Game Spotlight #32: Denshattack! (2026)
It's spotlight time! Join Ash as she takes a look at one of this year's most pleasant surprises in Undercoders' indie masterpiece Denshattack!. If you like the kind of stuff we post then you definitely won't want to let this game pass you by.
Almost everything in life comes and goes in cycles. The video game industry, now the highest earning form of consumer entertainment, was not always the absolute behemoth it is today. It's easy to forget that the early days of the industry were fueled by extremely small teams or even singular individuals with nothing but a good idea and access to local computer store shelf space to sell ziploc bagged copies of their self-made, self-published work.
As the industry ballooned in size and began to buckle under its own weight, smaller indie titles once again steadily became popular. More experimental, less corporate, more authentic and almost always costing much less than mega-publisher AAA titles, the indie games of today fall well into the field that they once did back in the 70s and 80s. Despite the unthinkable technological leaps that have happened since then, today's indie game scene thrives on exactly the same sort of DIY mantra that built some of the biggest industry names of the past half-century.
After a period of time where big businesses had come to dominate the gaming space, we're once again where we were back in those early days. Just with a few twists. Anyone with a good idea can make a game, and the proliferation of the internet means that individual programmers, artists and writers are able to share knowledge, passion and even work across borders an an instant. A far cry from hoping to sell a handful of copies of your game in your local town, the indie games of today are able to be downloaded by prospective players anywhere in the world in the blink of an eye.
The sheer ease of access to all this has opened the door like never before for individuals to get involved in game development, and as a result indie games have been experiencing a new golden age for around two decades now. All manner of title has been produced to the point that there have even been recent discussions about what exactly constitutes 'indie'. No doubt as many of these teams release games that resonates with an audience we'll see some of them rise to become larger mainstream entities much the way Bungie or Epic Games have today.
Much the same way that the pendulum has swung back to smaller teams releasing smaller games, developer Undercoders hearkens back to a very particular era of gaming with a simple question: what if Sega never stopped making games like Jet Set Radio?
Set after a devastating climate catastrophe in a time not too distant from ours, the population of Japan has been split between two classes of people: those who live in domed cities built and maintained by the Miraido megacorp and the 'contaminated' populace forced to fend for themselves outside the domes.
The method of transportation for the people stuck outside Miraido's domes is one of the main forms of self-expression for the populace, namely the utilization of trains for races and trick contests (the titular denshattack, a portmanteau of 'densha' which is essentially a type of electric train in Japanaese and 'attack') on the otherwise abandoned railways.
Our story follows Emi Araki, a small-time ramen delivery girl who utilizes her father's old train along the rails of southern Japan. Emi, a diamond in the rough of a driver with unparalleled natural talent, purity and a hot-bloodedness that rivals shonen anime protagonists, catches the eye of a customer who introduces the concept of denshattacking to her. Officially intrigued, Emi asks for instruction on it and it isn't long before she and her new friend are traveling Japan with the goal of being the #1 denshattacker in the nation.
This journey takes Emi from the southern island of Kyushu all the way to Hokkaido, brushing up against the various gangs that control regions outside the domes and making more friends along the way.
If you're thinking that this all sounds very anime, you'd be correct. Not unlike Mullet MadJack, Denshattack! takes the vision of 'a playable anime' and executes it extremely well. Half the magic is its gameplay which can probably be described as some of the most insane ideas ever conceived. Using a train in much the same way one would use a skateboard, players ride the rails of Japan at blinding speeds while flipping, grinding and drifting like you never imagined a train could.
Control is fast and smooth, with the game dishing out a surprising number of mechanics across its 9 chapters (roughly 6-7 hours of gameplay) that take the concept to the absolute height of insanity. Stages generally come in three varieties with general travel, races against other denshattackers and bombastic boss fights against the regions' gang leaders making up the bulk of the game's levels.
Interspersed are multi-objective levels that allow a degree of freedom in traversal and the order in which you tackle some of the varied objectives. Throughout all of these levels there are additional optional objectives to ranging from collectables to mechanics-based tasks.
There's lots of room for player expression in each of the game's levels and I was genuinely surprised how well the mechanics hold up to a high action-per-minute style, both in terms of a stable frame rate and an almost entirely glitch-free experience. Rounding out the player expression is the ability to select from a range of different trains complete with different paint jobs, color schemes and decals.
Between the mechanics, their clever utilization and the fantastic level design there is a shocking amount of meat on the bone for a game about trains, for which would conjure in the minds of most people as being quite literally 'on rails'. Denshattack! is a very off the rails experience, from its crazy ideas and their genius implementations that packs in tons of style without sacrificing substance that is just a joy to get hands-on with.
The other half of the magic is the game's visuals and audio, which is simply outstanding. The game features multiple language tracks (the Japanese dub doing a great job of meeting the game's Japanese Y2K punk aesthetic well), sound effects are satisfying and the soundtrack is truly something special.
Lead composer Tee Lopez (perhaps most famous for Sonic Mania) does a fantastic job of paying tribute to a very particular era while not remaining in its shadow. Joining him are a number of mind boggling guests including R4: Ridge Racer Type-4's Kohta Takahashi and Sega's Takenobu Mitsuyoshi.
A soundtrack befitting the anime insanity Denshattack!'s gameplay and visuals present was no small task and the team really hit it out of the park. While the gameplay is the star of the show, the music provides a truly hand-in-glove accompaniment and at times even took the lead as my favorite part of the game.
Denshattack!'s art style is another slam dunk, paying clear homage to the era of low poly Y2K utopianism that birthed Jet Set Radio, and the result is a vibrant world bursting with charm. Character designs are also a strong point, with each of the regions' gangs inspired by various subcultures of Japan and bringing forth a number of fun archetypes from gyaru, sukeban and rockabilly to visual kei. That leads us to the next point.
While these two halves come together to form an incredible whole, the secret ingredient that takes the game to the next level for me is the way it depicts Japan. Regions are loaded with iconic landmarks, and completing objectives during stages unlock portions of an e-zine which tell you more about the world including tidbits and nods to the actual history and culture of Japan, even including a few regional ramen varieties in blurbs from the ramen-delivering protagonist.
The respect and understanding that the game has is the cherry on top a delightful sundae that adds a layer of authenticity that many other projects that gaze longingly at Japan simply don't have.
Denshattack! is a fantastic game very much emblematic of how much indie games are currently flourishing, and to me the story of the game reflects not only its creation but the state of the industry at the time of writing, with small teams of regional diamonds in the rough able to pull out the coolest thing you've ever seen like it's no big deal. The game possesses a punk, DIY spirit that is genuinely beautiful to see a team execute on, and to execute on it with such quality results.
An intentional patchwork of inspirations and references worn on its sleeve, it's easy enough as someone inspired by the same sorts of media to pick up on oodles of them. It certainly evokes plenty of things in terms of its gameplay, visuals and audio. And yet the whole experience is executed with such a keen grasp on these influences that it never feels as though it's wholly reliant on them. And that's a real testament to just how majorly the folks at Undercoders knocked it out of the park.
Rather than being a cheap knockoff of ideas it never lives up to, Denshattack!'s deep understanding of the styles it pays homage to is wholly authentic and rather equates to being steeped in a kind of shared visual, aural and gameplay language that those of us who lived through the era it is so in love with (and its younger appreciators) can feel is like a warm hug from a time long ago.
Denshattack! is available on all modern platforms and even currently one of the games available as part of Microsoft's Game Pass subscription service. Do yourself a favor and settle in for some time well spent with this one, folks.
A gem hidden among the stones, Denshattack! is undoubtedly stardust.
-Ash