Hands-On Preview: Denshattack!: If Tony Hawk Loved Trains

I'm not sure what growing up in the '90s and 2000s was like for everyone, but I do know that skateboarding culture took a lot of us kiddos by storm for a weirdly long amount of time back in the day. At the core of this, at least for me, was the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series of video games. I was obsessed, and this random, newfound love of skating (from the safety of my couch) has survived to the present day.

And while I loved THPS 1+2, nothing actually brand new in the genre has been truly gripping for me since Skate 3 back in 2010. Consider my surprise when I first saw Denshattack! back in August of 2025, and realized it could actually, somehow be exactly what I was looking for.

Denshattack! is a Japan-inspired Shōnen anime "skateboarding" game in which your "skateboard" is actually... an entire train? Yep, you read that correctly, and believe me when I say that I was just as confused as you were when I first saw this one come across my desk.

However, after now getting to finally go hands-on with the game for a brisk demo of about 20-30 minutes, it all makes perfect sense to me. Denshattack! seems like it's going to be amazing. At least, I'm completely loving it so far.

A Vibrant, Insanely Appealing Anime World

Right from the game's main menu, it's immediately clear that the presentation of Denshattack! is going to be off the charts. Its hyper-stylized anime vibe feels the most similar to Persona 5 than perhaps any other contemporary game I've experienced, except with a focus on yellow as the main highlight color instead of red.

The soundtrack is also filled with 100% nonstop bangers, all appropriately upbeat, jazzy, and meshed beautifully with the style of the art displayed on screen. Seriously, I desperately hope this is an album that ends up on Spoitfy so I can just listen to the music all the time.

The narrative setup is a bit silly, as you'd expect from a game about trains doing kickflips, but it has a ton of unique charm to it as well. A climate crisis has caused humanity (or at least Japan) to live inside of giant, protective domes, connected only by a series of railroads linking each city together. This means that some people have to drive these trains and venture back outside, which is exactly what main character Emi does for a living.

In fact, the first mission we join Emi on in the demo of Denshattack! is delivering a carryout order of ramen to a blue-haired, bubbly customer named Fernando. It's here where Fernando takes note of Emi's inside train driving skills, then suggests she become a Denshattacker herself, one of the fabled train operators of the region that specialize in doing sweet tricks and competing for ultimate supremacy on the rails.

Of course, Emi will have to prove herself if she wants to join this exclusive club of train skaters, which sets up the Shōnen-like nature of the game in which a lineup of train operators must be defeated in order for Emi to prove her ultimate Denshattacking prowess.

This all kind of sounds like nonsense, but it's also fun as heck, and I love what the game has shown me so far in terms of narrative. It's wacky, irreverent, and often times pretty comical as well. All of this, combined with just how downright lovely Denshattack! looks and sounds has me genuinely stoked to see what else the game has in store upon a full release someday.

Addictive, Fluid, Intuitive "Skateboarding" Gameplay

Equally as slick in pretty much every regard is just how fun Denshattack! is to play. As you control your train engine, you'll be sent down tracks of railroad in each level, all of which that I've seen so far are wonderfully themed and incredible to look at. To get the basics out of the way, I first learned how to start the engine, drift around corners using a timed button prompt on a meter, switch tracks, jump into the air, sound my horn to open gates blocking my way, and slam back down to the tracks while airborne if I need to quickly dodge an incoming obstacle.

You don't need to accelerate, as your train will simply move at a steady, blistering speed on its own, assuming you don't keep running into obstacles. You'll make split-second decisions when the tracks separate into multiple directions, as well as experience crazy and creative sections where you'll need to dodge giant fireballs in a volcano or balance on top of a runaway Ferris wheel in the middle of a river.

There's a wonderful momentum here as your engine careens across each 2-or-so minute level, and you work towards the best time possible and highest trick total you can muster in order to earn a gold medal rating once it's all said and done.

And oh, are there plenty of tricks to do with your train while it's airborne. Using the right analog stick and flicking it in certain directions (think the Skate series), you'll be able to flip and spin the engine, pulling off a list of well over 50 different tricks with a steadily increasing difficulty level/point bonus as you start to pull off more complicated moves.

In addition, you can also grind on rails while maintaining your standard THPS balance meter, pull off manuals, ramp off halfpipes, and execute stylish, exciting wallrides to bridge many of the game's giant gaps in the tracks. I still don't necessarily understand how all of these skateboarding moves are actually so seamlessly integrated into a literal train engine, but gosh darn, if I don't absolutely love it so far either.

Each level also features extra side goals to complete, much like the challenges you'd expect in a two-minute THPS run. There are secret film reels to grab, other collectibles which require precise track jumping, added tasks like "break two wooden bridges" or "smash ten satellite dishes with the Ferris wheel," and surely a lot more to come in terms of variety once the full game is released. I had a blast trying to earn a gold medal in each run while completing each extra goal, and I fully expect this to be a game I strive to 100% someday.

There are also high score challenges that will pop up from time to time as well, so you'll want to make sure you're deep within your bag of tricks to always have a shot to win these events as they come.

What We've Yet To Experience

By now, you can probably clearly see that what I've experienced of Denshattack! so far has me absolutely desperate to play more of the game soon. 20-ish minutes, while insanely exciting and fun, was not at all satisfactory for my personal needs. I simply need more of this game, and I need it quickly.

One thing I didn't get to see at all in my session was the promised boss battles that will come against each of your rival Denshattackers later on in the game. It seems like Denshattack! will be framed around several encounters with a boss' cronies in an area of the map, culminating with some kind of absolutely bonkers boss fight to cap it all off and prove your worth.

In trailers and promo images, we've seen these boss encounters take shape in the form of giant Gundam-style robots, as well as hulking, mechanical sandworms leaping across the desert. I'm dying to learn how these actually function in action.

I've also barely scratched the surface of the game's map, pictured above. You can see the fog of war covering about 90% of Japan still in my snippet of gameplay. I only got to see one tiny piece of everything in the southwestern region of the map. I can't wait to see what other gorgeous locations and beautiful biomes await me across the rest of the game.

I also got to dabble around with four of the game's train engines in total, as well as spend some time customizing their appearance. Each of these different engines comes with unique stats, buffs, and debuffs, which leaves me extremely curious to figure out which ones I end up liking the most and maining once the proper game is launched.

In truth, there's still seemingly so much I've yet to experience in Denshattack!, and I'm very keen to see what else the game has in store whenever it's ready.

If you're like me, Denshattack! could quite possibly be one of those games that you need to try yourself in order to fully understand. It's a wild premise, so no judgment if it's not yet striking you as something you need to play, even if you're a skating game fan.

However, just after this short demo, I can confidently tell you that I absolutely cannot wait for more. The hook of the game is working for me tremendously, along with the absolutely dynamite presentation and super fluid "skating" mechanics.

Denshattack! is expected to come out sometime in the Spring of 2026, and is currently planned for PC, PlayStation, and Xbox. To stay up to date on future news updates as Undercoders continue development, consider wishlisting/following along on the game's Steam page.