For many gamers, summer is often a chance to try out games that are a little different—and, when possible, ones you can play on a handheld device. Denshattack! clearly falls into this category of refreshing titles that offer immediate fun, yet are nonetheless deep and interesting. It’s a game that isn’t exclusively designed for the Switch or the Steam Deck (among others), though we certainly enjoyed playing it on a small screen. Playing on a big screen is just as finis if you own a PS5, an Xbox Series X or a PC, you're also in for a treat.
Developed by the Barcelona-based studio Undercoders, Denshattack! is a true love letter to Japan—from video games to manga and anime. It’s impossible not to think of Jet Set Radio when you see the game’s colorful art style and its wild, futuristic world, which is built on an equally crazy concept. In the world of Denshattack!, there’s an unlikely train competition where locomotives—like screeching metal skateboards—can be launched into the air to perform the most improbable tricks, switch tracks to avoid obstacles, ride along walls, or even grind along overhead railings. It’s a completely crazy idea that works incredibly well thanks to dizzying and inventive level design that never ceases to surprise, and accessible gameplay that offers plenty of room for progression, allowing you to revisit completed tracks to earn all the gold medals once you master the game more. Fans of a challenge can indeed strive to achieve the best times and scores and complete all the additional challenges offered on each track. Rest assured, you don’t have to accomplish everything at once during a single run. For those who don’t think they’re up to the task, don’t panic—progress is rarely hindered by the difficulty, and except for certain challenges that require reaching a specific score, you’re never forced to restart a race, whether you’ve met the point and time objectives or completed the specified challenges. Even if you don’t earn a bronze medal overall, it’s perfectly possible to continue the adventure.
The story unfolds through still images, sometimes accompanied by voice-overs (in English or Japanese, as you choose), in a very manga-style, and while I wouldn’t go so far as to say the plot is essential to the experience, the colorful characters help draw you into the game’s world. You progress through a map in the style of certain classic platformers—Mario foremost among them—with occasional brief stops at a local newspaper to fill in the unlocked fanzine pages, or at the workshop to customize your train (colors and stickers) a buy a new one (each has different stats with upsides and downsides). Some challenges require you to face the local boss, with unique mechanics that depend on the opponent (such as hitting a giant baseball back by performing a trick), others involve completing multiple objectives on a closed circuit with several branches that you loop around until you’ve found everything, but most have you on the tracks starting from point A with the goal of reaching the end of the route at point B. While the idea of moving along rails might seem very restrictive in a game that follows in the footsteps of Jet Set Radio or Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, that’s not the case at all. For one thing, the game regularly forces you to switch lanes to avoid obstacles or jump over them when no other option is available. On the other hand, you’re regularly forced to leap onto a wall or a railing, not to mention that the tracks are designed to blow your mind, with improbable sections that require you, for example, to steer the Ferris wheel you’ve just landed on while repeatedly making your train jump to avoid obstacles in your path. So you get a real thrill every time you discover a new track, and since you go from one surprise to the next, making progress is naturally much more motivating.
None of this would work as well without well-designed gameplay. Fortunately, Undercoders didn’t disappoint when it came to controls and gameplay feel. Since there are so many possibilities, the game introduces them gradually, giving us time to get the hang of them before adding more later on (which happens regularly, even after several hours of play). The heroine’s train can jump, brake, and skid (with a “perfect skid” mechanic if you get the timing right), perform tricks using the right stick, but it can also grind along railings (requiring you to maintain balance), immediately drop back to the ground after a jump (to avoid crashing into a mountainside, for example), and even leave the tracks to avoid certain obstacles (sometimes allowing you to drive on the ceiling or along the walls in the cylindrical tunnels you pass through). Of course, we won’t describe everything here—to avoid spoiling the surprise—but other ways to move around will also be part of the game. Since movement is meant to be fast-paced, the game always provides real-time guidance on the route. Just like in a rally game, you can count on signs appearing on the screen to warn you of a turn, a section where you need to use the train’s horn to open a barrier, and so on. If you think this might make things a little too easy for you, think again. It’s a welcome aid, but it won’t stop you from failing miserably several times per race. Fortunately, as we mentioned earlier, Denshattack! isn’t built around a frustrating progression model, so it’s possible to make several mistakes without any dramatic consequences. Undercoders has chosen not to penalize player errors, so each mistake simply requires you to restart a few seconds before the mishap. Unless you’re aiming to complete a race without a single spin-out (to win the corresponding challenge), you’re never forced to restart a race because of a mistake that would have cost you precious time.
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