First impressions with Denshattack!: A crazy and demanding arcade game that refreshes the genre

There is little room at the forefront of video games for single-player experiences. Nowadays, with all the attention (and budgets) of large companies invested in increasingly generic and impersonal game-as-a-service offerings, the only way for players to find something more "classic" is to look among independent developers. Fortunately, we now have more small creative teams at work than ever before. And from there, of course, come such unlikely and wonderful things as Denshattck!

Undercoders is a small Spanish studio with a long history. Among its most recent and well-known works are Treasures of the Aegean and Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara. In the latter, there was already a certain tendency towards fast-paced platforms and accurate character control, which has somehow evolved, picked up speed and finally become a strange train arcade game with a lot of similarities to Tony Hawk's games and the legacy of the Olli Olli series, from the now defunct Roll7.

In a dystopian but near future, Japan is ravaged by a catastrophe that has forced the surviving population to take refuge in isolated sphere cities throughout the country. The only way to communicate with each other is through the bullet train or Shinkansen railway system, and even then it is not an easy journey: cut, destroyed or simply impassable tracks mean that the world is placing its hopes in the best train drivers, the Denshattakers. And that's where we come in, as a young delivery girl who suddenly finds herself competing to become the best train driver in the country.

With this premise worthy of an anime series, we take the controls and get on the tracks, and what we immediately notice, besides the fact that Denshattack! is very fast, is that it is very precise. The controls are very fine and respond with pinpoint accuracy, which is the first barrier to overcome. In addition to learning how to take corners (with a drift similar to Mario Kart), you'll also have to jump over tracks and perform stunts worthy of a professional skater, while changing surfaces, flying over forests and buildings, and praying that you don't crash into something at 500 km/h. But you're going to do it a lot. It may seem confusing at first, but even I, who have very little experience with this type of game, was able to get the hang of it and reach the finish line, although I'll leave the time trial for when the final version comes out on 17 June.

Because by then, I'll have to have mastered how to do ollies, kickflips and 720º turns with a 50-tonne train in the air while crossing a waterfall that runs between the ruins of two skyscrapers. In addition to the obvious driving skills required by Denshattack, the other main point on which the tracks of this spectacular game run is its wonderful artwork. In addition to the attention to detail in the customisable train itself and the backgrounds and settings of modern-day Japan, full of advertisements, neon lights and colourful posters, the aesthetics of Denshattack are reminiscent of an anime series. As such, you'll see words or onomatopoeic sounds written in kanji characters when you brake, skid or pick up speed as you pass through power-ups, which are as colourful as the background. And even though it all happens in a fraction of a second, the music, the colours, the speed and the sparks from the rails all come together to create something truly special.

As I said at the beginning, it's not easy to break into single-player experiences, and arcade titles are not as popular as they once were, but I hope and trust that everyone, even those who never got on a board with Tony Hawk Pro Skater or Olli Olli World, will give Denshattack! a try, in what may be one of the freshest and most appealing experiences this summer has to offer.