Screamer preview: Elegant genre-hopping

Arcade racers are usually mechanically-focused games that prioritize speedy gameplay over world-building and narrative style – we race without ever really asking why. There’s nothing wrong with this, of course, but one game that’s hoping to flip this on its head is Screamer. 

If you’ve been curious about Milestone’s Screamer, I’m happy to report that it’s stylish, ridiculously speedy, and a hell of a lot of fun. Based on a hands-on preview, it’s worth keeping an eye out for as a fan of racers and futuristic games with anime aesthetics (and dogs in sunglasses).

The Escapist recaps

• Screamer is an upcoming arcade racer that places a heavy focus on narrative and combat, with a stylish anime aesthetic to tie it all together.
• With the team at Milestone S.r.l. behind the wheel, this homage to the original Screamer is due to release on March 26, 2026. 
• I attended a hands-on preview of Screamer, digging into the game and experiencing its twin-stick racing style for myself.
• Based on the preview, there’s plenty to love here for fans of racing games and sims – the racing felt fast-paced yet technical, and the introduction of combat mechanics helped it to feel unique. 
• There’s a strong story element to Screamer, which makes it stand out from other games in the genre. Strangely, it gives vague Dispatch vibes – not in the style of play, necessarily, but in the quality of the writing and style of character. 

Fast-paced and frantic

Screamer combines an anime aesthetic, fast-paced racing, and a strong blend of vehicular combat and narrative. The Milestone team has added a modern touch to the classic Screamer style, paying homage to the original game (which my editor remembers from 1995, thereby turning him to dust) while keeping things fresh.

Despite not being a massive racing game fan – the more sim-focused Gran Turismo on PlayStation is the last one I properly got into – I was immediately entranced by the unique gameplay style and strangely cyberpunk world.

Screamer focuses on fast-paced, underground tournaments, where racers compete in teams, utilizing a mysterious form of technology known as the ECHO device. This allows racers – known as Screamers – to use abilities like Boosts, Strikes, and Shields while racing, spending resources like Sync and Entropy. 

Sync is a resource that generates passively while racing and increases with high-speed moves. Using it up turns it into Entropy, another resource that allows the user to activate combat. That creates a dynamic which encourages aggressive driving and even more aggressive manouevers at high speed.

Screamer uses a twin-stick style of racing, allowing for greater precision and quicker reactions while zipping around the track, drifting with one stick and positioning with the other. 

I found the controls took a minute to get the hang of, likely due to my admittedly limited experience with the genre, but after practice, they felt smooth and responsive. It felt like a more technical spin on arcade-style racing.

Regardless of the game mode, zooming around Screamer’s various tracks and listening to the vibrant soundtrack was a hell of a lot of fun – even if I lost a few parts of my car along the way. The destruction mechanics are responsive, meaning you’ll quickly wreck your car if you run into too many walls.

Screaming along

Something that stood out to me with Screamer is how effortlessly it blended genres. It’s not just a beat-for-beat racing game – there’s a strong narrative that explores the murky underside of the illegal tournament scene, along with punchy fighting mechanics thanks to the ECHO technology.

The dialogue was a highlight of the Tournament story mode; there’s a strong cast of characters, and they each have their own reasons for racing. While the preview didn’t dip into the lore too heavily, it did paint a strong picture of what to expect from the full game.

Interestingly enough, characters are voiced in a variety of languages throughout Screamer, with high-quality voice acting for all of them. There’s a Universal Language Translator in the game, meaning the Screamers can talk to each other in Spanish, German, or French, and they’ll always understand each other. 

Visually, Screamer was an absolute delight. The anime style felt well-crafted and polished, and each character had a distinct, memorable design. The maps had plenty of variety, too, which is key for a solid racing experience.

In terms of performance, I found Screamer to be solid overall, with no notable bugs or glitches popping up during my time with the game. The interface was clean overall, too, with key information like Screamer abilities or map details being easy to dig into.

If you’re a fan of racing games, you’re going to get a kick out of Screamer – but even if you’re not a racing fan, you might still fall in love with the title. It’s a unique cocktail of genres, with a dash of fighting games and a sprinkle of narrative RPGs, and it felt incredible to zip through once I’d gotten the hang of the controls.

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