Easter Eggs

The entire game structure — level select screen, score targets, dare objectives, Trick Park score attack — is a deliberate love letter to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. Director David Jaumandreau confirmed THPS as the primary inspiration in multiple interviews. The Trick Park's timed score attack directly mirrors THPS's 2-minute score challenge format.

The cel-shaded aesthetic, the underground gang structure, movement as political rebellion, and the graffiti-style customisation are all deliberate homages to Jet Set Radio (Dreamcast, 2000). Richard Jacques — who composed the original Jet Set Radio soundtrack — appears on the Denshattack! OST, making this a direct musical connection as well as a visual one.

The game's name "Denshattack!" is a portmanteau of "Densha" (電車 — Japanese for train) and "attack." The word "Densha de Go!" (電車でGO!) was a popular Japanese train simulator arcade series from Taito. Multiple press outlets noted this namecheck — the title is both a play on the Japanese word and a nod to the classic train game series.

The developers — who backpacked across Japan while making the game — designed levels with direct visual references to real Japanese prefectures and landmarks. Early preview footage showed side-by-side comparisons of in-game locations to real places. Players have been finding the specific real-world references to each region's environments since launch.

One of the confirmed dare codes is MOA — "Trick over the Moai Heads." Moai are the famous Easter Island stone statues, which have no connection to Japan whatsoever. Their presence on a Japanese train track is a deliberately absurd piece of environmental humour — consistent with the game's "Rule of Cool over logic" design philosophy confirmed by the developers.

The Bootleg EP track "There's a Trick to It" by Tee Lopes shares its name with the in-game achievement for achieving a 10-trick combo. Whether the track was named after the achievement or the achievement was named after the track is unconfirmed — but the connection is clearly intentional.

Richard Jacques composed "Cross the Tracks" for the Denshattack! OST. Jacques is best known for composing the Jet Set Radio soundtrack — the game Denshattack! is most directly inspired by aesthetically. Having him contribute to the OST is a deliberate full-circle moment: the composer of the inspiration scoring the inspired work.