Denshattack! arrives with an ambitious premise: a fusion of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater's trick system, Jet Set Radio's vibrant cel-shaded aesthetic, and the arcade simulation of Densha de Go, all set in a dystopian, climate-ravaged Japan. Players pilot trains, executing elaborate aerial maneuvers and races to take down a shadowy megacorporation named Miraido. While the game offers moments of exhilarating spectacle, it ultimately struggles to reconcile its disparate elements, leading to an experience that is often more frustrating than fun.
The narrative follows Emi, a ramen delivery train jockey who becomes embroiled in the underground sport of Denshattack. This sport involves performing tricks and races on a network of train tracks that crisscross the nation. Emi, portrayed as a naturally talented and optimistic protagonist akin to Goku, embarks on a quest to become the best, gathering a cast of colorful characters along the way. While the story draws heavily from anime tropes, featuring archetypes like the supportive rich girl and the grudging rival, its charm lies in its infectious punk rock energy and the sheer absurdity of its premise.
Train Tricks and Track Design
The core gameplay loop revolves around controlling a train that can perform a wide array of tricks. Players utilize the right analog stick to execute maneuvers, with more complex tricks requiring inputs reminiscent of fighting games. Chaining these tricks together is essential for high scores, but the game emphasizes variety, penalizing repetitive actions. A helpful 'Tricktionary' provides a comprehensive guide to the game's extensive trick library, allowing players to expand their repertoire as they progress.
Missions take players across a visually striking, post-disaster Japan, featuring varied environments and objectives. Some levels focus on racing or achieving high scores, while others task players with completing specific tasks, such as restoring censored art or delivering items. The levels themselves are dynamic, offering multiple paths that can unlock new routes and high-flying '8 Million Roads' alternate tracks, achieved by chaining tricks to fill an energy bar. This system, which evokes Mario Kart's Rainbow Road, adds a layer of strategic depth, encouraging players to combine drifting, jumping, grinding, and wall-riding into seamless combos.
The game's campaign, lasting approximately 10 to 15 hours, continuously introduces new mechanics, such as attaching trains to monorails or utilizing air currents. These moments, set to an energetic soundtrack, contribute to the game's often-spectacular presentation. Individual missions are relatively short, but significant replayability is offered through collectible parts for new trains, customization options like spray paint and stickers, and detailed in-game zines created by Emi's companion, Fernando. These zines provide lore, character backstories, and even Emi's ramen reviews, adding a unique touch to the game's world-building.
Boss battles are a particular highlight, featuring encounters against trains that combine like mechs, burrow like sand snakes, or act as mobile fortresses. These anime-inspired sequences are seamlessly integrated with the core gameplay, offering distinct challenges that feel earned and satisfying.
A Disconnect Between Concept and Execution
Despite these strengths, Denshattack! falters significantly in its core mechanics. The game consistently fails to deliver a convincing train simulation. There is a notable lack of inertia or weight, with gravity seemingly having little effect on the trains, whether ascending steep slopes or descending ramps. This absence of realistic physics undermines the train aspect of the game, reducing it to a mere cosmetic choice for what is essentially a trick-based score-attack experience.
The game also struggles with consistency in its gameplay rules. The train's ability to perform maneuvers like wall-running flickers inconsistently, and attempts to deviate from intended paths are often met with a game-imposed penalty for poor balance. The freedom offered by trick chains is frequently overshadowed by scripted events and quick-time-event-like gimmicks, leaving players with little agency. Visual clarity is also an issue, with environmental elements like colored lanterns or grind rails sometimes blending into similarly colored backgrounds, making quick reactions difficult.
Furthermore, the game's thematic elements sometimes clash with its mechanics. While promoting anti-corporate and environmentalist themes, some optional challenges involve honking the train's horn to scare animals. The tricks themselves, rather than broadening the player's abilities or scoring potential, often function as a means to survive scripted setpieces, with later-acquired abilities being disabled when replaying earlier tracks. This inconsistency, coupled with a lack of clarity on what maneuvers are permissible and when, makes improvement difficult and leads to a feeling of unfairness.
Ultimately, Denshattack! finds itself stranded between two diverging paths. It presents itself as an exciting blend of train simulation and trick-based action, but the inconsistent execution of its core mechanics and a lack of clear direction prevent it from fully realizing its potential. While its vibrant presentation and anime-inspired spectacle offer glimpses of greatness, the underlying issues prevent it from truly gaining momentum.