lacks is a more dynamic presentation. Story sequences rely on static illustrations and dialogue boxes, when animated cinematics could have given the characters and rivalries considerably more impact. It is an understandable limitation for an independent production, but it remains one area where the game could have gone further.
A Soundtrack That Sets the Pace
Music is an essential part of the experience, turning every stage into a continuous rush of energy. The combination of speed, colorful explosions, and tracks that maintain the momentum ensures that even replaying the same challenge several times remains entertaining.
At its best, Denshattack! feels like a lost arcade machine that someone restored with modern controls. It retains the immediacy of games designed to grab your attention from across a crowded arcade, but avoids relying on nostalgia as its only quality. It understands what made its influences special and uses those ideas to build something of its own.
Verdict: 8/10
Denshattack! could easily have remained little more than an amusing gimmick. Instead, Undercoders turns its premise into a polished, precise, and surprisingly addictive arcade game built around short stages that constantly encourage players to improve.
The story and its static presentation are the game’s more modest elements, but its gameplay, music, and depiction of Japanese subcultures more than compensate for those shortcomings. Every region expands the train’s possibilities, and every unfinished medal provides another good reason to return.
It is also difficult not to imagine how well a multiplayer mode could work, whether competitive, battle-based, or simply a traditional versus option. The races, collisions, and trick system seem designed for several players to face off against one another. Multiplayer is not necessary to enjoy the current experience, but it would be a natural evolution capable of extending the game’s longevity considerably.
Anyone who misses Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, Jet Set Radio, and the golden age of arcade games will find much more than a tribute here. Denshattack! recaptures that mixture of style, rebellion, and high-score obsession while displaying enough personality to avoid living in the shadow of its influences. Acrobatic trains and all, it is one of the year’s most entertaining and original indie games.