More games should be on rails (literally)

更多游戏应该采用“轨道”设计（字面意义上）

Denshattack! is a train game that’s more like a roller coaster. 《Denshattack!》是一款玩起来更像过山车的火车游戏。

It’s been a good few weeks for games on rails. Nintendo’s Star Fox remake wisely kept the tightly scripted, action-packed levels from Star Fox 64 largely the same, and they’re still fun to fly through nearly 20 years later. Denshattack!, a new game from Undercoders, similarly features levels packed with carefully orchestrated sequences to great effect. Except instead of flying through space as an unnervingly realistic anthropomorphic fox, you’re flying — and flipping, and spinning, and grinding — through Japan while driving a blindingly fast train. 对于“轨道类”游戏来说，最近几周表现相当不错。任天堂的《星际火狐》重制版明智地保留了《星际火狐64》中那些节奏紧凑、动作感十足的关卡设计，即便时隔近20年，游玩体验依然乐趣无穷。Undercoders 推出的新游戏《Denshattack!》同样采用了精心编排的关卡设计，效果极佳。只不过，你不再是扮演一只令人不安的写实拟人化狐狸在太空中飞行，而是驾驶着一列极速列车，在日本的土地上飞驰、翻转、旋转和滑行。

Calling Denshattack! a train game radically undersells what you actually do. Across a bright and colorful version of Japan, you’ll tear and trick your way through towns and landscapes like you’re playing a supercharged version of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. You fly through levels like a bullet, drift around corners and try to catch a boost, and leap off ramps to do skateboarding-inspired stunts. Imagine if Sega made a cel-shaded Sonic game for the Dreamcast where he drove a train, and you’re in the ballpark of what actually playing Denshattack! feels like. 称《Denshattack!》为一款火车游戏，实在太低估了它的实际玩法。在明亮多彩的日本场景中，你将像玩超级加强版的《托尼霍克职业滑板》一样，在城镇和风景中穿梭并施展特技。你像子弹一样飞过关卡，在弯道漂移以获取加速，并从坡道上一跃而起，做出受滑板运动启发的各种特技。想象一下，如果世嘉为 Dreamcast 主机制作了一款卡通渲染风格的《索尼克》，而且索尼克开的是火车，那么你大概就能体会到《Denshattack!》的游玩感受了。

Even in its early stages, Denshattack! is thrilling, but as you explore the game’s 10 worlds, you’ll slowly get new abilities that turn you into a supercharged acrobat. Before you know it, you’ll be grinding rails, riding on graffiti-filled walls, looping around tunnels, catching wind currents to fly through the air, and flipping your gravity to drive upside down, sometimes all in succession. If you fill up an energy bar by scoring enough points, you can even ride a magical rainbow track that unfurls in front of you like some kind of magical Rainbow Road. And it’s all backed by an upbeat, catchy soundtrack. 即使在初期阶段，《Denshattack!》也足够令人兴奋。随着你探索游戏中的10个世界，你将逐渐获得新的能力，变身为一名超级杂技演员。不知不觉中，你就能在轨道上滑行、在涂鸦墙上骑行、在隧道中环绕、借助气流在空中飞行，甚至反转重力倒着开车，有时这些动作还会接连发生。如果你通过获得足够的分数填满能量槽，甚至可以骑上一条神奇的彩虹轨道，它会像某种魔法般的“彩虹之路”一样在你面前展开。这一切都伴随着欢快且洗脑的配乐。

I loved barreling through the game’s levels, and I eagerly awaited each turn of the track to see what unexpected surprise I’d run into. Just a very limited selection of highlights: grinding along a swordfish’s nose, precariously dodging blades in a sawmill, and hitting baseballs back to a gang leader in her track-filled baseball stadium — and then, in a later level, challenging that leader again as she piloted a sandworm train. 我非常享受在关卡中疾驰的过程，并热切期待着轨道的每一个转弯，想看看会遇到什么意想不到的惊喜。仅举几个亮点：沿着剑鱼的鼻子滑行、在锯木厂惊险地躲避刀片、在布满轨道的棒球场将棒球击回给帮派头目——然后在随后的关卡中，当那位头目驾驶着沙虫列车时，再次向她发起挑战。

