Denshattack!

Genre: Arcade / Sports (Xtreme)

Players: 1

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Review:

Denshattack!, released in 2026 on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch, is an odd game that seems to reside somewhere roughly in the area of Arcade-style games and Xtreme Sports games. However, unlike games that have you riding and tricking out on a skateboard or motorbike, Denshattack! has players riding and performing tricks on a… regional transit train. It’s absurd, silly, and over-the-top, and this game absolutely knows it, with an expressive presentation to match.

That presentation uses colorful 3D visuals with extremely stylized cel-shaded visuals that evoke the Jet Set Radio franchise, with anime-style characters and absurd setpiece moments – in one early area you’ll find yourself riding your train atop a Ferris wheel one moment, dodging blasts of fire as you outrun a volcano eruption the next. In short, if this game ever heard of subtle, it decided very quickly that it want’s nothing to do with it.

While this game’s visuals are very expressive, on a technical level they’re not especially impressive, with simple 3D used for everything. The game does at least have a high resolution and smooth framerates that are both much-appreciated given the fast-paced nature of this game, but it doesn’t seem like it necessarily needs the extra horsepower of the Nintendo Switch 2.

These visuals are backed by a fast-paced soundtrack befitting this game’s speedy action, with some great examples including Beppu Ramen Express, I Like the Way, Dead Ball Run, and Mikan Kingdom.

For the gameplay, I’ve heard others compare this game to the OlliOlli series, saying it’s kinda’ like what you’d get if that series was done in 3D, and that seems like an apt assessment. Players control a train that’s on rails and can make it jump, slam down from the air, move over to an adjacent track, do spin tricks in mid-air, or “drift” through turns to get a boost. Using this, players must try to do as many tricks as possible while avoiding hazards, with different courses also containing additional goals.

It all works well enough, but the gameplay necessarily taking place almost entirely “on-rails” really feels like it limits your freedom to do tricks creatively, and at times it can feel like you’re just responding appropriately to what the game throws at you rather than making active choices on your own. And on those occasions where you do make choices, such as choosing which split in a path to take, it’s often not clear what the benefits or drawbacks of those choices are before you make them. What’s more, the viewpoint can make it difficult to parse what’s coming up farther down on the track in time to react to it.

While this doesn’t stop Denshattack! from being a fun fast-paced Arcade-style game with plenty of great moments and an impeccable sense of style, this does mean that players don’t have the same level of agency they tend to have in Xtreme Sports games. If you’re just looking for a fun game that’s not too deep, I think you’ll enjoy Denshattack!, but it’s hard not to wonder what this game might have played like if it were… well, taken off the rails.

tl;dr – Denshattack! is a blend of Arcade-style gameplay and Xtreme Sports elements as players control a train doing tricks on rails. It’s a silly concept done with an expressive sense of style here, and while its set piece design can make for some good fun, being stuck to rails shackles players to a lack of freedom that keeps the game from greater depths. This is still a fun and quirky game that I think many players will enjoy, but I don’t think it lives up to its full potential.

Grade: B-

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