Denshattack! review: a Tony Hawk on rails at breakneck speed, Gamespot's take

If you love Tony Hawk's Pro Skater-style scoring, pure speed, and concepts that have no reason to exist but work perfectly, Denshattack! is made for you. Just know going in that the difficulty curve is brutal and that humiliation is part of the experience, according to the Gamespot journalist.

A Frankenstein that rolls (very, very fast)

You play as Emi, a train conductor in a dystopian, pop-colored Japan with rails that defy all laws of physics. Volcanoes, right-angle turns, Ferris wheels used as shortcuts: the level design is exuberant. The gameplay borrows its skeleton from skateboarding - drifts, aerial tricks, grinding on rails - and grafts it onto a train barreling along at speeds that would make an F1 car jealous. It's fundamentally absurd. And that's apparently where it gets good.

What really works

The sense of speed is the game's first real strength. This isn't cosmetic speed just for show: it's a pace that demands constant reading of the track, where every fraction of a second matters for placing a drift or chaining together tricks. It's electric in the literal sense.

The scoring system rewards elegance over raw survival. Botch a jump but climb back onto a moving Ferris wheel to rejoin the race - the game encourages spectacular improvisation. Every run turns into a mental replay session:

"How could I have made that look cooler?"

The Danger Days-style dystopian manga aesthetic is a strong identity according to Gamespot. Denshattack! knows exactly what it wants to be visually, and the reimagined Japanese regions offer real biome variety without ever contradicting each other.

What falls short

The major issue remains accessibility. The learning curve is steep and the game doesn't really take the time to explain itself. You mostly learn through repeated failure, which will delight soulslike fans but risks discouraging less patient, less hardcore players.

The story, meanwhile, does the bare minimum. An evil corporation, an endearing protagonist, little narrative development. For such a sensory-driven game, that's secondary - but those looking for real narrative depth should look elsewhere.

Gamespot's final verdict

Denshattack! has no identifiable direct competitor - that's its most serious asset. If you've grinded away for hours on THPS Remastered or if Rollerdrome won you over with its frenzied scoring, this train deserves your full attention. The reduced launch price (see our dedicated article on the Fanatical promotion) removes the last rational hesitation. A brilliant game concept, held back by accessibility too dry to win over anyone beyond the audience already sold on the genre.