GENTLEMEN, START YOUR ENGINES
For the past few months I’ve been obsessing over this game, while not actually sitting down to play through it. Not too long after I had dipped into Ridge Racer Type 4 I became interested in other racing games, and eventually learned about Daytona USA. An iconic arcade racer that- immediately took my interest. The aesthetics, soundtrack, and arcadey nature made me raise an eyebrow. I wanted to try this.
But only now have I actually gone through every track in the original game, after playing the first two levels on and off for about two months. Some of that is due to Daytona’s skill curve. I wouldn’t call it as easy to pick up and play as Ridge Racer. The way drifting works is significantly more difficult to pick up on, and overall this game has more emphasis on needing to learn all of its mechanical intricacies to play properly. That being said, you can still do okay-ish enough by knowing only the basics, even on automatic transmission.
Gameplay wasn’t the main factor for my interest in the game, though. I was much more curious about everything else. Daytona USA is absolutely seeping with SEGA’s energy from the 90’s. Bright blue skies loom over you, as head bopping tunes, some of Sega Sound Team’s pure finest, play in the background. Takenobu Mitsuyoshi’s fantastic vocals for every track elevated the score, and with the Saturn version, made his voice fully realized in the realm of CD quality audio. The soundtrack is mainly comprised of three songs, The King of Speed, Let’s Go Away, and Sky High, all of which are FANTASTIC. Both the arcade and Saturn versions of these tunes are some of my favorites in video games period, reminding me of similar Sega soundtracks like Sonic R and Sonic CD. Just music that is riding with both energy, creativity, and depth.
The 1994 Saturn port of the game isn’t well regarded, and while for good reason too, it’s still very solid. The technical aspects of the game are a bit annoying, such as the drop from 60fps to 20fps, and the limited draw distance being- very apparent. It still plays great, though, and it also introduces the arranged soundtrack. I think considering the crunch development cycle of the Saturn version in order for it to release on launch, alongside the limitations of Saturn hardware compared to Sega’s technical beast that is the Model 2, it’s a lot better than it could’ve been. Nowadays, if you have a PS3 or Xbox, you can just play a modern port of the arcade version for about ten bucks, which isn’t a bad price. There still is merit to trying older versions of the game, but if you had to pick one version… it’s probably that. I still adored the Saturn version, with it’s cute little limitations, shadows and other visual effects simply being a very obvious dithering effect, and overall comfiness. It is worse than the arcade version, but it still offers that core Daytona experience.
Little side tangent, can I just say that the box art for both of the Daytona USA ports on Saturn in Japan look fantastic? The 1994 one is oozing with color, while the Circuit Edition one has this amazing evening sky. The NTSC-U box arts by comparison are… fine, but a little generic.
Daytona USA is a special game to me. It’s not my favorite racing game (I still think RRT4 is), but it’s a game that reminds me of why I loved Sega in the 90’s and 2000’s, especially with those bright blue Sega skies. I don’t know if I’ll ever fully be able to explain what this game’s aesthetics mean to me, but it makes me happy and I guess that’s all that really matters. Please play this, if you can, it’s less than 30 minutes long if you play all the tracks, and it is really fun.