Denshattack is the best post-apocalyptic stunt train driving action sports simulator anime ever created. I haven’t done the research to confirm the veracity of that statement because I am confident I don’t need to. Despite clear inspirations from games like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and the Sega Dreamcast era, Denshattack is truly novel, and that is a rare superlative to apply to a video game in 2026. Developer Undercoders has taken what I believe is the universal childhood memory of grasping a handheld toy vehicle (a train in this case) and imagining it could fly, flip, grind, and race along walls without any regard for the laws of physics or gravity. That experience with objectives and a high score is basically what Denshattack is, and the result is a delightful, if sometimes intense, sprint through a joyful world.
In some ways, Denshattack feels like a rhythm game, but without a reliance on pressing buttons in time with music (though, side note – the soundtrack is great). Racing down the tracks and avoiding obstacles while leaping your train and using the right control stick to perform various tricks requires split-second decision-making, and I am impressed by how much trust developer Undercoders has in my reaction time. The game is not scared to throw lots of high-speed, unexpected obstacles at you in a way I appreciate. But it also meant I was never compelled to dive deeper into its trick system and learn its intricacies. I was happy just rotating the control stick a bunch and hoping for the best, which isn’t super rewarding.
I like Denshattack’s structure and challenge in that if you want to get a high score and achieve all of the game’s “Dares” (individual challenges customized to each level), then you can and will likely replay each level over and over, potentially to frustration. But checkpoints are generous, and restarts are quick. Perfection is not demanded, but is rewarded if you want to pursue it. If you just want to see all the frequent surprises and progress the bubbly story forward, it’s lots of fun just making it to the finish line of each level.
And “surprises” is a key word. Denshattack is longer than I expected, taking about 13 hours to see credits, but it does not feel overlong thanks to its impressive ability to constantly mix up the gameplay and present you with frequent absurd and unexpected scenarios all the way through the final level. Whether you’re chasing and fighting a giant robot through a collapsing city or pulling off tricks to rally a giant baseball back to sender, Denshattack is always making you do something crazy. Those two examples alone happen very early in the game. There are plenty of other moments like that throughout that I won’t spoil.
New train stunt abilities also appear often, and each new level is carefully designed to help you take advantage of those new mechanics. The levels often blur by in only a few minutes, but undeniable care has been taken to ensure every moment is bombastic, exciting, and importantly, weird.
The narrative is full of strange personalities and interesting character designs that pull heavily from anime tropes in a way that feels like acknowledgement rather than cliché. Rivals become advocates who join your team, and your motivation to become the best Denshattacker (even though you just learned what that is) energizes you to succeed. I was never particularly moved by the plot, nor can I even really identify a personal favorite character, but I like the world as a fun wrapping for why you’re stunt-driving a train through a Japan decimated by a colorful environmental apocalypse.
Denshattack is weird as hell, and it leans into its strange premise with earned confidence, constantly building and layering on its ideas throughout. It avoids any whiffs of boredom by ripping through environments at full speed, but that also didn’t give me much time to take it all in and immerse myself in the admittedly absurd world. When you’re too busy having fun by avoiding every potential crash along the way, though, maybe that proves stopping and smelling the roses is overrated.
For more on Denshattack, you can read about the game’s Dreamcast inspirations here.
