Sports & Racing · 2026 · Milestone · local · online
Screamer
An arcade racer that turns the right stick into a drift angle — and asks for real practice in return.
What it is about
An arcade racer with controls of its own: the left stick steers, the right one sets the drift angle, and you shift manually — timed right, that charges the boost.
Alongside it a story about a racing tournament, unusually long for a racing game. As a pair you race each other on a split screen.
Our verdict for couples
This is not a game you casually put on for two. The controls are the most idiosyncratic a racer has had in a long time, and they only work once both hands are doing different things: steering left, drifting right, shifting in between. If you commit, you get something no other racer offers; several reviews say they did not want to go back to anything else afterwards. If you do not commit, you lose on the split screen against someone who did, and lose badly. That is exactly why it sits lower here than its Metascore would suggest: for two people of unequal practice it is the wrong choice. If both are willing to put in a few evenings, it is the most interesting racer of its year.
Pros
- Driving mechanics you will not find anywhere else
- On a split screen one copy covers you both
- A race takes minutes — you can stop whenever you like
- Unusually much story around it for a racing game
Cons
- The controls take hours to click — the wrong choice for a pair of unequal practice
- Opponents rubber-band onto you no matter how well you drive
- The story is told in static dialogue screens rather than cutscenes
- For two there is only versus, no shared mode
Suitable from
Gamer
- Conflict potential
- Spirited
- Cosiness
- Mixed
- When you can stop
- After 15 minutes
- How long it lasts
- 15–40 hours
What other co-op fans say
Eighty-two percent approval, and the reviews agree strikingly on one point: the controls decide everything. Those who have worked them out write in superlatives — the best racer in years comes up more than once. Those who do not take to them get no further than "odd". The recurring substantive objections are the rubber-banding opponents and the story told in static screens.
- “Hands down my favourite racing game of the last 10 years (possibly even of all time)”
- “It has a lot of driving mechanics that feel very fun to use, even for beginners. But, if you can master the controls, it’ll be even better.”
- “Twin stick controls take some getting used to, but feel great when you get the hang of them.”
- “The AI rubber-band super hard, can be a bit brain dead at times, or just impossible to catch up to depending on if it wants to.”
Summarised by machine from 60 Steam reviews, not written by our editors. The quotes appear verbatim in those reviews.
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