By Going all the way
- by Sammy Barker
Screamer is a vintage racing franchise from the 90s that Italian outfit Milestone is bringing back.
The original was heavily inspired by Ridge Racer, and was a bit of a graphical tour-de-force at the time. This new version is hoping to standout by implementing an anime flavour, which could work.
But watching this trailer, we’re not quite sure we understand what the developer is trying to do.
The video introduces one of the fictional racing factions from the release, the Green Reapers. The trio have pretty unremarkable designs, but they look fine.
The problem is, when the trailer segues to gameplay, there’s a huge disconnect. The car models are a little stylised, but the race tracks look like boring video game backdrops. Surely the whole thing needs to be cel-shaded or something?
We’re not sure we quite understand this half-step towards an anime art style – it’s a direction Need for Speed Unbound also adopted.
It’s a shame because we’ve always appreciated the way cel-shaded racers such as Auto Modellista look, almost like they’ve jumped right out of a panel of Initial D.
We hope Screamer is good, and we’re excited to see a few more arcade racers get revealed. But it just feels like the developer has chickened out a bit here, which is a shame.
[source youtube.com]
As the Editor of Push Square, Sammy has over 15 years of experience analysing the world of PlayStation, from PS3 through PS5 and everything in between. He’s an expert on PS Studios and industry matters, as well as sports games and simulators. He also enjoys RPGs when he has the time to dedicate to them, and is a bit of a gacha whale.