I didn’t expect Screamer, the anime-inspired revival of Milestone’s ’90s racing game series, to give such strong fighting game vibes. But there are shades of Tekken, Street Fighter, and The King of Fighters to Screamer, an arcade-style racer that also surprises with its implementation of an unusual twin-stick driving style.
Another big surprise? One of the racers in Screamer is a sassy corgi.
The original Screamer looked a lot like the arcade competition — e.g., Ridge Racer, Daytona USA — when it was released on MS-DOS in 1995. That Screamer was bright and colorful, offering high-speed races with plenty of drifting and intense crashes. The new Screamer, due out in 2026, hits similar beats, but is much more technical and stylish, leaning into a not-quite-cel-shaded anime aesthetic.
But to address the first surprise: Yes, the new Screamer is a twin-stick racer. When racing with a controller, you’ll use the left analog stick to steer your car, and the right analog stick to drift. Trying this control scheme myself on a PlayStation 5 DualSense, I found it took some getting used to, but having independent control of both steering and drift eventually clicked.
Screamer also uses a gear-shifting system that’s seemingly inspired by Gears of War’s active reloading mechanic. Vehicles in Screamer will automatically shift to higher gears, but if you manually shift upward at just the right moment — illustrated by a tachometer in the lower-left corner of the screen that changes from blue to orange when the time is right — you’ll get a speed boost.
Wrangling the two control schemes for steering/drifting and active gear shifting feels like a lot to manage at first. And drivers also have to manage a pair of meters as part of Screamer’s Echo System, which powers mechanics like boosting, shields, and KO-ing other racers. As players race, they’ll build up their Sync meter, which can be used for speed boosts or to activate shields that dampen impacts and protect your car from enemy attacks. As you use Sync, you’ll build up Entropy, which powers attack moves like Strike and Overdrive — basically an ultimate ability that literally smashes through the competition. Overdrive is a big risk/reward move; you’ll go hyper fast but have no brakes. Both you and your opponents are vulnerable in Overdrive.
But there’s another layer to Screamer’s mechanics: the racers themselves. Each character in the game’s diverse, international lineup has his or her own strengths, weaknesses, and racing personality. Some may race at higher speeds, or be more vulnerable in Overdrive, while others may earn Sync meter slower or faster than others. Some racers might be dogs. But they all come in groups of three, with a team-based structure similar to SNK’s King of Fighters, united by aesthetic or allegiance.
Those characters will come into play in Screamer’s story, which is told across teams and through animated cutscenes that explain why each racer is in it to win it. The main protagonist team Green Reapers, for example, competes in these deadly races to exact revenge on one of the contest’s financiers. (And in an amusing touch, all racers speak their own regional language, so apparently there are universal translators in the world of Screamer. That seemingly extends to the corgi.)
Screamer’s narrative will also introduce players to its complex layered mechanics over time. While I was thrown into the deep end, players will learn its systems in a more gradual way. Game director Federico Cardini said that players who “forget what you know” about racing games and embrace the chaos and complexity of Screamer will get the most out of it.
If you want to brush up on the original Screamer, it’s available through GOG. As for the new Screamer, it’ll be out sometime in 2026 on PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X.
