Screamer preview: This anime-inspired combat racer is one to watch

I miss the days when arcade racing games were ten a penny, and the likes of Ridge Racer, Need for Speed and Burnout ruled the roost. There are some developers still putting out enjoyable arcade racing game experiences, however, one of them being Milestone. While its bike racing games have remained pretty serious, titles such as Hot Wheels Unleashed and Monster Jam Showdown have let us have some riotous four-wheeled fun in recent years. Its upcoming arcade racer Screamer might just be its most ambitious game yet, however.

Milestone’s Screamer is a reimagining of the 1995 game of the same name. Being a racing game, it really doesn’t matter if you’re not familiar with it, though. Besides, in bringing it back to life, Milestone has made some pretty considerable changes, such as making it anime-inspired and giving it more of a focus on story. Going hands-on with an early build of the game, exactly what that story entails is being kept under wraps. For now, Milestone just wants to show off Screamer’s gameplay, which has a few features that make it pretty unique.

First things first, Screamer isn’t the sort of racing game where you simply choose a car and a track and then race around to see who comes out on top. Coming first is important, for sure, but there are other elements to be considered. One of those is your driver. With numerous driving teams available, first you’ll need to decide if you want to play as a leader or a member. Both leaders and members have their own unique quirks that will give them their own edge during a race, though while leaders tend to be a bit faster on the track, they’re also a little more difficult to master.

When you finally get on the track, you might initially be overwhelmed by the game’s HUD, which looks like something you’d find in a fighting game. But the bar at the top of your screen isn’t a health meter. Instead, it powers your abilities. Basically, you’ll gain energy as you race, and you can earn a little more, as well as a little speed boost, by manually shifting gears at the right time (don’t worry, gearing is semi-automatic, so if you fail to do this, you won’t really be penalised). Once you have enough energy you can use it to perform a boost or power your shield.

I know what you’re thinking: “power your shield” implies that there’s some form of combat, and you’re right. As you use energy you’ll gain entropy, and once you’ve got enough of that, you can launch a strike, boosting you forwards like a flaming energy ball in order to destroy vehicles in your path. This is a game in which you need to effectively make use of both energy and entropy, then, being aware of what’s going on around you to avoid incoming attacks while dishing out your own.

It’s somewhat simple in principle, but having completed multiple races in Screamer it’s clear that it isn’t going to be a walk in the park. One aspect of that is because of its control system. Unlike most arcade racing games where you simply tap the brake button to initiate a drift, or release the accelerator, turn, and then accelerate again, here, the right stick is used to drift. If you’ve played Inertial Drift, you’ll be very familiar with the system, and it works quite well. Things start to get more complicated when you factor in your abilities, though.

You’ll want to keep an eye on the indicator at the top of the screen to shift gears by tapping the left shoulder button, for example, and to boost, you’ll need to hold the left shoulder button and then release it at the correct time. Get the timing just right – when the icon moves into a small yellow zone, and you’ll perform a more powerful perfect boost. To activate your shield or perform a strike, however, you’ll need to tap or hold the right shoulder button. Depending on how you hold your controller, this might mean taking your finger off the accelerator for a small amount of time. Hopefully in the full game, the controls can be tweaked to avoid this.

In any case, it all makes for quite an action-packed and involved racing experience, especially when you throw in AI that doesn’t seem to take it easy on you. It’s clear that to make good progress in Screamer you’re going to have to have a good grasp on its systems and make good use of them, which is no bad thing. Also not a bad thing is the game’s presentation: the visuals here are very nice indeed, reminiscent of 90s arcade racers but with more detail. Meanwhile, its soundtrack seems to have made specifically to make you want to drive fast.

Despite only being able to play a little of what Screamer has to offer, then, I’m pretty impressed. It seems like it’s going to be a treat for arcade racing game fans, being attractive to look at, and easy to pick up but hard to master. Its playable characters have me intrigued too, and with each of them having their own gameplay quirk – Hiroshi, for example, can trigger an additional small boost while boosting if you press the right button in time – it’s going to be fun giving them all a try. So, if you’re a fan of arcade racers, this definitely needs to be on your radar.

Screamer launches next year on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.