I love it when games get weird, wild, and unexplainable. It used to be the norm that, alongside heavy hitters and their straight up sequels, we would also have plenty of one-off experimental releases or flawed-yet-charming games sprinkled throughout. Now, as the major publishers tend to play it much safer, it’s up to indie developers to take creative liberties, and no release this year is more emblematic of that than Denshattack! After all, what other game can you play that lets you do kickflips, wall-jumps and ollies as a literal train?
It is immediately obvious that Denshattack is a love letter to anime. Forget the not-so-subtle Akira slide snuck into a cutscene, from second one of the game you’re introduced to a hyper-stylized sci-fi world where cities are built within bubbles, and each region is controlled by a hot-blooded and competitive Denshattacker. Denshattackers, naturally, are those who drive trains with the aim of doing sick tricks off impossible rails built across every inch of this hyper-coloured dystopia. Many of them are gang leaders butting heads under the not-so-subtle influence of the shadowy Miraidō corporation. As plucky soba delivery-person and novice Denshattacker Emi, you quickly set out to turn the tides of these rivalries, win over each leader to your cause, and ultimately take down the megacorp using the power of friendship. And trains.
The story is serviceable, but what it’s serving is some amazing gameplay. Denshattack is formatted like a Tony Hawk Pro Skater score-chaser, but a bit more on the… rails. Stages aren’t open-ended playgrounds but start-to-finish guided tours where you need to bust out as many tricks as possible or perform certain challenge actions. Each stage has a handful of divergent paths that can bring you to different routes, and you’ve even got rainbow coloured secret rails you can unlock if your tricks are potent enough. As a result, each stage is packed full of replayability and actively encourages it through its design. I felt the lure to hop back in and either improve my time score, my trick score, or my progress tackling specific challenges.
What I love most about these levels, though, is that they are filled with constant set-piece excitement. You aren’t just doing the same activities with the same camera angle the whole time. Each level will toss you into wildly different scenarios, like backflipping through a kabuki-show or setting off massive chain-reaction explosions. There are even boss fights, and they’re absolutely ridiculous. Each one uses your gameplay tools in different ways, but succeeds in making this trick-focused racing game into a hot-blooded action adventure.
I do wish the game tapped into a bit more were unlockables and customisation, though. There’s a really great bit where your progress through the story and challenges unlocks pieces that get slotted into a zine series all about the characters and world. Photos of some of your particularly sick challenge moments even get slapped into the zine. It’s cute, and fun, and sweet to see that kind of zine culture represented in a game. Customisation, however, is merely alright. You earn currency which you can use to buy new trains and…well, that’s kind of it. You can also unlock decals to put on those trains, but it doesn’t feel like enough. I would’ve either loved a wider variety of trains to find, or some kind of additional layer of customising like visible characters or deeper paint-job alterations.
Despite some lacking in the unlockables department, Denshattack is a blast. I can’t remember the last time I’ve played something so absurd, yet still so polished. It’s a game full of heart, and I can’t wait to see what this team does next.
