Undercoders’ new game Denshattack! treats a train less like public transit and more like a weaponized skateboard, according to The Verge’s Jay Peters, who published impressions of the game on July 18.
The useful bit for players is the control fantasy: this is a train game built around speed, stunts and tightly arranged routes. Peters describes levels set across a bright, stylized version of Japan, where players blast through towns and scenery, drift into corners for boosts, jump from ramps and chain tricks that borrow more from skateboarding games than rail simulators.
That makes the label “train game” a little too polite. Based on Peters’ account, Denshattack! sits closer to a scripted arcade action game, where the track gives designers control over pacing and spectacle while the player worries about timing, tricks and momentum. Rails are usually a constraint. Here, they are the whole machine.
What the game asks players to do
Peters compares the feel to a high-speed arcade stunt game rather than a sober railway sim. The train can careen through levels, grind rails, ride along graffiti-covered walls, loop through tunnels, catch air currents and invert gravity to run upside down. Some of those actions can happen back-to-back, which sounds like a level designer staring at a checklist and refusing to stop at “reasonable.”
The progression described by Peters is ability-driven. Across the game’s 10 worlds, players gain new moves that expand what the train can do. Early play is already fast, he writes, but the move set later pushes the train into acrobatic territory.
- Denshattack! is a new game from Undercoders.
- The game is set across a colorful version of Japan.
- Players drive a fast train through scripted levels built around tricks and movement.
- The move set includes drifting, boosting, ramp jumps, grinding, wall-riding, air currents and gravity flipping.
- Peters says the game spans 10 worlds.
Why the rails matter
Peters frames Denshattack! as part of a recent run of games that benefit from authored routes. He points to Nintendo’s Star Fox remake, which kept the structured, action-heavy stages of Star Fox 64 largely intact. His point is that a game does not need an open map to feel kinetic. Sometimes a fixed path lets designers choreograph the fun instead of outsourcing it to a waypoint marker.
For Denshattack!, that structure appears to be the hook. The track defines the line, while the player layers tricks, boosts and orientation changes on top of it. If Peters’ early impressions hold, the result is closer to a roller coaster with a combo system than a railway fantasy about timetables, signaling and being yelled at by commuters.
The Verge’s piece credits imagery to Fireshine Games and Boltray Games, while naming Undercoders as the developer behind the game. Peters’ impressions do not provide release timing, platforms or pricing, so those details remain outside the confirmed picture here.
This story draws on original reporting from The Verge.
