Undercoders says "Denshattack is a love letter to the Dreamcast era"

"This arcade feel that you get in games, Sega arcade classics a lot Jet Set Radio has been an incredible influence both in terms of gameplay and style..."

One of the more unusual games announced during Gamescom in August was Denshattack, a somewhat Jet Set Radio-inspired game based on trick riding... with Japanese trains. If you think that sounds strange, you're absolutely right.

It received a lot of attention, and during BCN Game Fest, our Spanish editor David Caballero had the opportunity to talk to director David Jaumandreu. We took the opportunity to ask him if the inspiration came from late 90s arcade games and Dreamcast titles such as Crazy Taxi and the aforementioned Jet Set Radio, as well as games in the style of the Tony Hawk series. He replied:

"100%. 100%. Like we've been taking a lot of inspiration in like of course extreme sports games like Tony Hawk, like the recent OlliOlli World. But also kind of this arcade feel that you get in games, Sega arcade classics a lot Jet Set Radio has been an incredible influence both in terms of gameplay and style, like visual style... Hi-Fi Rush... So yeah, there's a mixture, a love letter to the Dreamcast era in terms of visuals, in terms of gameplay, direct to the action stuff Yeah, huge inspiration on that."

Since it's such a unique concept, we also asked him to tell us more about the gameplay. What can you really expect from a game that combines trains and trick riding? Jaumandreu explained:

"So it's really trick-based gameplay, but we kind of define the gameplay like with two layers. So the first layer of gameplay is basically reading the terrain, getting through to the end. So it's all about maintaining the balance, avoiding derailing, avoiding obstacles."

That's not to say that it's just about going fast, but apparently it's about doing it with style:

"And that is like not only making it to the end, but making it like in a stylish way. So adding tricks, like trying to full combo the whole stage, like getting maxing out like your points. So that's more or less the gameplay that you'll find... going from one place to another in the least time possible, but making it also in style."

Denshattack will be released for PC, PlayStation, and Xbox next year, and we're also keeping our fingers crossed for a Switch 2 release. We don't know exactly when it will be released, but check out the interview below for more information.