Screamer

Best racing experience I've had since 2010! If you yearn for how fast, innovative and fun the old Burnout, Ridge Racer and Need For Speed titles were, this is for you! Don't let the controls scare you off, once you learn you'll feel faster than ever, even racing the AI is extremely exciting and rewarding. BUY THIS GAME IF YOU LOVE RACING!!! Edit: Couldn't leave the story and soundtrack out, they slap! Just that alone knocks the question of whether this is worth $60 dollars or not, most racing games don't even bother with a story and just license tracks, the art and care here is astounding. And oh, btw, 4 player splitscreen.

In an age where most racing games are open world festival themed or closed circuit simulations, Screamer 2026 is a breath of fresh air in the genre. Is the story perfect, no but it hooks you in to see it through to completion. The cars in-game do have recognizable shapes to those who are automotive enthusiasts so that's a plus. The tracks are an interesting mix to choose from (ie: urban, forested, industrial, sci-fi). There are unlockables that are done through the old fashioned way (concept art, soundtracks, additional car skins) that adds to the replay value. Would I recommend purchasing it? I'd suggest trying the demo out first, then maybe wait for a sale as $60-$70 is a big ask in this day and age.

Honestly this is one of the most infuriating arcade racers that I've played barring Burnout Paradise but for completely different reasons, since it's good, but it's this close, THIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS CLOSE to being great and we've been STAAAAAARVED for actual arcade racers which may introduce some heavy dose of bias but we'll take every win we can make cuz HOLY CRAP CAN WE STOP GETTING SIMS FOR 5 SECONDS? First the unambiguously good: - Mostly the music slaps, especially the Hex Archive tracks but Torba's are also pretty good, though it drops the ball on the secret characters. - FERMI Now the subjective: - The focus on story is hit on miss depending on your preferences, I myself really like anime nonsense and got hooked cuz I'm used to reading visual novels and has some ACTUALLY VERY GOOD CHARACTERS with Noboru Sato and Gabriel and I desperately want a sequel cuz I just want to know *what the hell they're planning next* but a lot of people will probably not care about it or actively dislike it. Now I will proceed to nitpick the HELL out of this game cuz *I LIKE YOU AND I WANT TO SEE YOU DO BETTER YOU CAN DO BETTER SCREAMER YOU HAVE THE FOUNDATION* - The driving: Twin-stick driving has been done before and while serviceable they made the weird decision of your left stick adjusting the drift angle instead of your strafing like Inertial Drift, so if you got used to that control scheme it's gonna be a hell of a problem with your muscle memory and makes it feel a lot more of a gimmick than an actual thought out mechanic. Also outside of overdrive and Frederic there is almost no penalty for grinding on the walls. - The vehicular combat: kinda tacked on, I didn't really enjoy that you can only get takedowns with the boost when the whole premise sound like it would be better to have a bit more Burnout DNA in forms of takedowns and you would expect there to be a better damage model for being such an aggressive game, but the most you'll see is spoilers flying around. HOWEVER Overdrive is actually well implemented due to being both high risk and high reward. - You're already halfway anime WHY NOT COMMIT TO THE BIT COMPLETELY WITH YOUR IN-GAME 3D MODELS THAT'S WHAT ALSO INFURIATED ME ABOUT NFS UNBOUND. - The story itself I found reasonable enjoyable but the *structure* is a mess jumping between all the characters on a single timeline when it really feels like it would have improved by dividing it into like 4 or 5 simultaneous shorter campaigns that each complement bits and pieces regarding the story revelations and beats and the tournament itself feeling like an afterthought cuz there is no real in-story scoreboard to get an idea on where things are progressing. - After completely the story theres....what exactly? Multiplayer? Dead. Arcade? Not enough modes and honestly feels a bit tacked on with some VERY weird difficulty mismatchs depending on the character because they really feel that they are designed and balanced for team races and not free for alls, (bro you could have put at least drifting events when your whole shtick is drifting) - The shortcuts are a joke and tacked on, either they invalidate a lot of the track leaving you in such ridiculous advantage or just plain aren't faster than the main track even when they're harder to enter. - Biggest nitpick. PLEASE LET PEOPLE MAKE A CUSTOM UNIVERSAL PLAYLIST YOUR MUSIC IS GOOD BUT IT GETS REPETITIVE TO HEAR THE SAME 3 TRACKS PER TEAM.

The driving is fire, I wish there was more people online :( (the story is basically one big tutorial lol)

This game was outside of my comfort zone. Racing game, with VN delivery of story and anime aesthetic. But man this game was good. I'm not much of a competitive guy let alone for racing games but even if I only played the Tournament I can wholeheartedly recommend this game. The feeling of learning how to actually drive a specific character's car feels very nice despite me not liking some of them very much. My favorites are Naboru, Hiroshi and Hina since they're all decent enough at drifting and active shifting which all scratches an itch similar to parrying and perfect dodges in action games. The twin stick steering/drifting was also quite neat personally. I haven't played racing games too much to have any point of comparison but what I can say is it gives every car their own identity in handling. Some cars have good left stick steering but lose a ton of speed when drifting, some likes to drift a lot, sharp turns almost always needs both, those sorts of things. It all felt nice and racing never felt like a chore throughout my 20 hours playing the tournament. Difficulty is quite steep though. Initially i went for "challenge" mode but had to bring it down at some point since it's taking me like an hour just to get through a single stage. Balanced actually feels balanced. There's still some parts that were kinda difficult like having to use a character like Roisin or Akane which im not too good at using to achieve either time attack or 1st place on tracks that are also filled with weird turns and curves. I'd recommend for anyone playing first time for the "Balanced" difficulty since i can imagine story would make the game boring since you don't have to learn or master anything.

Muy recomendable, pero mejor espera un descuento. Para empezar, la interfaz es muy fluida, todo va a la perfección, los gráficos son espectaculares, tanto en el diseño del coche, como en los escenarios de los circuitos, mi favorito siendo el circuito del bosque. Me encanta que los coches estén completamente asignados a cada personaje y que cada uno tenga su propria identidad. La banda sonora es intensa y son casi todos temazos, aunque el del final fue mi favorito, te hace entrar en ese estado de concentración, como si todo a tu alrededor desaparece. La historia... de las mejores en cuanto te acercas al final, de verdad que dieron una profundidad a todos los personajes en cuanto a su vida personal, objetivos, deseos, su pasado e incluso sus relaciones. La mecánica de los coches (poderes, manejo) me encanta también, la última vez que me divertí tanto conduciendo fue hace ya bastantes años, de verdad que te lo tienes que currar algo incluso en modo normal para llegar en las posiciones altas o incluso ganar. Se me hizo corto el juego y espero una segunda entrega. Como única pega es el precio, que para mi siempre será demasiado todo lo que supere 40 euros, por suerte yo lo pillé con 50% de descuento y no me arrepiento en nada. Ah, y no he visto micro-transacciones, por ahí también muy bien. Todo lo que obtienes es por mérito proprio, no por pagar extra.

yeah

This is a fighting game, but you're in a car. I'm serious! It calls on a lot of FGC-specific skills; offense/defense mindgames, resource management, moment-to-moment input execution, stuff like that. Plus the roster of flashy characters, tournament-arc story mode, the arcade modes; it has all the structural hallmarks of a fighter. And in the same fashion as most fighting games, Screamer can be difficult to approach, but is very rewarding to figure out. Patience and practice goes a long way, and the game makes the learning curve worth it. But even outside of that, the story is genuinely excellent, the soundtrack bumps, there's a ton of tracks, there's cool character abilities... this game is absolutely a hidden gem. Highly recommend it.