It's crazy to think Japan's public transit system is only getting more efficient. Granted, amid great controversy, the country is currently in the process of building its first-ever maglev train. The train will use superconducting magnets to levitate on tracks, removing the friction created by wheels and allowing it to reach a speed of 603 km/h (375 mph).
It will initially connect Tokyo to Nagoya, with plans to reach as far as Osaka by 2045. It is an outstanding achievement of human engineering, no doubt about it—one that raises a lot of questions for a country that’s consistently clustering its population in its bigger cities. It will negatively impact the environment and will potentially segregate rural towns even more. From a tourist's perspective, it could rob those visiting the country of one of Japan’s best facets: its quiet, outdoor scenery, away from the glitz and glam of Shibuya Crossing.
You might be wondering what this has to do with Denshattack—an anime-inspired Jet Set Radio spiritual successor in which you defy the laws of physics by making trains do the most acrobatic of aerial tricks while cruising your way across the entirety of Japan as you try to take down an evil corporation that has taken control of the country’s major cities, forming massive domes around them to control its citizens with eerie propaganda about the dangers of the outside world. Turns out, a ton.
In Denshattack, you play as Emi. Starting as an extremely efficient ramen delivery worker, she meets Fernando, who recommends she become a Denshattacker—a group of outlaws that live outside the confines of the domes controlled by the Miraido corporation. Putting no thought into it, Emi accepts, embarking on a journey that will see you travel from the very tip of Kyushu all the way to Hokkaido, traveling to all the major landmarks you’d expect along the way, leading a battle for liberation and reconnection with all that Miraido took from its citizens.
Miraido has created a unique, ultrafast means of transportation, the VACTRAIN, that connects each major domed city to one another, controlling the population for their well-being—or so they allege. No one is allowed to travel outside the domes, and when you hop on a VACTRAIN, they can clearly pinpoint your location. Starting to sound a little bit familiar? In any case, in doing so, old railways and train stations are left abandoned. The few folk living outside the domes use these to travel around the country, much like Emi does, or to wreak some havoc as Denshattackers do.
The narrative is thematically nuanced—much more than I would’ve thought. Perhaps because I myself am deeply immersed in Japanese culture, seeing them take a deeply rooted issue like the country struggling with depopulation in rural areas and the moral consequences of essentially abandoning the countryside, not to mention the ecological impact the maglev train would have, and execute on that concept was not something I expected from an arcade indie game like this. Yes, the story itself is somewhat basic, and you shouldn’t expect deeply defined character arcs, but I was amazed to see a premise that got me hooked right from the start and hid some incredible surprises toward its finale.
I’ve yapped about the story and narrative for a bit too long; the real star of Denshattack is the gameplay and vibes it brings to the table. At its heart, Denshattack is an on-rails (no pun intended) racing game in which you accrue style points for pulling off gravity-defying tricks, all while avoiding obstacles in a myriad of ways.
The game constantly throws different ways you can interact with each course at you—changing lanes, dangling from old monorails, and drifting from wall to wall, all in quick succession. It’s fast-paced, chaotic, and never has a single dull moment.
Just when you think you’ve seen it all, along comes a unique mechanic to spice the experience up, raring you to go for another race or to improve your score in previous ones. Tired of single-lane drifting? Okay, now try double-lane drifting. Drifting is cool, you know what's cooler? Doing so while upside down.
Reaching a flow state by maintaining a high combo count will trigger new routes on each course. Rainbow-colored tracks, or Yaoyorozuo, that will reward you with the craziest set-pieces each route has to offer. Instantly, the incentive for being good at Denshattack skyrockets. It's not just about being a self-imposed challenge anymore, but experiencing one of the best things the game has to offer.
The way you go about pulling off tricks tickled my fighting game brain in all the best ways. There are simple inputs to ease you into the game. Then, when you pull the handy Tricktionary, you’ll see you’re barely scratching the surface of what the game has to offer, with some inputs putting pretzel motions to shame.
Pulling off hard tricks will yield better scores, but you risk doing a sketchy landing that will see you fail to complete the trick and break your trick chain. The nuance is there to make things extremely challenging and avoid players from simply swirling the stick around like madmen.
It’s not just about being fast and stylish; the variety of courses is perfect. You've got standard races (by "standard," I mean absolutely wild races in which you compete against dozens of other trains while trying to derail them), time attacks, courses in which you need to use all your tricks at your disposal to hit a certain score, or even longer ones that have various unique objectives for you to complete. That’s not even taking into consideration that all of them have a set of extra challenges tailored for completionists.
All regions culminate in a major boss fight. The game doesn’t pull its punches, and the creativity on display by Undercoders had me giggling and, quite frankly—as ridiculous as it may sound—almost teary-eyed. If you’ve played the demo, you’ve no doubt faced the train Megazord, the first boss fight in the entire game. When I tell you Denshattack will exceed those initial expectations with even more outlandish set pieces, I truly mean it.
There are upwards of eight regions to explore (intentionally left vague on purpose, by the way), all of them filled with various courses and a few pieces of extra content to enjoy. Fernando, the first side character you meet, will publish fanzines on each region, requiring you to collect photos for them on each course; these are great ways to get into the lore of the game, but they also serve as neat info dumps for each region in case you’re curious about them. You can customize your train with cosmetic enhancements and even buy new ones with different perks and downsides to fit your playstyle or maybe help you on specific tracks.
You can visit your staples: Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, Nara, and Kyoto. Even courses around Mt. Fuji are spectacular; if you’re a fan of Japanese culture, you will love the neat references packed into each city and region on each course.
The sheer excitement of traveling, doing a bunch of ollies, and executing physically impossible 360 tricks is fun enough, but then your ears get blasted by Denshattack’s gorgeous soundtrack. It goes from the SEGA-inspired tracks by Sean Bialo (tell me this one doesn’t sound straight out of Sonic Adventure) to tunes crafted by Tee Lopes, Persona’s Lotus Juice, Ridge Racer’s Kohta Takahashi, and many more guest composers.
Please, just take time to listen to this:
There is one particular boss fight that blends all of what Denshattack has to offer—a full explosion of bliss so perfect I immediately replayed it. It is truly the highlight of my 2026 in gaming.
It’s by no means a super long game; it took me roughly 10 hours or so to complete. That being said, the push to get gold ranks in all the courses will definitely take me much longer than that, and the addictive nature of Denshattack will make sure I sink dozens and dozens more hours into it. I simply don’t want to leave its world and characters.
I haven’t played a game that captivated me as much right from the get-go as Denshattack has. The initial premise is so ridiculously outlandish that it’s hard to ignore. But I never even considered it could have such an interesting narrative behind it, one that’s surprisingly tied to real-life issues Japan is facing. My only issue is that there isn’t more Denshattack to enjoy. Undercoders cooked up a proper gem—a game that reminds you not everything has been said and done in gaming, and an absolute must-play that needs to be in your collection right now. It is my Game of the Year thus far and it could potentially be yours as well.
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