We’re living in an era of arcade racing resurgence, and right now we’re seeing a ton of independent developers putting their games out there. Considering the mainstream racing genre of late is all about open-world, never-ending live-service engagement, it is refreshing to see games like Parking Garage Rally Circuit, RedOut 2, and Formula Retro Racing all bringing their own takes on the genre. It may not always turn out well, but experimentation and risk is how you move things forward.
In 1995, a small studio from Milan took a risk, trying to bring a fast, well-playing Ridge Racer-inspired game to the PC. Screamer was the result, and it launched a franchise that earned itself a loyal fanbase. The series evolved with the technology of the day, adopting early 3D acceleration to achieve a smooth framerate. It went from pure road racing to rally and off-road, looking poised to become something long-lived. But publisher Virgin Interactive fell on hard times; the IP was sold off, bounced between companies, and became entangled in red tape before going dormant for nearly two decades.
Milestone would go on to become a well-regarded racing game developer, turning out solid entries in the MotoGP series and, more recently, the well-received Hot Wheels Unleashed titles, proving they never forgot the fast, exciting arcade fun they cut their teeth on.
The question would always pop up somewhere on social media: ‘Screamer remake?’ or ‘Screamer 5 when?’ It was never an overwhelming flood, but Milestone’s release posts and community discussions would often see those little comments popping up. Like an itch you just can’t reach, but you really need scratched.
Then, at The Game Awards in 2024, Milestone finally handed us the back-scratcher. And now it’s here — and it feels so satisfying.
This Screamer is a full reboot of the franchise. Adopting a cyberpunk anime style, blending in elements from Akira, King of Fighters, Initial D, and maybe even a bit of K-Pop Demon Hunters for flavor, they have crafted a unique game world that will serve as a great starting point for the series going forward.
The main single player mode revolves around an exclusive street racing tournament. Five teams of three have made the cut, all vying for an absurd amount of money. Each team, and member, have their own reasons, and as you progress through the story, you’ll discover an interesting, and sometimes disturbing narrative that deals with personal relationships, power, technological abuse, and loss. It’s a good anime story that can keep you engaged. Screamer is rated M, and the tone is definitely mature. That isn’t to say that the game doesn’t lighten things up here and there. Gage and Fermi can be highly entertaining, as can some of the team members.
By the end of the tournament you will have a good idea of what the world of this Screamer game is about, and you’ll also have unlocked a substantial amount of content. Screamer’s Tournament mode serves as both the game’s tutorial and structured experience. It gradually introduces the game’s mechanics while providing narrative reasons for those mechanics to exist.
All of the game’s mechanics revolve around the “Echo” system, an incredibly advanced bit of kit that is installed in all participants’ vehicles. Its biggest trick is the ability to immediately resurrect dead drivers and restore destroyed cars. This is the game’s respawn mechanic explained, but there is more than that.
Screamer by default focuses on high-speed racing mixed with combat. Unlike a lot of other games that include knocking out opponents, Screamer opts to keep downtime at a minimum. If you take out your opponent, they explode in a colorful fireball, but soon thereafter reform right back on the track. This applies to you, as well. The key to keeping downtime to a minimum is that the game spawns you already in motion, so even though you may lose a position or two, it doesn’t mean you’re completely out of the race. Compared to other games where you can get taken out, have to wait for a long cutscene, and then have to build back up from a standing start, this just feels far more dynamic and less of a hindrance.
There are two main resources to manage in Screamer, sync and entropy. Sync is generated both passively at a slow rate, and actively by doing certain actions. For instance, the game’s cars are semi-automatic. They’ll shift on their own, however, if you tap the Active Shift button at the right RPM, you’ll generate some sync. Successive perfect shifts increase the rate at which you gain sync.
You can spend sync on boost by holding the L1/LB. This will get you a temporary burst of speed. Releasing the button at the right time will gain you a perfect boost, making the speed burst last longer. It costs one bar of sync to perform a boost. You can also spend two tanks of sync on a shield, which temporarily protects you from being knocked out.
Consuming sync converts it to entropy, which powers your combat abilities. Two bars of entropy lets you unleash a strike, which gives a temporary speed boost, during which, any opponent you collide with is knocked out. If your entropy is full, you can click both sticks to engage overdrive mode. This turns your car into a flaming projectile of death, knocking out any car you come into contact with. The catch is if you hit a trackside object, you’re the one that explodes. It’s a really fun yet risky mechanic that rewards repeated play, because you’ll want to memorize what sections would be good to deploy your overdrive to plow through the field without hitting the wall.
