The 1990s were a golden age for arcade racing games, with titles like Ridge Racer, Daytona USA, and Virtua Racing dominating the scene. Despite a competitive market, the small, newly formed Italian studio Graffiti (now known as Milestone) launched its own arcade racer, Screamer, on PC. While clearly inspired by Ridge Racer, Screamer quickly carved out its own identity.
Milestone has since become renowned for racing franchises such as Ride, MotoGP, and Superbike World Championship, making it easy to overlook their origins in arcade racing. However, the author argues that Milestone truly shines when crafting arcade experiences, a talent demonstrated recently with 2018’s Gravel and 2023’s Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged. Now, Milestone is revisiting its roots, bringing back the very arcade racer that started it all: Screamer.
The new Screamer is an unusual beast, offering something rare in arcade racers: a story. Set in the near future, the campaign, titled “The Tournament,” centers around an illegal street race orchestrated by the mysterious Mr. A (voiced by Troy Baker). Five distinct teams compete, including the Japanese pop stars of Strike Force Romanda, the enigmatic Anaconda Corp (from an arms and cybersecurity manufacturer), and Kagawa-Kai, composed of members from a criminal organization. Players can choose to race as any of these five teams throughout the tournament.
The narrative unfolds through a mix of stunning animated sequences created by the renowned Japanese animation studio Polygon Pictures (known for various anime and sci-fi series) and somewhat static, uninspired conversations reminiscent of classic JRPGs, where characters face each other across the screen with a text box between them. Unfortunately, the latter format predominates. The story itself isn’t particularly engaging; divided into a long series of chapters, it primarily serves as a pretext to propel players into a variety of quick races, often with diverse objectives.
The campaign feels quite lengthy, partly due to the substantial amount of time spent listening to dialogue between rival characters. This, combined with an uneven difficulty curve, contributes to a sense of sluggishness. Screamer is not an inherently easy game, and the inconsistent difficulty is a notable drawback. The author experienced sudden drops in challenge, followed by abrupt spikes, leading to frustrating walls where one race was easily won, but the next required up to 20 attempts, only for the subsequent one to be a breeze again. This inconsistency is truly a shame.
Beyond “The Tournament,” Screamer offers a wide array of other game modes. These include standard race, team race, time attack, checkpoint, score challenge, overdrive challenge, and a comprehensive multiplayer suite featuring Mixtape (randomized game modes), ranked team races, and local split-screen for up to four players. There’s no shortage of content, all spread across 32 tracks within four distinct zones: the neon-lit metropolis of Neo Rey, the scorching desert of Sky Road, the natural reserve of Forest #13, and a fourth secret zone revealed later in the campaign. The tracks offer a good blend of winding roads and long straights, though it’s surprising that they lack the hidden shortcuts often found in arcade racers.
Putting aside the aforementioned difficulty imbalance, the races themselves are quite interesting, deviating from standard arcade racing conventions. Players steer cars using both joysticks: the left for turning and the right for drifting. Cars feel incredibly heavy and are difficult to turn conventionally, but when combined with the drift mechanic, they become surprisingly agile. Mastering the two-joystick steering takes practice, but various assists are available. Some of these assists are so extreme that winning becomes harder, though they prevent constant crashing. It’s all a matter of finding the right balance.
Screamer incorporates a significant number of systems for an arcade racer. All cars are equipped with an ‘Echo System,’ which is absolutely crucial for success. Gearboxes are semi-automatic, requiring timely shifts. Miss a shift, and the car will eventually shift itself, but at the cost of valuable track time. Successfully timed shifts fill a boost meter, which can be activated in two ways: a standard short boost, or, with perfect timing, a longer, more powerful boost – akin to ‘active reload’ in Gears of War. Additionally, the Echo System powers a shield and a ‘Strike’ attack, the latter causing opponents to explode if rammed while active.
Mastering the Echo System is non-negotiable for victory. The author finds it regrettable that this system is so heavily enforced, with no way to bypass it. Without boosting, winning is impossible, and boosting is almost exclusively tied to perfectly timed gear shifts. Another significant issue is the severe ‘rubber banding.’ This creates the sensation of a strong elastic band connecting the player to opponents, preventing them from pulling too far ahead, as rivals are constantly reeled back in. A single mistake can plummet a player from first to sixth place in seconds, and unfortunately, the rubber band isn’t as effective at helping catch up when opponents are in the lead. Furthermore, boosting often triggers opponents to boost simultaneously, leading to frustrating “cheap shots” designed to keep the player in check. While it is possible to break away and overtake with well-timed boosts, the game actively works to keep players on a tight leash.
Cosmetic upgrades are plentiful and awarded after every race, offering new rims, doors, hoods, lights, spoilers, and more, allowing extensive personalization. Curiously, there are no performance upgrades, making this aspect moot for players uninterested in aesthetics. The cars, much like in Ridge Racer, are fictional but designed to be recognizable, resembling real-world vehicles without being direct copies.
Visually, Screamer is polished and optimistic, with everything running smoothly. The game boasts a cartoon-inspired aesthetic, with slightly caricatured cars and dynamic typography. This style suits the game’s arcade nature, though it isn’t always the most beautiful, and image quality can sometimes suffer during busy on-screen moments. The audio is solid, featuring a punchy soundtrack and good voice acting. Oddly, characters speak a mix of languages—English, French, Italian, German, Japanese, something resembling Dutch, and other unidentified tongues—yet they all understand each other. This decision by Milestone seems rather ridiculous to the author.
Screamer is a peculiar game. It’s a rare modern arcade racer combined with a story that feels almost too prominent, as players spend a significant amount of time clicking through rival character conversations. The gameplay is packed with mandatory systems that cannot be ignored for success, leaving the author conflicted. While some may appreciate this depth, the author wishes for the freedom to use Boost when desired, rather than being forced into it.
Ultimately, Screamer proved to be a mild disappointment. The most frustrating aspects are the wildly fluctuating difficulty and the severe ‘rubber banding.’ Early in the game, these issues led the author to question if something was being missed, prompting attempts with various assists that, paradoxically, did not make winning easier. The rubber banding ensures that even a minor error can be catastrophically costly just before the finish line.
There’s a strong sense that Screamer could have been much more. Had Milestone toned down the narrative, introduced hidden shortcuts on tracks, and simplified the numerous systems to deliver a straightforward arcade racer focused purely on the joy of driving, it would have been a superior experience.
As it stands, Screamer is an odd blend of fast arcade racing, unbalanced gameplay, an overbearing story, an excessive number of systems, and demanding controls. It’s not a bad game, but it tries to do almost too much. The author wished for a simpler, more streamlined experience—perhaps a modern take on what Ridge Racer could have been in 2026.