From the moment I laid eyes on Denshattack!, there was something about it that had me instantly enamoured. Was it the Dreamcast-inspired bright, blocky colours? The upbeat music? Or the fact that you’re pulling off sick tricks and grinding rails on a freakin’ train? Probably all three, come to think of it.
The only sticking point was the gameplay. Would this offer depth and longevity to go with its stellar presentation, or would it be little more than a glorified knock-off of Subway Surfers? Well, I’m happy to say that Denshattack is a joyous time that recaptures that distinctive early ’00s vibe of games like Jet Set Radio and Crazy Taxi. The downside is that it’s surrounded by superfluous fluff that brings down the overall experience.
As protagonist Emi Araki, you’re pulled from your menial job as a ramen delivery driver to become a Denshattacker, thrust into a world in which train drivers turn their vehicles into giant, metaphorical skateboards to win races and score big points. You’ll encounter a bunch of colourful and brash characters along your journey, but the narrative and copious dialogue sequences quickly outstay their welcome.
In fact, it’s a blessing that you’re able to skip the dialogue sequences altogether, as it became apparent within just a few levels that I simply don’t care about the overarching narrative. You’re given context behind the characters you’re racing against and their place in the world, but it often feels like meaningless bloat, artificially extending what would otherwise be a slick, well-paced campaign.
There’s one specific level that contains an objective where you need to drop off passengers at stations dotted around the tracks, and despite the blatant nod to Crazy Taxi, this probably would have functioned well as the core hook for the entire game. Pick up passengers, drop them off, score points along the way – done. Instead, Denshattack! gets too big for its boots, forcing itself to be something that it really didn’t need to be.
Thankfully, the gameplay itself is stellar. Levels mostly consist of set paths that you’ll automatically follow from start to finish, and your job is to get there in one piece while making it look as stylish as possible. Starting with the basics, you’ll learn how to boost around corners, jump over obstacles, and waggle the right analogue stick in specific ways to pull off airborne tricks. As you progress, more abilities will be gradually introduced, like grinding on rails, wall-riding, and breaking free from the tracks entirely for some freewheeling mayhem.
It’s the kind of experience that you’re not going to nail straight away. You’ll spend a good chunk of time careening off the tracks and into a cliffside, eventually winding up with an adequate, yet deflating bronze medal at the end of each level.
But that’s the point. It takes time to really get to grips with the mechanics, and once you feel you’ve got a good handle on the basics, Denshattack! introduces something new to keep you on your toes.
Once it clicks, it’s an intensely satisfying experience that begs to be replayed over and over to bag those coveted gold medals and beat your previous high score. Stringing tricks together perfectly is exhilarating, and this is enhanced further by special ‘rainbow’ tracks that appear once you hit a certain combo level, letting you explore new routes and increase your score exponentially.
If that were all there is to it, repetition might rear its ugly head before too long. Thankfully, developer Undercoders has done well to ensure that each level has at least something unique to set it apart. So you might find yourself navigating through a volcano and avoiding fireballs hurtling toward you, riding atop a dislodged Ferris wheel, or collecting costume parts and making a cameo appearance in a Kabuki play – yeah, really.
It’s delightful stuff, only enhanced by the excellent presentation. It’s clear that Denshattack! was built as an homage to Sega’s Dreamcast era, evident in the bold contrast of blue skies and yellow carriages, with over-the-top special effects and striking black outlines. As far as music goes, it would have been nice to get a few licensed tracks in there to really nail that Crazy Taxi vibe, but the original tracks are pretty good for the most part. Some tunes even reminded me of Splatoon, which is high praise indeed.
Crucially, it all runs very well on the Switch 2, with minimal frame drops from the 60fps target and lightning-fast restarts whenever you crash out. It eradicates any sense of frustration when you’re struggling with a particular level, as you can just keep respawning almost instantaneously without any sense of punishment. Obviously, your overall performance at the end of each level will be affected, but practising and learning from your mistakes has at least been made as painless as possible.
Outside of the main levels, you’ll also be given the opportunity to pimp out your train with new colours, patterns, stickers, and more. You’ll unlock more as you progress, and while this is little more than an aesthetic choice, it’s nice to add a little personality to your ride.
You’ve also got onsen levels which serve as minor breaks from the action to explore character relationships as you relax in the hot springs. This just goes back to my earlier point in which the game needlessly extends the overall runtime (which clocks in at around 10-15 hours) with excessive bloat, but thankfully you can just back out of these immediately if you don’t wish to interact with them.
Denshattack! is an effective homage to Sega’s Dreamcast era without feeling too derivative. Using a train, of all things, to pull off insane tricks to increase your score sounds utterly ridiculous on paper, but it all works very well. It’s the kind of gameplay that invites you to play it again and again to perfect your runs and earn those lofty gold medals.
It’s just a shame that the core hook is surrounded by needless fluff that bloats the overall experience. Yes, you can skip most of it, but Denshattack! would have shone even brighter had the devs leaned further into its arcade-style inspirations. Still, it’s well worth a punt for its gameplay alone, and there’s a strong foundation here to spawn an even better sequel in the future.
