Denshattack!

Skateboarding, if the skateboard were a runaway train

The pitch for Denshattack! is delivered almost entirely by its premise: pilot a hijacked commuter train through a colourful, graffiti-drenched Japanese dystopia, chaining grinds, flips, and tricks across impossible rail networks while outrunning rival gangs and a shady megacorporation. It sounds like a joke, and reviewers consistently note that it looks like one in early trailers — but the near-unanimous consensus across the review corpus is that the execution earns the concept completely. The comparisons reviewers reach for are telling and consistent: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and SSX Tricky for the trick-chaining core, Jet Set Radio and Bomb Rush Cyberfunk for the aesthetic and soundtrack, Crazy Taxi for the sense of reckless momentum, and 3D Sonic's best rail-grinding stages — Rail Canyon and Bullet Station come up by name more than once — for how the levels actually flow. That's a lot of influences to juggle, and the fact that reviewers describe the result as feeling like its own thing rather than a patchwork of references is the single most repeated compliment in the corpus.

The soundtrack draws an unusually high concentration of praise even within an already glowing reception. Reviewers call out recognizable composer names from other well-regarded game and anime scores, and more than one review states outright that the music alone would be worth experiencing independent of the gameplay wrapped around it. Visual presentation gets similarly strong marks: the Dreamcast-via-Jet-Set-Radio art style is described as feeling genuinely fresh rather than simple nostalgia-bait, helped by a colour palette and stage variety that keep each new chapter visually distinct. Several reviewers specifically mention going in worried that the demo's central loop would grow repetitive across a full game, and describe that worry as unfounded once new mechanics, boss encounters, and set-piece spectacle keep arriving chapter after chapter.

Where the controls make or break it

The corpus's small handful of negative reviews all converge on the same specific complaint, which makes it worth taking seriously despite being a clear minority view: a trigger-based drift meter and analog-stick-dependent trick inputs that some players simply never get comfortable with. One detailed critical review describes attempting to remap controls to face buttons, only to find certain tricks still require the analog stick regardless, forcing a control scheme that never quite fit their hands. Without that muscle-memory click, the same game that flow-state fans describe as skateboarding-as-a-train starts to read, in this telling, as a loosely-connected string of quick-time events with no real fail state to create stakes — a strikingly different experience of the same mechanics. It's worth noting that all of the critical reviews in the sample come from very short play sessions, suggesting this is a real and immediate compatibility issue with certain control preferences rather than a problem that emerges with more time in the game. Reviewers considering the NZ$29.99 asking price who are uncertain about trigger-based inputs are well served by trying the freely available demo first, since the split in reception tracks closely with whether the controls click early.

A story that leans into its own absurdity

Beyond the trick-chaining core, Denshattack! commits to a genuinely strange narrative — a colourful cast squaring off against a shady megacorporation for control of the rails — and reviewers describe the writing as playing that absurdity for full comedic effect rather than treating it as filler between levels. More than one review specifically calls the story "insane" as a compliment, crediting it with making the overall package feel more memorable than a pure arcade score-attack game would otherwise be, and the character designs get folded into the same praise reviewers give the game's broader Jet Set Radio-inspired art direction. It's a smaller part of the package than the trick system or soundtrack, but it's consistently mentioned as a pleasant surprise rather than a weak link, and it gives Denshattack! a personality distinct from the more po-faced trick-sport games it otherwise resembles mechanically.

On the accessibility side, the Steam listing includes camera comfort options, adjustable text size, and a keyboard-only control scheme alongside full controller support — a meaningful set of options for a genre that leans heavily on precise timing and can otherwise be a rough fit for players sensitive to fast camera movement or unable to use a gamepad's triggers and analog sticks. None of the reviews in the corpus specifically test or praise these options in detail, but their presence is worth noting given how central the earlier discussion of trigger-based drift and trick inputs is to the game's one real point of friction; players who struggle with that specific input method may find the keyboard-only option a workable alternative worth trying before writing the game off entirely.

What the achievement data shows

Global achievement completion shows a smooth, chapter-by-chapter decline rather than a sudden cliff: the earliest content sits at 80-85% completion, falling gradually through the 40s and 50s for what appear to be mid-game milestones, and down into the single digits for the game's final content. That gradual shape is consistent with the reviews describing steady, sustained engagement through a multi-chapter structure — several reviewers mention being partway through by chapter four and already convinced enough to leave a positive review — rather than players dropping off sharply at one specific difficulty wall.

Final verdict

Denshattack! commits fully to an outlandish premise and backs it up with genuinely excellent stage design, one of the best original soundtracks of the year by wide reviewer consensus, and a visual identity that makes a well-worn aesthetic feel new again. The near-unanimous "Overwhelmingly Positive" reception is earned, not inflated, and it deserves its place among the year's standout arcade releases for anyone whose hands get along with its trigger-driven trick system. The one real risk is that control scheme: a small minority of players report a hard, immediate mismatch that turns the same mechanics into frustration rather than flow, so trying the demo before buying in at full price is a reasonable precaution rather than an overreaction.