In a slightly surprising announcement made during The Game Awards 2024, Milestone will reboot their 1990s Racer Screamer for 2026. It’s being developed for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, but there’s not a huge amount of official news released besides the trailer.
Screamer was originally developed by Milestone under their original name of Graffitti, and was released for the PC in 1995. It was published by Virgin Interactive Entertainment and let you drive various real-world inspired cars in an arcade racer which was fairly reminiscent of the original Ridge Racer, which had arrived in arcades in 1993.
The original game did well enough that two sequels were produced, Screamer 2 in 1996 and Screamer Rally in 1997 (a fourth title, Screamer 4×4 was developed by Clever’s Games in 2000). But now the series is returning 30 years later.
The 2026 Screamer will attempt to mix arcade action with a deep storyline drawning inspiration for 1980s and 1990s anime and manga, with animated cutscenes created in collaboration with Polygon Pictures, one of the older and most well known Japanese animation studios, and American voice actor Troy Baker.
And there will also be proper fighting mechanics, potentially blending the racing and beat ’em up genres effectively. Console store listings also suggest that there will be online multiplayer for up to 16 people, but more importantly, local multiplayer for up to four people. Which sounds particularly interesting.
With a plot that will apparently explore themes of human will, revenge, love and greed with classic sci-fi imagery, a diverse cast of characters will be involved in a street racing tournament organised by a mysterious figure.
Your excitement about the new Screamer will probably depend on whether you remember the original fondly, and if you have an appreciation for anime and manga.
It’s not the first anime-inspired racing game, with Initial D getting a series developed by Sega since 2001, but it’s interesting to see Milestone doing something different with their reboot, possibly inspired by the success of the Hot Wheels Unleashed series as a move away from purely licensed motorsport games and simulations.
Personally, I’m looking forward to finding out more about it. Every so often, I get a hankering to play a single-player arcade racer, but there aren’t many which have a compelling story or reason to pick them over a sprawling online world in Forza Horizon or The Crew. Often it’s just a stopgap to move you from one race to the next.
In terms of similar games, the closest might be the upcoming Japanese Drift Master, which shares the story of narrative-driven events and sidequests though hand-drawn manga pages. But without being able to compare the two games, it feels like Screamer will focus a lot more on the storyline, which could be just the way to stand out in crowded market for racing games.
The original two games are currently still available for the PC via Steam, here and here, for £6.99 each.
You can also wishlist Screamer (2026) already on Steam, here. Or on the PlayStation Store for the PS5, and the Microsoft Store for the Xbox Series X|S. And you’ll be able to keep up with the latest Screamer news, release dates and more, here.
Leave a Reply