It’s rare to play a game as creative and unique as Denshattack! It doesn’t take long to broadcast it strong sense of style and completely bonkers presentation. Between its highly imaginative level design and fever-dream-esque setpieces, it’s hard not to be enthralled by what it has to offer.
Despite being made by a Spanish studio, Denshattack! is set in Japan with a mostly Japanese cast. Emi is a young woman who uses her old train to deliver ramen, but she soon learns about Denshattack, which is a sort of gang duel using trains. She decides to travel Japan to become the best at this for some reason. The presentation is terrific, even if some of the voice actors pronounce Japanese names incorrectly here and there (Madoka is not pronounced “muh-doe-kuh”, people!)
Denshattack! is divided into a series of areas, each with multiple levels, culminating in a boss battle. These segments are usually on the shorter side, often taking just a few minutes to play through, though certain levels (such as boss battles and multi-objective sequences) are much longer. Each level has medals you can earn based on your performance, too, so replay value is high for anyone who wants all the gold medals.
As far as gameplay goes, you can think of the game as being akin to an auto-runner Sonic game crossed with Tony Hawk. Your train pushes ahead at a breakneck pace, and you can jump, drift, change tracks, wallride, railgrind, and much more. There are even many levels where you can move far more freely, such as driving in any direction in a tunnel.
The game controls beautifully, and there’s a surprisingly high skill ceiling in terms of what you can do. You might think that the control options afforded would be rigid or limited, but they’re absolutely not. There’s a significant focus on tricking, achieved by jumping and moving the right stick in specific patterns. Holding forward or backward upon landing can even cause you to manual, which creates a combo multiplier that can be chained further.
All of this comes together splendidly once it all clicks. There really is so much depth here, but much of it is also fairly optional, considering that you only need to make it to the end of the level to move on. Actually fully completing each level will take a lot more time and effort, as they all have collectibles to grab, as well as dares (think the level goals in Tony Hawk). Each level also has bronze, silver, and gold medals for scores and times.
Verdict
I’ve never seen anything quite like Denshattack! before, and it’s truly an amazing experience. It delivers its gameplay with panache and lots of hooks, while also offering the ability to buy and customize trains to keep things fresh. Anyone who digs bizarre concepts and wants something akin to Tony Hawk will find a whole lot to love here.