It works so well because it’s all on rails. For the most part, you don’t have to worry about how you get from place to place. The track will generally take you where you need to go. What matters more is how you react to the twists, turns, and unexpected obstacles the game throws your way — and which sick tricks you’ll pull off with a flick of a joystick as you leap from track to track. That gives the developers a lot of leeway to toss you into action-packed scenarios and tightly plot out the sequences of everything you’ll have to deal with. Each level is typically just a couple minutes long, which helps keep things snappy. 这种设计之所以如此成功，是因为它完全基于轨道。在大多数情况下，你无需担心如何从一个地方到达另一个地方，轨道通常会带你前往目的地。更重要的是你如何应对游戏抛出的弯道、转折和突发障碍，以及当你从一条轨道跳向另一条轨道时，如何通过摇杆的拨动施展出酷炫的特技。这给了开发者很大的空间，让他们能把你扔进充满动作感的场景中，并严密地规划你需要应对的每一个序列。每个关卡通常只有几分钟长，这让游戏节奏保持得非常轻快。

At times, it can be a lot. You go really fast, so you have to respond to things quickly. The game helpfully signals turns and obstacles with various signs that pop up on screen. But as you learn new mechanics, there are a lot of different moves to remember, and in the moment I’d often trip up and press the wrong button or just slam into whatever was in the way on the track. Thankfully, checkpoints are generous and bring you back in a second or two, so you can tackle a tricky section repeatedly without much penalty. 有时，游戏内容可能会让人应接不暇。你的速度非常快，因此必须迅速做出反应。游戏会通过屏幕上弹出的各种标志来贴心地提示转弯和障碍物。但随着你学习新的机制，需要记住的动作也越来越多，在游玩过程中，我经常会手忙脚乱按错按钮，或者直接撞上轨道上的障碍物。好在检查点设置非常慷慨，一两秒钟就能让你复活，所以你可以反复挑战困难路段，而不会受到太大的惩罚。

The game also lets you make it as hard or as easy as you want. After you finish each level, you’ll see a results screen that grades you on things like how many points you earned, how quickly you finished the level, how many collectibles you found, and if you completed any of the per-level “dares.” If you want to chase medals on all of those, you can. But you can also ignore them completely and just focus on finishing each level, which is what I did. 游戏还允许你根据喜好调整难度。在完成每个关卡后，你会看到一个结算界面，根据你的得分、通关速度、收集品数量以及是否完成了关卡内的“挑战”来评分。如果你想追求全奖牌，完全可以；但你也可以完全无视这些，只专注于通关，这也是我所采取的方式。

Like other on-rails games, however, Denshattack! occasionally felt repetitive. Each region has the same general structure, meaning you’ll tackle the same types of levels over and over again. The game also has a lightweight story, but I mostly mashed through it. Like Star Fox, this isn’t a game you’ll be playing for the narrative; it’s all about the levels. 不过，和其他轨道类游戏一样，《Denshattack!》偶尔也会让人感到重复。每个区域的整体结构大同小异，这意味着你将反复挑战同类型的关卡。游戏虽然有一个轻量级的剧情，但我基本都是直接跳过的。和《星际火狐》一样，这并不是一款为了剧情而玩的游戏；它的核心全在于关卡本身。

But those are nitpicks. The sheer maximalism and expertly crafted levels meant that every time I started a new one, I couldn’t wait to see where the rails would take me next. 但这些都只是吹毛求疵。那种极致的丰富感和精心设计的关卡意味着，每当我开启一个新关卡时，我都迫不及待地想看看轨道接下来会把我带向何方。

Denshattack! is available now on Nintendo Switch 2, PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X / S. 《Denshattack!》现已登陆 Nintendo Switch 2、PC、PS5 和 Xbox Series X / S 平台。