Denshattack! is not just another indie curiosity – it’s an ode to movement, rhythm, and the enduring beauty of Japanese trains, filtered through the mind of a lifelong fan who somehow turned a childhood fascination into an exuberant hybrid of skateboarding energy and railway precision. When I meet David Jaumandreu, the creative director of Barcelona-based studio Undercoders, the setting couldn’t be stranger. He’s on a velvet throne that looks borrowed from a medieval film set, while I’m perched on a toilet throne in a mock dungeon. Behind the stone props and fake shackles lies the studio’s train-themed set, the same one used to film Denshattack’s promotional material. 
It’s absurd, funny, and oddly fitting – because Jaumandreu’s game is, at its core, about finding freedom and flow in the most unexpected places.
“Tony Hawk with Japanese trains.” That’s how Jaumandreu first pitched Denshattack!, a kinetic mash-up that imagines Japan’s rail system as one massive skatepark. He grins when he says it, but he means it seriously. For him, trains are not just vehicles – they’re a symbol of design perfection, cultural pride, and rhythm. His love affair with Japan began decades ago, long before he ever thought of making a game about its rails. “I first came to Japan in 1998,” he recalls. “I was sixteen, following my dad on a business trip. It blew my mind. The trains, the people, the food – it all felt twenty years ahead of Europe.”
That early trip, looping through Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto, left an imprint that time never erased. “Back then there were no English announcements on the trains,” he says, “so I had to figure out everything from a guidebook. It felt like an adventure just to get from one station to the next.” He describes his first ride on Tokyo’s Yamanote Line as if recounting a dream – vivid, fast-moving, full of strange sounds. When he eventually boarded the Shinkansen, Japan’s legendary bullet train, the experience became almost spiritual. “It’s so fast and quiet at the same time,” he says, “you feel disconnected from reality. Like you’re gliding.”
For someone raised in Barcelona’s good-but-hardly-futuristic metro system, it was like glimpsing another planet. “When I came back home,” he laughs, “our trains looked like they were from a different century.” That fascination, sustained over nearly thirty visits to Japan, slowly merged with his creative work. Undercoders, founded in 2005, started with small mobile games before moving to consoles with cult titles like Conga Master and Treasures of the Aegean. But Denshattack! is the first game that fully reflects Jaumandreu’s personal obsessions: rhythm, momentum, and the pure joy of Japanese rail culture.
He remembers exactly when the idea clicked. “I had this toy train on my desk,” he says. “I was fidgeting with it, like finger skating, and suddenly thought, ‘Wait, what if this was the game?’” The team initially thought he’d lost his mind. “I showed them the idea and they said, ‘Are you serious?’ But one of our Unreal Engine guys prototyped it in two days – and when we played it, we couldn’t stop. That was the moment we knew we had something special.”
Three years later, that little toy has evolved into a full-fledged video game. Denshattack! takes the fast-paced trick systems of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and the vibrant visual flair of Jet Set Radio and Persona, all set to an energetic soundtrack by Tee Lopes (of Sonic Mania fame). Players don’t just drive trains – they ride them. You grind along rails, jump over rooftops, chain combos, and race rival trains through stylized versions of Japanese cities, temples, and countryside.
“It’s about entering a flow state,” Jaumandreu explains. “You have two types of gameplay: movement and mastery. In the first, you’re flowing, moving from station to station, keeping your rhythm and not derailing. In the second, you’re performing – doing tricks, earning scores, racing rivals, even fighting bosses. One of them,” he adds with a smirk, “is a giant mech that tries to crush you.”
Beneath all that kinetic chaos lies a surprisingly heartfelt narrative. Denshattack! is structured like a shonen anime – a story about found family, rivalry, and rebellion. “It’s about connection,” he says. “The characters are young, rebellious, but they learn to work together. It’s about motion as identity – how moving forward helps you find who you are.”
When you look at Denshattack! in motion, it’s clear how personal it is. Every grind spark, every neon reflection, every sound of screeching metal against the backdrop of sunset Tokyo screams passion. The team, though small – just twelve people – manages to channel an intensity that rivals much bigger studios. “We collaborate with external artists and musicians when needed,” Jaumandreu says, “but the vision always stays in-house. We know exactly what we want to feel when we play.”
The environments mix realism and surrealism: one minute you’re cruising past Mount Fuji, the next you’re looping through a glowing cyber-district inspired by Shibuya at night. It’s the perfect playground for Jaumandreu’s hybrid vision of train-sport fantasy. There’s something poetic about it too – turning the structure of Japan’s meticulously ordered transit into an arena for creative chaos.
Still, for all its polish, Denshattack! isn’t just a spectacle of motion; it’s also a cultural love letter. “Japan’s train system isn’t just efficient,” Jaumandreu insists. “It’s beautiful. It’s part of everyday life in a way that feels almost sacred. I wanted to express that – the comfort, the rhythm, the quiet power.” He’s right: if you’ve ever taken a Shinkansen, you know that sense of calm that coexists with speed. The game captures that perfectly, transforming industrial machinery into instruments of harmony and style.
As we finally move from our dungeon seats into the train studio for filming, I ask a question that seems inevitable: what’s his favorite ekiben – those bento boxes sold at stations across Japan? He laughs. “I love the self-heating ones,” he admits. “But my favorite are the kids’ meals, the ones that come in boxes shaped like little trains. It’s cute, nostalgic, and perfect for this project.”
That detail – loving the toy box as much as the real train – sums up the heart of Denshattack!. It’s a game about rediscovering joy in motion, about play and imagination, about the moments when the world feels both familiar and new. For Jaumandreu, the line between fantasy and reality blurs the moment the train starts moving.
Denshattack! is set to release in spring 2026 on PC, Xbox Series (including Game Pass), and PlayStation. Whether you’re a rail enthusiast or just miss the rhythm of classic arcade games, it promises a ride worth taking – part travelogue, part trick session, and entirely made with love.
1 comment
dude this is literally the promised land for train nerds and gamers alike