Very similar to all-you-can-eat Pizza Huts, cheap concert tickets, and The Secret World of Alex Mack, Screamer is something I enjoyed within the Nineteen Nineties but essentially disappeared from our lives a long time ago. The unique Screamer, released in 1995, was certainly one of a trio of games developed by Italian studio Graffiti before it quickly rebranded itself as Milestone a yr later. An over-the-top arcade racing game exclusively for PC, it arrived rapidly within the slipstream of pioneering 3D racers like The Need for Speed, Ridge Racer, and Destruction Derby (and was followed by a sequel and two one-and-done spin-offs) but has faded into relative obscurity since. Nonetheless, over 1 / 4 of a century since Milestone’s final Screamer game, the series is howling back to the track with a wild recent look and an interestingly nuanced suite of controls and power-ups that shake up the slamming, the shifting, and even the steering.
In accordance with game director Federico Cardini, Screamer is a game Milestone has long desired to resurrect, but it’s best to know that it’s more the name that’s being brought back here. That’s, apart from the title there really isn’t anything immediately significant in the brand new Screamer that meaningfully jogs my memory of the unique. Dramatic changes of identity are often kryptonite for sequels and reboots – especially belated ones – but I actually don’t think it’s an issue in Screamer’s case. The unique was a formidable game for its time, nevertheless it was admittedly otherwise largely typical of arcade racing games in that era. The brand new one is a little bit of a distinct story.
You’ll be able to’t describe Screamer in a single sentence the way in which you’ll be able to with a number of arcade racing games. A very good deal of arcade racers generally permit you to count the variety of pertinent instructions in your nipples. That’s, there are only two: speed up and steer. After an hour of hands-on driving and drifting with Screamer it’s clear there’s lots more to it than this, and it’s this depth that makes it quite fascinating.
Screamer is a twin-stick racing game, and it immediately jogs my memory of 2020’s Inertial Drift on this sense. While the left stick is used for conventional steering, the appropriate stick is used so as to add drift angle. In easy terms, the left stick controls the front of the automotive, and the appropriate stick mainly controls the rear. It’s easier to know than it perhaps sounds, nevertheless it does require a certain deftness on each sticks to make the obligatory adjustments to your angle.
It goes much further than this, nonetheless, as Screamer also packs a potent range of power-ups which might be extracted from two separate gauges that fill based on certain actions. Inspired by fighting games, Screamer calls this its ‘Echo’ system – where using one side of the gauge affects the opposite side. There’s a shotgun spray of bespoke, in-game terminology that you just’ll encounter if and whenever you play Screamer yourself, but I’m going to avoid most of that here because I feel it’ll only serve to make Screamer sound a bit impenetrable. On target – and within the thick of it – it’s all fairly intuitive, so I’ll try to explain it as such.
Essentially, the left side of the gauge will fill throughout a race each passively and via certain actions – like perfectly-timed shifts. Screamer’s vehicles have semi-automatic transmissions, in order that they’ll shift robotically if you happen to’re overwhelmed (otherwise you forget), but if you happen to nail your upshifts you’ll fill the left gauge faster. It’s not a remotely racing related comparison, nevertheless it jogged my memory of Gears of War’s lively reload system.
The left gauge is used to supply each boosts and shields against attacking opponents. Even boosts are handled in a different way, with a press–hold-and-release mechanic that it’s essential time through the use of an onscreen icon. Get the discharge spot-on and you may earn an extended and simpler boost than standard.
So what of the gauge on the appropriate? Well, you fill the gauge on the appropriate by using the power-ups afforded by the gauge on the left. The gauge on the appropriate permits you to use the offensive abilities Screamer has dubbed ‘strike’ and ‘overdrive.’ ‘Strike’ is a brief boost in speed during which every other automotive you smash into will explode, and ‘Overdrive’ is an indefinite boost that lasts until you crash. Overdrive is pretty tough to make use of on the twistiest portions of the tracks; after a certain quantity of time locked in Overdrive you’ll reach a critical state where even a brush off a wall will see you blow up. It is incredibly quick, though, and it’s a power-up I observed the AI was all the time willing to deploy at every opportunity.
Just like the 1995 original, Screamer encompasses a roster of unlicensed cars. Nonetheless, while the unique game’s cars were clearly just de-badged versions of iconic ’90s sports cars and exotics with otherwise generic names, the cars within the upcoming Screamer are wild, anime-inspired vehicles covered in aggressive, time attack-style aero. The anime inspiration extends beyond the cars, too; indeed, Milestone has partnered with Japanese animation studio Polygon Pictures for Screamer’s story. We weren’t aware of any of those cutscenes during our preview, but I did get to race as quite a lot of different characters – each of whom have different abilities that alter how they fill their power gauge, and the way their cars handle. There’s a very significant difference in automotive feel across characters so, although the handling is sort of easy to choose up, it’s not one-note.
Milestone achieved the improbable in 2021 with Hot Wheels Unleashed, creating a beautiful and highly approachable arcade racing banger that far exceeded any expectations one might need had of a game based on a licensed toy. It’s a really different type of racing experience to the Hot Wheels Unleashed series but, after my hour with it, I’m not expecting Screamer to quietly come and go when it arrives in 2026.
Luke is a Senior Editor on the IGN reviews team. You’ll be able to track him down on Bluesky @mrlukereilly to ask him things about stuff.