Clever systems are all well and good, but if they are not supported by an underlying racing engine that feels good, they don’t matter. What we have here with Screamer most definitely feels good. The game uses a dual-stick driving system. Left stick to Steer, and Right Stick to Drift. Each driver handles differently, and the game really wants you to experiment and find a character that feels right to you. Once it clicks, though, and you do find the driver that speaks to your style of play, the game just flows. It’s hard to describe that feeling when you’re just intuitively building resources, spending and converting them, all while steering and sliding from turn to turn. It’s very satisfying, and worth the time it takes to feel out the game for the first hour.game for the first hour.
If you’ve followed my reviews over the past year or so, I always include a section on Accessibility. There is a good bit here to talk about, but I also have a handful of suggestions.
What’s included by default, is a set of colorblind filters, with intensity settings from one to 10. These days, this is a requirement for a modern game. There is also an offline option which allows you to slow the game way down to half speed, in 1% increments. These options are surfaced in the initial guided setup, which is very nice. There are also a set of driving assists, steering assistance, throttle assistance, an arcade throttle mod that auto-accelerated, and the option to configure the game for one handed play. The driving assists do not appear in the guided setup, and I think they probably should be presented there.
Apart from that, there are a few things I would love to see added in future updates. The first, and most obvious is a guide line. This should be something impossible to lose on screen if a player chooses to turn it on, so it would need to adapt to the terrain below it. Some games that have this sort of feature have a problem where the line or arrows, depending on the implementation, do not contrast well against the road.
Beyond that, an audible alert when getting close to the side of the track would be a great addition. Since, the biggest hindrance to me doing well or losing in this game is the contrast between what’s on the track, and what’s off it.
Other than that, I’m very happy with what Milestone did present as far as accessibility options go, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to air my wishlist when I can.
The game has a lot to offer in terms of mechanics, but there’s a ton of content to be explored, too. Along with the Tournament, there is an Arcade mode with race, solo and team variants, Time Attack, Score Challenges, Checkpoint, Overdrive Challenges, and a Custom mode that allows you to completely tweak the rules. If you want to play a race without combat abilities, you can do that. If you want even more chaos, you can set the game up that way, too. The really cool part, though, is that you can save these custom rule sets for easy access, letting you play Screamer the way you want to.
All of these modes are unlocked from the start, so if you want to take a break from the tournament, you can just go ahead and explore. After each race, you’ll also unlock new items, including characters and tracks, so you continue to progress even outside the tournament.
If you want to play with friends, the game has a multiplayer component, split screen on the same console, or online. I was only able to test splitscreen, but playing the game with a friend or two is an incredible amount of fun, especially once everyone really starts feeling the controls.
Screamer also has a car customization area, so you can make the cars even more distinctive than they already are. There’s also a gallery, showing you unlocked art, music, and videos. It also tells you what you need to do to unlock a particular piece of content, so that if you want to go for specific ones, you can.
This is all wrapped up in an excellent presentation. From the opening video, to the racing, to the anime cutscenes, Screamer just oozes style and quality. From the very start it made a great impression, and kept on re-enforcing that feeling that this was a game being developed by people that really wanted to make it. It has an identity, a style, and a voice of its own.
Visually, its anime style is striking, both in the cinematics and in races. The world they’ve built up looks the part, with glowing neon that blurs past as you fly by, day and night races, and cars that show off their drivers personalities in their designs. It should suffice to say, I like it a lot.
The sound design is just as good, with competent voice acting, both in the story sections and in races, punchy in-race audio that heightens the sense of speed and danger, as the characters interact during attacks. It also has a soundtrack that fits the theme of the game perfectly.
I was one of those people that went to my local software retailer back in 1995. I saw Screamer on the shelf and brought it home. It was a fun game that did a nice job of bringing the arcade experience home, and since I did not have a PlayStation yet, Screamer really filled that arcade racing need. I followed along with Screamer 2 and Screamer Rally, so the series left a mark on me.
So, to see the series back in this form, firing on all cylinders, feels really good. The itch has well and truly been scratched, and I know I’ll be playing this one for a long time. Even if you are new to the series, and let’s face it, almost everyone who will be playing this game, will be, you’re in for a truly wonderful racing experience. Screamer is finally home, and Michele, do not let this one go again.
In 1995, a small studio from Milan took a risk, trying to bring a fast, well-playing Ridge Racer-inspired game to the PC. Screamer was the result, and it launched a franchise that earned itself a loyal fanbase. The series evolved with the technology of the day, adopting early 3D acceleration to achieve a smooth framerate. It went from pure road racing to rally and off-road, looking poised to become something long-lived. But publisher Virgin Interactive fell on hard times; the IP was sold off, bounced between companies, and became entangled in red tape before going dormant for nearly two decades.
