It isn’t hyperbole to say that the Dreamcast was a miracle. Boundless creativity ran rampant at the highest levels of game development during the system’s three-year lifespan, and no concept was so far-reaching and absurd that it wasn’t worth seeing the light of day. Every so often, a game captures even a spoonful of that magic. Denshattack!, though, is the rarest, most beautiful thing: a modern game that embodies the spirit of the Dreamcast in totality.
Like all of that system’s best games, it begins with a concept that’s deliriously preposterous on paper: In a Japan ravaged and stratified by climate change, independent train operators have started using the derelict railroads littered across the countryside as not just the primary means of travel, but a countrywide network of death-defying, high-speed stunt courses. Trains are tricked out in a way that’d make Dominic Toretto blush. They tilt, flip, and spin like massive industrial skateboards. Every major city is ruled by flamboyant train gangs, and scrappy newcomer Emi sets out with her own little engine that could to take the crown from them all.
The game requires a learning curve as deep as any skateboard sim, and it’s possibly more challenging at the outset, as you’re also flying down tracks at bullet-train speeds and forced to watch for incomplete tracks, obstacles, and hard turns, all while landing enough tricks to build speed, grab secret items, and perform random tasks. For practical purposes, Denshattack! is a bonkers take on a skateboarding game, but functionally, it’s every bit as chaotic as your average modern-day Sonic title. There’s simply a lot going on here at any given moment.
Stages are deeply forgiving of mistakes, but you, the player, likely won’t be. Those stages, considering the way they’re scored and how they’re dotted with so many odd landmarks and alternate routes, are irresistible rollercoaster rides that practically insist on being re-experienced. From finding the twisty off-ramps leading to wilder obstacle courses to the hidden rainbow tracks only accessible after Emi’s train reaches a certain high level of combo, the “one more round” factor is powerful here and remains that way for all nine of its chapters.
Denshattack! is about commuter trains doing skateboard tricks, and it takes many of its stylistic and narrative cues from the likes of Jet Set Radio. The game presents a retrofuturist vision of multicultural street culture unlike anything outside of that 2000 classic. Any random frame of gameplay feels like the most audacious manga ever drawn. In between the actual stages, a familiar gang-warfare narrative plays out, but it also takes the believable real-world implications of its setting seriously, extrapolating on climate change, classism, and capitalism, and using the chosen family that Emi builds from around the countryside to weave a surprisingly heartfelt little tale of disenfranchised folks making the urban landscape their own.
These are likable people to be around, engaging in bewilderingly kinetic flights of fancy, all of them made to stand in contrast to the cold, corporate upper class that left them to rot in a climate-collapsed wasteland. The fact that the weapons of the resistance just happen to be high-speed trick trains only makes that difference more pronounced.
This game was reviewed with a retail copy purchased by the reviewer.
Since 2001, we've brought you uncompromising, candid takes on the world of film, music, television, video games, theater, and more. Independently owned and operated publications like Slant have been hit hard in recent years, but we’re committed to keeping our content free and accessible—meaning no paywalls or fees.
If you like what we do, please consider subscribing to our Patreon or making a donation.
