Both James and I dug anime-styled arcade racer Screamer when we gave a verdict on it earlier this year, but one aspect that raised both of our eyebrows was the game’s unorthodox twin stick drift controls. Usually, steering and sliding in racing games are managed by the one singular controller stick, keeping things simple and intuitive, but Milestone opted to make you kick out the tail with a second stick instead. It feels fine once you get used to it, but is the kind of thing that could bounce folks off who’re not down to rewrite years of muscle memory.
The good news for such folks is that Screamer’s latest patch adds in the option of single stick sliding in the hopes of making the adjustment a little easier.
As detailed in the notes for said patch, to switch from twin stick drift controls to single, you’ll need to head to the options menu before jumping into a race.
“Note that Twin Stick is still the recommended way to enjoy the game at its fullest since the ECHO System has been designed around that,” game director Federico Cardini wrote. “But we understand that the unique twin stick controls might feel weird on their first few uses, so we decided to add this new option for players who prefer to start with something more familiar.”
That sounds as close to ideal as any compromise of this nature can get. Add single stick as an option for those starting out or playing more casually, while the twin stick system still takes priority as the way to play if you’re committed to mastering the game as intended. My hope’s that some folks who might’ve given Screamer a miss the first time around due to its quirky handling might be convinced to give it another go, though I imagine a lot of them may have their eyes on Star Wars: Galactic Racer following its release the other day. To me, they’re both worth a look if you’ve got cash to spend and are keen to fit in plenty of boost-fuelled arcade racing action before the year’s out.
As for the rest of this Screamer patch, Milestone have gotten rid of some “unnecessary suspension lines”, which is surprising to me as I don’t recall the game’s cast yacking on too much about how their rides handle the bumps. Some changes to how certain characters can be unlocked, tweaks to how the game detects what you want the default camera distance to be set to, and a bunch of balancing for the on-track powers of various competitors round things out. Oh, and an invisible wall next to a shortcut one one track’s been moved out of harm’s way.
If you want to read some words from me on Screamer’s multiplayer races specifically, in which I certainly brushed many perfectly visible walls, those exist here.