Most sports should be on the track (literally)

It’s been a great couple of weeks for the track. Nintendo on Star Fox The remake wisely kept the standard, action-packed levels Star Fox 64 much the same, and they are still fun to fly almost 20 years later. Denshattack!the new game from Undercoders, similarly has levels full of carefully crafted layouts. Only instead of flying through the air like a magically realistic wolf, you’re flying — and rolling, and spinning, and grinding — across Japan while piloting a blindingly fast train.

To call Denshattack! The train game greatly undersells what you do. In a colorful and colorful Japanese style, you’ll rip and trick your way through towns and cities as if you’re playing the supercharged version. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. You fly through the stages like a bullet, you wander around corners trying to power up, and you jump through the streets to get some exercise. Imagine if Sega made a cel shader Sonic a Dreamcast game where you drive a train, and you’re in the middle of what’s playing Denshattack! he feels like.

Even in its early years, Denshattack! It’s fun, but as you explore the game’s 10 worlds, you’ll gradually discover new skills that will turn you into a super speed racer. Before you know it, you’ll be grinding rails, climbing graffiti walls, navigating tunnels, catching wind waves to fly through the air, and turning your gravity upside down, sometimes in succession. If you fill the power bar and score enough points, you can even ride the magic rainbow rail unfurls in front of you like a kind of magic Rainbow Road. And all of this is supported by a fun, fun song.

I loved playing this game, and I looked forward to every turn to see what surprises I would encounter. Just a very much a few big choices: grinding into the nose of a swordfish, sneaking leaves carelessly, and hitting baseballs at the leader of the gang in his baseball stadium filled with railroad tracks – and then, later, challenging the leader again while driving a train of sand.

It works well because everything is on rails. For the most part, you don’t have to worry about how to get from place to place. This route takes you where you need to go. What really matters is how you deal with the twists, turns, and unexpected obstacles that the game throws your way – which sick tracks you’ll pull off and just a fun ride as you jump from track to track. This gives the developers a lot of opportunities to push you into action-packed situations and prepare sequences for everything you have to deal with. Each level is a few minutes long, which helps keep things simple.

Sometimes, it can be more. You move fast, so you have to respond quickly. The game helps to turn with obstacles and different symbols that appear on the screen. But when you learn a new mechanic, there are a lot of variables that you have to keep in mind, and at this point I tend to fall down and hit the wrong button or just hit everything in the way. Fortunately, the checks are generous and bring you back in a minute or two, so you can tackle the cheat section over and over again without too much penalty.

The game also allows you to make it as hard or as easy as you want. After completing each level, you’ll see a results screen that measures you on things like how many points you earned, how fast you completed the level, how many collectibles you got, and whether you completed any “experiments” in each level. If you want to chase a medal for all of this, you can. But you can ignore it completely and just focus on completing each part, which is what I did.

Like other rail games, however, Denshattack! sometimes they feel repetitive. Each section has the same layout, meaning you’ll encounter the same sections over and over again. The game also has a light story, but I really like it. Like Star Foxthis is not a game where you will be playing stories; all about levels.

But these are nitpicks. The maximalism of course and levels of skillful skill meant that every time I started a new one, I could not wait to see where the track will take me next.

^{Denshattack! available on Nintendo Switch 2, PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.}