Trains are fairly nice. They reliably get you from A to B and sometimes with nice scenic views, and are iconic in pop cultural moments from thrilling getaways and heists in Westerns to the Hogwarts Specific that takes its passengers to their wizarding faculty. However you most likely by no means imagined they may very well be used because the technique of a future excessive sport, as is the premise for Denshattack!Particularly, the title refers to Japanese trains, or ‘Densha’ as they’re referred to in Japan, which have been the topic of video games previously, most notably the arcade prepare simulation collection Densha de Go! In fact, simulation is normally what you may anticipate from trains, such because the Prepare Sim World collection, whose builders and followers take it fairly significantly. However based on Denshattack’s sport director, David Jaumandreu, the sport’s tackle its topic got here from fairly a easy, foolish spark of inspiration that the workforce simply ran with.”We have been messing round with a toy mannequin of a Japanese prepare, pretending it was a finger skateboard,” he tells me. “We all of a sudden thought: what if trains may flip, grind, and pull off methods throughout the town? It sounded fairly goofy at first, however as soon as we began prototyping, it turned out to be surprisingly enjoyable!”
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(Picture credit score: Undercoders / Fireshine Video games)Tony Hawk with trainsThe sport then performs equally to Tony Hawk Professional Skater, besides you are on this dystopian future the place you salvage deserted trains and drive them in a ridiculous vogue the place they will do spins, flips, jumps, and wall-runs, nearly like controlling an enormous skateboard, although nonetheless staying on rails like a prepare does. It might sound like a giant joke sport with a single punchline, however Jaumandreu is earnest about his fascination not simply with Japanese trains however the tradition.”The shapes, the colors, the names, the logos – Japan has constructed this complete visible identification round its railway system and we discover it extremely interesting,” he explains. “It’s not restricted to the trains themselves. Every thing that surrounds them provides to the allure: the route maps, station layouts, eki bentos (station lunch bins), the jingles, and departure melodies. All of it creates this excellent and distinctive aesthetic.”There’s additionally a reverence for Japanese tradition and Japan itself that the Barcelona-based indie studio Undercoders needs to faithfully seize, provided that the sport can even have you ever driving your trains throughout the nation, from the southern island of Kyushu all the way in which as much as the north of Hokkaido.”Every stage takes you thru one in all Japan’s prefectures, roughly following the prevailing native rail networks,” Jaumandreu provides. “The entire ranges are hand-crafted to seize the environment of every area, not simply by way of landmarks and recognisable structure, but in addition within the geography, landscapes, and even soundscapes. In fact, the whole lot is tailored to be ridden at excessive velocity and to really feel like an enormous skate park!”Each day design information, evaluations, how-tos and extra, as picked by the editors.
(Picture credit score: Undercoders / Fireshine Video games)Harnessing Unreal Engine 5Since Denshattack is so far as you may get from a simulation, it additionally felt acceptable to go for a extra stylised aesthetic. Given Undercoder’s prior expertise with Unreal Engine, Jaumandreu provides that growing the sport with Unreal 5 was a pure selection, even should you may assume the engine is commonly chosen for its capability for ultra-realistic graphics.”[Unreal 5’s] highly effective shader system actually helped us obtain the stylised look we have been going for, and the particle engine was key in bringing Denshattack to life,” says Jaumandreu. “From our expertise, UE5 is a really versatile device that may deal with nearly any visible model, as confirmed by video games like Hello-Fi Rush, Sea of Thieves, and Borderlands.”With a cel-shaded aesthetic, it is no shock that cult basic Jet Set Radio, about trendy characters skating in Japan, was an enormous inspiration, however Denshattack’s influences span throughout different sides of Japanese tradition too. “We’ve pulled inspiration from throughout Japanese popular culture, from basic shonen-style characters to retrofuturistic cityscapes,” Jaumandreu says, citing Preliminary D, One Piece, Air Gear, Akira, and Persona as examples.
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(Picture credit score: Undercoders / Fireshine Video games)The trick to coach animationThere’s actually a manga affect with its human characters additionally within the story, thus far solely represented in portrait type, however in the end, all of it has to return again to the trains. So despite the fact that the gameplay could also be influenced by trick-based skating video games the place you are controller a personality, the prepare because the avatar is definitely like a automobile in a racing sport, so the main focus has been on guaranteeing the trains have a variety of selection, with a number of layers of customisation to unlock and select from.”We’ve constructed the prepare fashions to be expressively animated, nearly like anime characters!” Jaumandreu explains. “By twisting and deforming their our bodies in response to methods and strikes, they convey the identical form of persona and power you’d anticipate from a human skater. The identical applies to the bosses and different mech designs that we’re placing into the sport and wish to be as expressive as they will!”Bosses and mechs in a train-flipping sport? I am nonetheless making an attempt to course of how this works in an already weird idea, however I am unable to wait to search out out.Denshattack releases for PS5, Xbox Collection X/S (together with Xbox Sport Cross), and PC in 2026. Observe the workforce on the Undercoders’ web site.
