At this very moment, there are three skateboards, two ambitious adults, and not a single ounce of skating ability inside my house. Despite my skill level being so low that I can’t even land an ollie, I’ve always had a soft spot for skating. That admiration was born partly from hanging out with my older brother and playing photographer as he attempted to grind rails in our hometown, and partly from Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. I grew up on that ska-infused, score-chasing, combo-hitting greatness, and I’ve got many a fond memory of days spent fruitlessly attempting to beat my brother’s ludicrously high scores. That’s all lovely and sentimental, but in this post-Denshattack! world I live in, all I can wonder is, “How much better would those moments have been if trains were involved?”
Alright, if you’ve never heard of Denshattack!, I owe you an explanation.
Developed by Spanish studio Undercoders, Denshattack! is a fast-paced arcade score-attack game that asks the question: How much cooler would it be if, instead of a skateboard, you land tricks using a whole damn train? Having recently gone hands-on with the game’s upcoming Steam Next Fest demo, I think the answer to the very obvious, not at all bizarre question might be: heaps cooler, man, heaps cooler.
I don’t mind waiting when the load screen is this cool
My short preview gave me access to Denshattack!’s tutorial, where I delivered ramen to a hungry customer, and three full-fat missions. Missions are laid out similarly to Pro Skater, with a time bonus awarded to speed conductors, and a range of objectives, named Dares, giving you additional goals to aim for as you spin, drift, jump, and grind through the level. Much like its inspiration, the Dares are kept relatively simple, asking you to complete a run without crashing (good luck), collect a number of mcguffins, land a certain number of tricks, and so on. In isolation, they’re easy enough, but running the full gamut in one run is far more challenging, so you can expect to replay missions a few times to tick everything off the list.
Thankfully, Denshattack! is a blast to control, so replaying levels will feel like a treat, not a punishment. Drifting around corners to gain a boost, jumping from track to track, and slamming back down to the ground are all standard movements, but they won’t net you a big score. For that, you’ll need to mix in aerial tricks, all of which are executed by flicking and rotating the right thumbstick mid-air. The drip-feed of each ability makes the control scheme easy enough to learn, but once you’re whizzing around a level at breakneck speeds, trying to keep a combo going while staying on track, you’ll quickly realise that there’s a high skill ceiling.
There’s a good chance you’ll crash more than once just from looking at the environment you’re training around in. The game’s art style and ludicrous use of bright colours make it pop in every frame. That would be true if this were a realistic depiction of Japan, but Denshattack!’s whacky post-disaster interpretation is filled with wild courses and scenarios, like landing on a Ferris wheel and driving it through a bay. Expect? No. Welcome? Absolutely.
My preview time with Denshattack! was brief, clocking in at just shy of 30 minutes, but holy smokes did it make an impression. The in-your-face style, frenetic gameplay, and pick-up-and-play control scheme will hopefully be enough to keep you playing, because the elevator pitch should definitely be enough to get you through the door. As with most short previews, I have questions about how well Denshattack! will be able to mix things up enough in the long term, but recent trailers have shown off boss fights with train mechs and desperate escape attempts from a gigantic baseball, so maybe I shouldn’t be too stressed.
Denshattack! is set for release across PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC in 2026.
Previewed on PC using code provided by the publisher
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