Denshattack! Review Summary

An excellent soundtrack and creative level design shine, but difficult controls, high difficulty, and technical issues hinder the fun arcadey combos.

Excellent soundtrack praised: Players consistently praise the soundtrack as outstanding, with many calling it a banger and noting guest composers. The music is a major highlight that enhances the overall experience.

Game is fantastic overall: Multiple reviews describe the game as fantastic, incredible, loads of fun, and one of the best this year. It lives up to hype and exceeds expectations.

Unique genre combination: Players appreciate the imaginative mix of elements from Jet Set Radio, Tony Hawk, Sonic, and Crazy Taxi. This blend feels fresh and stylish, with anime and train themes.

Creative level design: The level design is widely praised as creative, innovative, unique, and packed with epic set pieces. Players find the levels wildly creative and well-constructed.

Fun arcadey gameplay: The arcade-style gameplay is described as fun, exciting, varied, precise, and deep. Players enjoy the engaging and dynamic experience.

Controls are difficult to learn: Many players find the controls convoluted and non-intuitive, requiring a steep learning curve. The game fails to provide proper tutorials, and button mapping issues cause confusion.

High difficulty and grind: The game becomes very hard later on, especially when pursuing gold medals, leading to fatigue and frustration. The grind and stress from complex controls detract from enjoyment.

Technical and hardware issues: The game is criticized for being demanding on hardware, requiring expensive upgrades, and causing crashes due to memory limits. There are also reports of camera and screen chaos.

Unskippable cutscenes and intro: Players are frustrated that cutscenes, especially the intro, cannot be skipped on replay, disrupting the pacing and replayability.

Lack of content and features: The game is considered barebones with a lack of content, voice acting, and tutorials for later courses, making it feel incomplete.

Trick mechanics and combos: Players perform tricks like grinds, flips, wallriding, and combos, creating a score-based system similar to Tony Hawk. The trick system is varied and encourages creative sequences for high scores.

Inspired by classic arcade games: The game draws heavy inspiration from Sonic Adventure, Jet Set Radio, Crazy Taxi, and Tony Hawk, creating a nostalgic yet fresh arcade experience. Players will find familiar mechanics and attitude from these beloved franchises.

Trains as skateboards: The core concept involves using trains like skateboards, combining skating tricks with train movement. This unique twist is highlighted across multiple clusters as the game's main innovation.

Train-themed arcade action: The game combines train racing with skating-like gameplay and arcade elements. The unique train theme is consistently praised for its originality and fun factor.

Gold medal scoring system: Each level features a gold medal system that adds replayability and challenge. Players must complete levels with high scores to earn these medals, requiring precision and skill.

Steam Deck runs well: Players report excellent performance on Steam Deck, with one user experiencing a locked 50 FPS at high settings.

Linux compatibility confirmed: Multiple users confirm the game works natively on various Linux distributions such as Bluefin, CachyOS, and Fedora without issues.

PC optimization praised: Players describe the game as smooth and well-optimized on PC, with stable frame rates.

Launch issues on Steam Deck: Some users encounter a black screen on launch or the device becomes unresponsive, requiring a force restart.

Minor stuttering reported: Occasional stuttering occurs, though it may be attributed to the reviewer's hardware rather than the game itself.

Direct buy recommendation: Reviews contain explicit calls to purchase the game, such as 'Buy this game' and 'BUY THIS GAME! 100% Recommend'. This direct language confirms strong approval and a desire for others to experience it.

Strong universal recommendation: A large number of reviews strongly recommend the game, often using emphatic language like 'highly recommend' and 'strongly recommend right out of the gate'. This indicates widespread satisfaction and enthusiasm among players.

Recommended for specific genres: The game is frequently recommended to fans of specific franchises like Jet Set Radio, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, and Sonic Adventure. Players suggest it appeals to those who enjoy arcade-style, high-speed action games.

Call to immediate play: Multiple reviews urge players to check out the game immediately, using phrases like 'you should play Denshattack NOW!' and 'Go play Denshattack right now'. This suggests a sense of urgency and strong advocacy.

Game of the year contender: Multiple reviews describe the game as GOTY-worthy or a contender for game of the year. This high praise indicates that the game offers exceptional quality and memorable experience.

Community fair range: $15.00 - $25.00.

Players report the game is fun immediately from the opening moments, with no reported early friction or delay before enjoyment. The experience is described as addictive, satisfying, and consistently engaging.

Nostalgic Genre Fan: Explores the world freely, performs tricks to soak in the style, and enjoys the vibrant aesthetic and music. Motivation: Nostalgia and love for arcade-style skating and grinding games from the early 2000s. Stance: buy.

Skillful Challenger: Precise execution, practice-intensive route optimization, and constant improvement of trick combos. Motivation: Mastering complex mechanics, achieving top scores, and overcoming difficult challenges through practice and precision. Stance: buy.

Casual Relaxed Player: Explores levels casually, does not focus on high scores or perfection, and accepts initial failures as part of the learning curve. Motivation: Fun and relaxation without stress, enjoying the quirky premise and style at their own pace. Stance: buy.

The Windows 12-15GB VRAM cohort reports smooth performance with stable high frame rates and only occasional dips, which are handled well by VRR.

Windows 12-15GB VRAM: positive. Game runs at stable 240 fps with occasional drops, mitigated by VRR; performance is good.

Steam Deck: User feedback is mixed: multiple reports of black screen crashes and the game failing to launch on Steam Deck indicate major instability. However, some users report smooth performance at locked 50fps. Overall, the game appears broken for a significant subset of users.

Linux and Proton: User feedback consistently indicates that the game runs flawlessly on Linux out of the box, with no Linux-specific issues or required tweaks. All reports are positive, reflecting strong native or Proton compatibility.