We’re living in an era of arcade racing resurgence, and right now we’re seeing a ton of independent developers putting their games out there. Considering the mainstream racing genre of late is all about open-world, never-ending live-service engagement, it is refreshing to see games like Parking Garage Rally Circuit, RedOut 2, and Formula Retro Racing all bringing their own takes on the genre. It may not always turn out well, but experimentation and risk is how you move things forward.
In 1995, a small studio from Milan took a risk, trying to bring a fast, well-playing Ridge Racer-inspired game to the PC. Screamer was the result, and it launched a franchise that earned itself a loyal fanbase. The series evolved with the technology of the day, adopting early 3D acceleration to achieve a smooth framerate. It went from pure road racing to rally and off-road, looking poised to become something long-lived. But publisher Virgin Interactive fell on hard times; the IP was sold off, bounced between companies, and became entangled in red tape before going dormant for nearly two decades.
Milestone would go on to become a well-regarded racing game developer, turning out solid entries in the MotoGP series and, more recently, the well-received Hot Wheels Unleashed titles, proving they never forgot the fast, exciting arcade fun they cut their teeth on.
The question would always pop up somewhere on social media: ‘Screamer remake?’ or ‘Screamer 5 when?’ It was never an overwhelming flood, but Milestone’s release posts and community discussions would often see those little comments popping up. Like an itch you just can’t reach, but you really need scratched.
Then, at The Game Awards in 2024, Milestone finally handed us the back-scratcher. And now it’s here — and it feels so satisfying.
This Screamer is a full reboot of the franchise. Adopting a cyberpunk anime style, blending in elements from Akira, King of Fighters, Initial D, and maybe even a bit of K-Pop Demon Hunters for flavor, they have crafted a unique game world that will serve as a great starting point for the series going forward.
The main single player mode revolves around an exclusive street racing tournament. Five teams of three have made the cut, all vying for an absurd amount of money. Each team, and member, have their own reasons, and as you progress through the story, you’ll discover an interesting, and sometimes disturbing narrative that deals with personal relationships, power, technological abuse, and loss. It’s a good anime story that can keep you engaged. Screamer is rated M, and the tone is definitely mature. That isn’t to say that the game doesn’t lighten things up here and there. Gage and Fermi can be highly entertaining, as can some of the team members.
By the end of the tournament you will have a good idea of what the world of this Screamer game is about, and you’ll also have unlocked a substantial amount of content. Screamer’s Tournament mode serves as both the game’s tutorial and structured experience. It gradually introduces the game’s mechanics while providing narrative reasons for those mechanics to exist.
All of the game’s mechanics revolve around the “Echo” system, an incredibly advanced bit of kit that is installed in all participants’ vehicles. Its biggest trick is the ability to immediately resurrect dead drivers and restore destroyed cars. This is the game’s respawn mechanic explained, but there is more than that.
Screamer by default focuses on high-speed racing mixed with combat. Unlike a lot of other games that include knocking out opponents, Screamer opts to keep downtime at a minimum. If you take out your opponent, they explode in a colorful fireball, but soon thereafter reform right back on the track. This applies to you, as well. The key to keeping downtime to a minimum is that the game spawns you already in motion, so even though you may lose a position or two, it doesn’t mean you’re completely out of the race. Compared to other games where you can get taken out, have to wait for a long cutscene, and then have to build back up from a standing start, this just feels far more dynamic and less of a hindrance.
There are two main resources to manage in Screamer, sync and entropy. Sync is generated both passively at a slow rate, and actively by doing certain actions. For instance, the game’s cars are semi-automatic. They’ll shift on their own, however, if you tap the Active Shift button at the right RPM, you’ll generate some sync. Successive perfect shifts increase the rate at which you gain sync.
You can spend sync on boost by holding the L1/LB. This will get you a temporary burst of speed. Releasing the button at the right time will gain you a perfect boost, making the speed burst last longer. It costs one bar of sync to perform a boost. You can also spend two tanks of sync on a shield, which temporarily protects you from being knocked out.
Consuming sync converts it to entropy, which powers your combat abilities. Two bars of entropy lets you unleash a strike, which gives a temporary speed boost, during which, any opponent you collide with is knocked out. If your entropy is full, you can click both sticks to engage overdrive mode. This turns your car into a flaming projectile of death, knocking out any car you come into contact with. The catch is if you hit a trackside object, you’re the one that explodes. It’s a really fun yet risky mechanic that rewards repeated play, because you’ll want to memorize what sections would be good to deploy your overdrive to plow through the field without hitting the wall.
