Hands-On Preview: Screamer: An Explosive, Anime-Fueled Arcade Racer

I often fire up my preserved copies of Burnout 3: Takedown or Blur for either a few races with my cousins or friends for laughs, or just for myself to relive that nostalgia that I crave in my mid-20s. This not only speaks to the car culture I adore, but also to my immense fascination with arcade-style racing games, with all due respect to the simulation scene, of course.

A callback to the golden era of arcade racers or an omen for them to return—Milestone's revitalized Screamer feels like it could be both. An arcade twin-stick racer game that aims to deliver high-octane action with gameplay-first priorities at the helm, and an anime-infused art style that oozes with personality – tell me that doesn't sound enticing.

I had the opportunity to get a hands-on preview session with Screamer recently, where I got to check out a decent introductory portion of the single-player campaign while also jumping into the Arcade Mode for a few team-based and solo races. If you want the full scoop on this new and eruptive passion project, stick around as we pop the hood on this bad boy.

The Tournament with the Ultimate Stakes

The first half of my preview focused on diving headfirst into the single-player campaign, offering the first six episodes' worth of story content to check out. Each of these early episodes introduced me to the main cast of characters, which eventually turns out to be the Green Reapers, consisting of our main guy, Hiroshi, and his two misfit crew members. The episodes themselves were pretty short.

There's still a lot here, however, since the preceding episodes all switch gears and let you explore the perspective and motives of every other squad in this tournament. Each one is drastically and linguistically different from the others; it makes for a diverse yet engaging experience, since you'll never expect each new wildcard individual from the team. That, and just the friendly banter between them is eccentric enough on the scale that it doesn't ever feel tiring.

You also meet Gage here, the main mechanic working under Mr. A for the tournament, and the one we see prominently featured throughout the main episodes, interacting with the other characters. He explains the surface-level information to get you up to speed on the exhibition itself and to help the Green Reapers get through the qualifiers.

It was also charming to see him and Aisha interact the way they did, showcasing a familiarity beyond the usual camaraderie among the racers. But what broke that immersion in a slightly off-putting manner was Aisha's voice acting; I'm sorry, it just feels so monotonous compared to the rest, and I say that as someone who can understand Hindi, being that we're both from neighboring South Asian countries.

Besides the short-lived narrative here, a bulk of the campaign mainly consisted of the game explaining the mechanics of the whole Echo System to the driving model. The races themselves were the singular solo events, and honestly, felt slightly boring even though they were supposed to explain the introductory mechanics. You'd think that with them still doing story exposition moments amidst races, they'd at least make the opponents feel challenging or have a bit of a catch-up mechanic to them.

Regardless, it did the main job pretty well of getting us acquainted with a decent chunk of the character roster, as well as what to expect from the single-player campaign, leaving you just on the edge before the tournament officially kicks off.

Burn Rubber and Strike Down the Opposition

The heart of Screamer lies in its gameplay. If you're familiar with the twin-stick driving model, notably featured in Inertial Drift, then you'll have a basic gist. Now, I know some of you won't like how I draw comparisons to it, but for those of us who experienced it in our childhoods, the whole grounded yet flashy presentation here reminded me heavily of the modern Asphalt racing games from Gameloft, with its over-the-top structure.

Your Echo System is the driving force (quite literally) behind the wheel, as the core mechanics involve your sync meter in the top-left bar of the screen, which you passively generate over time during racing or when promptly timing your shifts. This resource further extends itself with the usage of Boost and Shield. The former is pretty self-explanatory, allowing you to gain a burst of speed, while the shield protects you from incoming strikes from opposing race cars. Don't worry, it lasts for a good while.

Most importantly, this is where Screamer's chess-like concept arises during races. In the team-based mode, your main means of winning the thing will be to score KOs on as many opponents as possible. And it's all done via the strike ability, represented by your pink Entropy bar on the top-right side. Strike lets you charge and score KOs on racers in front of you. It doesn't have much range, so you need to be precise when tailgating right behind someone during the action.

On the other hand, fully charging the Entropy gauge allows you to use Overdrive, a temporary state in which you'll be able to go fast and mow down any opposing cars in your path. Entropy will be charged up as you use your Sync meter, so it is imperative that you promptly manage both resources and cycling when you need to shield yourself or go in for the strikes. You can even time your shield just at the right second to perform a perfect parry of sorts. It's almost as if you're timing those parries in a fighting game like Street Fighter.

Riders on the Storm

On the surface, I can confidently say this game has all its modifications fitted like a dream, but upon closer inspection, I have some minor yet still important concerns. First is how the game will support multiplayer mode on launch, meaning that ensuring optimal balancing and avoiding undertuning or overtuning the Echo System's properties needs to be prioritized to some extent.

Engagement is a huge deal when it comes to racing games, and although Screamer so far has some pretty good racetracks and original cars to drive around, it wouldn't mean much of anything if there wasn't at least a bit of challenge here. Sure, I can hop into the team races and experience the chaos that unfolds there when you're amidst the herd of cars, but in solo-contested events, the pacing of the races is severely lacking.

The twin-stick driving model feels like the ideal choice for this game, but I'd start by making the cars feel lighter when drifting or when handling in general, especially when turning corners. I get that each driver in this game has their identity encapsulated in their respective car, but if the overall pacing during races and the driving style are a little more polished, this could be a solid game to look forward to in the coming weeks.

The characters and other groups of misfits in the single-player storyline are shaping up to be absolute fun to watch during the game's dialogue cutscenes, but even besides all of this, I hope we still get some other technical things addressed as well, like regional pricing on Steam as well as any word on Steamdeck support since running Screamer on handheld will undoubtedly be a blast.