Daytona USA was an arcade hit for Sega, taking
America by storm in 1994. Even today, cabinets
can still be found in bowling alleys and laundromats
throughout the country. A year after the arcade
debut, Daytona USA would be a launch title
for the Sega Saturn in 1995.
As the name suggests, Daytona USA is an arcade
style stock-car racing game where you pilot
the Hornet and race through three increasingly
difficult tracks. Being a rushed port, this
first installment of Daytona USA is fairly
bare-bones.
You have the choice between just a few cars.
The difference between them is the automatic
cars have a slightly lower top speed than
the manual transmission cars. After making
your selection, you have the choice between
three circuits. Depending on your point of
view, these are either short, medium, and
long, or easy, advanced, and expert.
The first course is the one most should be
familiar with, Three Seven Speedway. This
is a simple tri-oval with a similar layout
to the real life Daytona International Speedway.
Having just three turns, the course is easy,
but gives you a great sense of what Daytona
USA is all about.
First, the audio presentation is over the
top. Right from the start, with the vocal
track singing rolling start, you know you
are in for a treat. The sound effects follow
suit. The engine noise has a throaty mechanical
growl that sounds like a real V8 engine, a
real triumph for 1995. Your pit chief even
has the appropriate Southern accent as he
barks out commentary. Like most of Sega’s
arcade offerings of the day, the audio is
outstanding and holds up exceptionally well.
After taking in the sweet sounds of Daytona
USA and arriving at victory lane, we’re
off to the the next course, Dinosaur Canyon.
Rather than a rolling start, things begin
stationary. Additionally, we are on a road
course, rather than an oval. Dinosaur Canyon
is a rather brilliant track, featuring great
elevation changes, a nice blend of sweeping
and hairpin turns, and a great flow to it
from start to finish. While Three Seven Speedway
featured 40 cars on the course at once, along
with eight laps, Dinosaur Canyon features
just 20 cars and 4 laps.
Still, of all of the Daytona USA I’ve played
over the past couple of decades, this is my
favorite experience of them all. Dinosaur
Canyon plays to the strengths of the controls.
I won’t call the controls bad, but there
is a definite learning curve. The game offers
a strange mix of grip and drifting mechanics
that I struggle to completely wrap my brain
around.
The turns and curves here make sense, and
it’s easy to learn which can be taken flat
out, which can be taken while letting off
the accelerator, and which you can drift through.
The drifting does feel dated. Initiating,
and ending a drift feels unnatural and inconsistent.
However, this course is fairly forgiving and
works well with dated mechanics.
Finally, we arrive at Seaside Street Galaxy.
This is a street course and definitely plays
homage to Bay Bridge from Virtua Racing. As
expected from an Expert course, this track
is brutal, with a ton of tight technical turns.
For me, this is where the Saturn version of
Daytona USA misses a step.
It can be very difficult to drift through
turns and the shortcomings with the controls
are very evident when you are asked to push
the limits. My biggest issue is how difficult
it is to change directions quickly, from left
to right, and collisions with the walls are
far too easy. With enough memorization it
is possible to beat the course on the normal
difficulty, and effectively beat the game.
Finishing in the top three on each track will
unlock a pair of new cars complete with new
color schemes, different top speeds, and different
ratings for grip and acceleration. Even cooler,
the black car won’t slow down when scrubbing
the wall, making the overall game a lot easier.
Finishing first on all three courses will
unlock a horse as a playable vehicle.
And let me tell you, there is something immensely
satisfying with racing a horse at 200 miles
per hour and it makes the whole ordeal worthwhile.
The true strength of Daytona USA is the epic
soundtrack. Not only does it effortlessly
blend funk, pop, and dance into one seamless
sound, the vocals are over the top and extremely
memorable. From The King of Speed on Three
Seven Speedway, to the iconic Let’s Go Away
on Dinosaur Canyon, and of course Sky High
on Seaside Street Galaxy, Daytona USA is simply
in a league of it’s own. If hearing these
tracks doesn’t put a smile on your face,
something just might be wrong with you. It
is Sega, at their very best.
As expected, the Saturn version of Daytona
USA has some graphical limitations and doesn’t
hold a candle to the super smooth arcade original.
The framerate chugs along at around 20 frames
per second most of the time, and the Sega
Saturn lacks the texture smoothing features
of the arcade hardware.
However, I find the pixelated textures and
chunky polygon models have their charm. The
core of the game is here, with accurate colors
and many of the details in intact. Sonic the
Hedgehog is carved into the rock, dinosaur
fossils are on the canyon walls, horses gallop
through a field, Jeffrey is immortalized on
a statue, and a pirate ship is docked at a
port. While later games on competing hardware
definitely blow this away technically, I find
Daytona USA a visually appealing game.
Overall, Daytona USA is a great racing game.
While I wish the controls were a little tighter
and more precise, they don’t prevent the
game from being a total blast. Few games let
you rumble with so many other opponents at
once, and the experience is truly one of kind.
On top of this, the track design is strong,
the art direction terrific, and the soundtrack
is the stuff legends are made of. Daytona
USA for the Saturn is easy to recommend. Four
out of five.