Clever systems are all well and good, but if they are not supported by an underlying racing engine that feels good, they don’t matter. What we have here with Screamer most definitely feels good. The game uses a dual-stick driving system. Left stick to Steer, and Right Stick to Drift. Each driver handles differently, and the game really wants you to experiment and find a character that feels right to you. Once it clicks, though, and you do find the driver that speaks to your style of play, the game just flows. It’s hard to describe that feeling when you’re just intuitively building resources, spending and converting them, all while steering and sliding from turn to turn. It’s very satisfying, and worth the time it takes to feel out the game for the first hour.game for the first hour.
If you’ve followed my reviews over the past year or so, I always include a section on Accessibility. There is a good bit here to talk about, but I also have a handful of suggestions.
What’s included by default, is a set of colorblind filters, with intensity settings from one to 10. These days, this is a requirement for a modern game. There is also an offline option which allows you to slow the game way down to half speed, in 1% increments. These options are surfaced in the initial guided setup, which is very nice. There are also a set of driving assists, steering assistance, throttle assistance, an arcade throttle mod that auto-accelerated, and the option to configure the game for one handed play. The driving assists do not appear in the guided setup, and I think they probably should be presented there.
Apart from that, there are a few things I would love to see added in future updates. The first, and most obvious is a guide line. This should be something impossible to lose on screen if a player chooses to turn it on, so it would need to adapt to the terrain below it. Some games that have this sort of feature have a problem where the line or arrows, depending on the implementation, do not contrast well against the road.
Beyond that, an audible alert when getting close to the side of the track would be a great addition. Since, the biggest hindrance to me doing well or losing in this game is the contrast between what’s on the track, and what’s off it.
Other than that, I’m very happy with what Milestone did present as far as accessibility options go, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to air my wishlist when I can.
The game has a lot to offer in terms of mechanics, but there’s a ton of content to be explored, too. Along with the Tournament, there is an Arcade mode with race, solo and team variants, Time Attack, Score Challenges, Checkpoint, Overdrive Challenges, and a Custom mode that allows you to completely tweak the rules. If you want to play a race without combat abilities, you can do that. If you want even more chaos, you can set the game up that way, too. The really cool part, though, is that you can save these custom rule sets for easy access, letting you play Screamer the way you want to.
All of these modes are unlocked from the start, so if you want to take a break from the tournament, you can just go ahead and explore. After each race, you’ll also unlock new items, including characters and tracks, so you continue to progress even outside the tournament.
If you want to play with friends, the game has a multiplayer component, split screen on the same console, or online. I was only able to test splitscreen, but playing the game with a friend or two is an incredible amount of fun, especially once everyone really starts feeling the controls.
Screamer also has a car customization area, so you can make the cars even more distinctive than they already are. There’s also a gallery, showing you unlocked art, music, and videos. It also tells you what you need to do to unlock a particular piece of content, so that if you want to go for specific ones, you can.
This is all wrapped up in an excellent presentation. From the opening video, to the racing, to the anime cutscenes, Screamer just oozes style and quality. From the very start it made a great impression, and kept on re-enforcing that feeling that this was a game being developed by people that really wanted to make it. It has an identity, a style, and a voice of its own.
Visually, its anime style is striking, both in the cinematics and in races. The world they’ve built up looks the part, with glowing neon that blurs past as you fly by, day and night races, and cars that show off their drivers personalities in their designs. It should suffice to say, I like it a lot.
The sound design is just as good, with competent voice acting, both in the story sections and in races, punchy in-race audio that heightens the sense of speed and danger, as the characters interact during attacks. It also has a soundtrack that fits the theme of the game perfectly.
I was one of those people that went to my local software retailer back in 1995. I saw Screamer on the shelf and brought it home. It was a fun game that did a nice job of bringing the arcade experience home, and since I did not have a PlayStation yet, Screamer really filled that arcade racing need. I followed along with Screamer 2 and Screamer Rally, so the series left a mark on me.
So, to see the series back in this form, firing on all cylinders, feels really good. The itch has well and truly been scratched, and I know I’ll be playing this one for a long time. Even if you are new to the series, and let’s face it, almost everyone who will be playing this game, will be, you’re in for a truly wonderful racing experience. Screamer is finally home, and Michele, do not let this one go again.
by Filippo Dinolfo
