Denshattack is a game where you do Tony Hawk stunts with Japanese trains whose developers would not confirm whether I can make a train do a Christ Air

Denshattack! - Reveal Trailer - YouTube

For years, one of the most spiritually potent images on the internet was Multi-Track Drifting: It's a pair of double-page splash panels from the doujin parody manga Densha de D, depicting with mythic intensity a singular moment of locomotive stuntcraft. During a virtual preview event, developer Undercoders said it's channeling that same spirit of train stunt spectacle for Denshattack, a game where you can do sick Tony Hawk tricks with railway engines.

Revealed during today's Gamescom 2025 Opening Night Live showcase, Denshattack—its developers say—is a traditional shonen anime story. Except instead of doing traditional shonen anime stuff like fistfighting as a moral dialogue about the value of friendship, you're doing elaborate stunt routines with locomotives in a post-apocalyptic Japan where charismatic gangs engage in trick-based conflict across the railways abandoned by the hyper wealthy during their retreat to sealed arcology-cities.

You can do kickflips with an entire train and it looks cool as hell.

In the Denshattack reveal trailer you can see trains ramp off rail jumps, wallride, grind atop a rolling Ferris wheel that's broken free of its supports, and more—all while stringing together Pro Skater-style trick combos with flips, spins, and manuals. Undercoders said Denshattack's selection of levels, accessible through a map based on actual Japanese rail networks, encourage both exploration and replayability: Train-trick neophytes will have plenty to find, and seasoned experts will have plenty of room to perfect their railway combo lines.

A train wallriding in Denshattack. — (Image credit: Fireside Games)

Tantalized when Undercoders told press that players will be able to perform "unique train-based tricks" that "you can only do with a train," I asked the developer whether I'd be able to do a Christ Air with a locomotive. While the developer was unwilling to confirm or deny, I was told that "with rolling stock, you can do stuff." Make of that what you will, but I'm brave enough to dream.

Denshattack will launch sometime in 2026, but you can wishlist it on Steam now.

Lincoln has been writing about games for 12 years—unless you include the essays about procedural storytelling in Dwarf Fortress he convinced his college professors to accept. Leveraging the brainworms from a youth spent in World of Warcraft to write for sites like Waypoint, Polygon, and Fanbyte, Lincoln spent three years freelancing for PC Gamer before joining on as a full-time News Writer in 2024, bringing an expertise in Caves of Qud bird diplomacy, getting sons killed in Crusader Kings, and hitting dinosaurs with hammers in Monster Hunter.

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