Arcade Racing Reborn: Screamer Combines Style, Speed, and Story

Screamer Preview
You might not remember Screamer. Understandable, given that the PC arcade racer debuted in 1995. In its day, it was a graphics powerhouse that brought GPUs to their knees and pre-dated games like Need For Speed by many years. After a couple of sequels, it drove off into the sunset to become one of those games that fans always hoped someone would remake. Thanks to developer Milestone, a new generation is about to experience Screamer, wrapped up in a shiny new package.

Twin Stick Fun
Screamer is purely an arcade racer, so you’re not customizing the brake lines and upgrading the carburetor. In general, the driving model comes down to hitting the gas, occasionally feathering the brakes, and using the right thumbstick to drift around corners at just the right angle. There’s a form of vehicular combat, but no real damage modeling.

Well, things aren’t quite as simplistic as I just described. Screamer is not complicated, but there is some depth. There’s an interesting yin/yang mechanic. Although the cars have automatic transmissions, you can upshift at key points, which fills a meter allowing for temporary speed boosts. Drive well — in other words, drift like the wind — and you fill another meter that gives you an ultimate, permanent speed mode called Overdrive. Hit another driver while in this mode — you have no brakes — and they’re burnt toast. The catch? Even touching the guardrail means you explode. You respawn, but at a huge cost to your place in the pack.

Story Mode
Screamer’s other big hooks come from its setting, story, and art direction. Described as an anime racer, the cars and characters definitely have the anime aesthetic. In Screamer, you don’t buy cars; you add driver characters and their vehicles. There’s a narrative driving — pun intended — the experience about rival teams of drivers, and each has a backstory. Unfortunately, the limited demo I played didn’t preview this aspect of the game.

The difference in cars is obviously more than skin deep, but variations in power, performance, and the risk/reward of using the Boost and Overdrive systems. The handful of drivers and cars in the demo definitely had both easy-to-drive pre-tamed beasts and live-on-the-edge powerhouses.

Circuit Cities
In the demo, most of the tracks were collections of challenging, twisty circuits in dense, urban environments. Laps were long and full of dangers, and the AI drivers were aggressive and maybe a little too skilled. Finishing in the top three wasn’t easy.

Both the day and night tracks were detailed and dynamically lit, but there wasn’t a ton of character or much of an anime vibe. Ditto the music, which was — again, pun intended — hard-driving rock guitars and drums which could have come from any modern racer. The sounds of the cars themselves didn’t dramatically change from vehicle to vehicle. But the demo was only a slice of Screamer, and there’s much more to come when the game releases in 2026.

On Track
When games get a remake or reboot after a decade, players shrug and say, ‘Sure, why not?’ But 30 years in the gaming world is another matter, like going from the horse-and-buggy to a bleeding-edge sports car. Or, in the case of Screamer, going from the limits of 1995 graphics and processing to nearly limitless possibilities. There are plenty of arcade racers, but nothing quite like Screamer’s anime inspiration and unique mechanics. I’m looking forward to seeing how the story plays out and test-driving all the game’s cars and tracks when it releases next year.

***PC code provided for preview***