Denshattack!

It is skate game with air trick for scoring points, ,except you do it with a high speed moving train. Like most reviewers said, if you miss skate games you'll enjoy this. This game could have easily be played with ARCADE joystick if DEVS supported it, and it would add a unique layer to it if done. But there is nothing special here that cannot alreayd be found in other games.

I feel like this game was made for me, I absolutely love trains, skateboarding, and the Jet Set Radio tinge to the artstyle was the cherry on top. Denshattack feels great to play: switching tracks, drifting the train, hitting huge trick combos, and just hauling ass through levels is a lot of fun. Being a train, naturally you have a little bit less of freedom of movement choices in comparison to something like THPS. But the developers still manage to make a game that while still relying heavily on quick time events, allows you some freedom of expression through a myriad of different mechanics and ways to get through the tracks, while racking up huge combos. I think some of the earlier levels could have used more options/routes along the linear tracks, a few levels towards the end of the game have alternate paths, while earlier levels did not offer much of that. I think more alternate paths along tracks would have been awesome. The game throws a lot of mechanics at you, at a somewhat rapid pace. It gets to a certain point where you have so many options of moves to do, reacting with the correct input response to the necessary QTE becomes easy to fumble, especially when the track obstacles can sometimes be visually unclear at high speed glance. I only felt overwhelmed when they added the last mechanic in maybe the last 2-3 hours of the game, because tracks were ALREADY pretty hectic. Fortunately the crash system is very forgiving, and is very snappy to reload to a checkpoint. The collectibles were satisfying to get, I enjoyed putting together the fan-zine (essentially a stickerbook), and I was always eager to go see what new paint job design I had unlocked. Unfortunately, most of the train graphics that you collect throughout the game didn't really appeal to me. I was hoping that more of the decals for the trains would "fit" the train canvas better, in the way that graffiti fits on a train. I would have also liked to see maybe some larger differences between train models, while they do have subtle pros/cons to each different train; they don't feel all THAT different to play. The set pieces and boss battles were so creative and so fun to play. I was always interested to see how they'd incorporate each gang's gimmick into the boss fight. The game is also pretty forgiving with boss fights, and i didn't find any of them particularly challenging to get past. The per track challenges and bronze/silver/gold time trials is really where the challenge and replayability lives for this game. I did not really go back and try to set gold times or complete all the side objectives after I had engaged with the level. By the time I got to the end of the game, I was glad I just kept playing through levels because this game has specific pacing to the story that wants you to keep moving, and I think replaying every level to 100% would have burned me out before i reached the finish. I also just generally don't play games that way, I was happy to move on and see more levels and story. The story, mostly told through anime stills has a very big "power of friendship" shonen vibe to it. I didn't mind this at all and found it to be quite wholesome, I really enjoyed meeting new characters and adding them to my crew. Seeing the newly acquired members of the gang hanging out inside the train together during loading screens is a very nice touch. The music in this game is also just incredible, it fits the tracks so well. I do not often really enjoy video game music to a point where I am thinking about it after completing the game, but this game is jammin dawg. I am really interested to see what this team does next! Definitely a top 10 game for me this year. *I think 10 hours is correct playtime but I did play a lot on the steam deck in airplane mode, so I'm not sure how correct steam playtime is.