The shifting of the gaming landscape is fascinating and somewhat saddening to watch for me. So often now games focus on telling an emotional story or throwing you into a massive world full of spectacle, but a couple of decades ago games could be focused on chasing scores while still being popular. I’m not even talking about those arcade years that laid the groundwork for consoles, I’m talking about Tony Hawk and his skating mates. The Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series was outrageously popular when I was a teen, and pretty much started its own culture on the playground alongside shows like Jackass. With beloved soundtracks and sensational trick based action they were nigh on untouchable, until time and some bad peripherals blasted them away. Denshattack still remembers how much fun chasing scores and doing mad tricks is though, except with trains in a climate crisis Japan.
In a (let’s face it probably not that distant) future, climate change has left the world in tatters. The ultra rich have set up domed cities across Japan to hide away from the issue and live in luxury, while everyone else has gone back to a simpler life in a recovering world of nature. Emi is one of those outside the bubbles, who delivers ramen to the masses on an old train. One delivery changes her life though, as someone notices her driving skills. Turns out she’d be perfect for Denshattack, a high speed train stunt sport that defies physics but is rad as hell. Thus begins a cross country adventure that will blow your tiny mind.
There’s a lot to get to grips with in Denshattack, but fortunately it’s drip fed to you. In the first stage you’ll just learn about moving your little train, which is easier said than done. For the most part you’ll move around the rails automatically, but to keep your speed up around corners you’ll need to time drifts right. You can also use the left stick to swap to nearby rails if there’s an incoming hazard, or even defy gravity and jump over them. Even this tutorial stage is a ridiculous amount of fun, but that’s the tiniest tip of an iceberg that’d make the Titanic shudder.
Getting to the end of a stage is one thing, but a big part of Denshattack is scoring big points. You’ll do this by doing tricks, which mainly involves flicking the right stick in different directions as you soar through the air. Doing this makes your train flip in absolutely ludicrous ways, and it doesn’t get old. A few stages later you’ll learn how to manual to chain tricks into ridiculous combos, you’ll be shown how to grind on rails (which are different to tracks, and require balance like Tony) and how to ride walls and tunnels. The sheer amount that Denshattack keeps adding can feel overwhelming, but there’s plenty of incentive to keep playing old levels and practice the basics.
Each stage of Denshattack gives you a medal for three distinct reasons, completion time, trick score, and how many side objectives you complete. You don’t have to aim to do everything at once though, so can focus on a speed run first then switch to focusing on mad train flips instead. The side objectives are especially fun, with tasks like performing specific tricks across gaps, honking to scare caves of bats, and finding collectibles littered around branching paths. You could feasibly spend hours on single stages of Denshattack aiming for top medals and higher scores, and there are dozens and dozens of them to enjoy.
The stages themselves have so much variety too, with wild moments and different structures separating them. There are stages that see you racing other trains, with aggression encouraged of course. Some stages are open instead of featuring an actual end goal, with objectives scattered around that you need to travel between. At the end of each world there are even boss fights, and to say these are outrageous would be an understatement.
As if Denshattack isn’t wild enough just for featuring trains doing backflips, it also has some of the most ludicrous moments ever seen in gaming. Fighting a mech with a train is just unashamedly stupid, as is riding on a rolling Ferris Wheel. The sheer spectacle of Denshattack just doesn’t let up, and it kept me glued to my Steam Deck for hours.
Part of what makes all these moments and locations special are the visuals, which are vibrant and stylish without exception. The Jet Set Radio vibes continue with the absolutely banging soundtrack, which is apparently essential for any and all extreme sport games (even those involving trains).
The style continues with your train itself, which can be decorated with stickers and paint jobs you unlock for collecting bits and bobs on the tracks. You can even change trains entirely, with different trains granting different buffs. Want to flip faster and are willing to sacrifice manual time for it? That’s an option. Each train has a strength and weakness to consider which might just suit your playstyle, so it’s absolutely worth experimenting.
Denshattack is a wonderful game full of flips and fun, but it does have some minor frustrations. The biggest of these is how much it throws at you, which especially in the opening hours is overwhelming. For my first few sessions I’d start the game forgetting half of the mechanics, and perform pretty badly because of this. You can counteract this by playing early levels extra and I’d definitely recommend that, but new stages full of silliness are also far too tempting to jump into.
Denshattack is a sublime take on the extreme sports genre, with a healthy scoop of ridiculousness thrown on for good measure. The sheer amount of content it provides is ludicrous too, and it’s gorgeous to look at and listen to on top of that. As long as you’re willing to learn a whole host of mechanics you’ll have a fantastic time riding the rails of Japan, and flipping all the way.
