It’s no secret that Sega completely botched the launch of their 32-bit Saturn console. The primary issue (aside from the absurd price) was that surprise release. Developers simply didn’t have enough time to prepare their software for launch. This is marked by a clear absense of third party games, but even Sega struggled to meet the deadline and this is pretty apparent with what DID get released. Daytona USA in particular, a planned Arcade port for the console, is one of the noteworthy victims. Today we’re going to take a look back at this flawed racer.
Daytona USA was a big hit in the arcades being developed by Sega and based upon the Daytona 500 real life event. I remember being pretty impressed with it at the time of release and seeing it in a few pizza parlors and arcades. This is a port of that same game, but to the underpowered Sega Saturn home console. How does it fare? Not good. Let’s start with how it plays. The game is your basic racer where you’re competing against computer controlled opponents to come in first place in a race with a varying number of laps. There aren’t any gimmicks; it’s just pure racing. You’re given a choice of car to use, and of manual or automatic transmission and then you’re off. The different courses each have their own number of opponents, and you have different difficulty modes as well.
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| This is one of the more impressive areas graphically. |
The first problem we have is the limited content. Sega brought this one over forgetting that console gamers need a little more content if they’re going to pay full price instead of sling a few quarters like they would in the arcade. Daytona USA has only three courses ranked from beginner to expert. The first of these is a simple roundabout in a stadium and is extremely boring. The other two fare better, but they’re pretty standard for racing games at the time but the level design is fairly inventive and interesting. The problem is there’s only three of them. The CD format was pretty new at the time and with the massive storage it allowed for you would think Sega would take advantage of it. Sadly, that’s not the case. For what was a full priced game at release the lack of content is a bit ridiculous. It’s fairly replayable and quite fun to master, but the game needed more to it.
The game does have a few things going for it that were pretty unique at the time of release. First and foremost we have the vehicle damage. This was an uncommon mechanic at the time, and thankfully makes it’s way into the Saturn version of the game. As you collide with other vehicles, barriers, and other environmental hazards your vehicle takes noticeable damage. When it reaches a certain point you wreck, but to circumvent this you could drive into a pit-stop and have your car repaired. This costs you precious time of course, but can be very useful. Additionally the game features two separate modes of play; arcade and saturn mode. The first plays just like it did in the coin op machines where you try to reach checkpoints before the time runs out, and the latter gets rid of checkpoints and allows you to focus purely on competing against your AI counterparts.
Daytona USA is fairly fun but a few nuances really hold it back. The Saturn hardware just wasn’t up to the task of handling this port to be honest. This is one of the games that made obvious this wasn’t a very 3D capable machine. The arcade version ran at a steady sixty frames per second, and while it’s unfair to expect the same from home hardware the twenty that this game runs at is a stark contrast. It just isn’t smooth, and that takes away some control accuracy. What’s also crippling to the experience is the massive pop-in. You cannot see far ahead of your car at all; it constantly looks like you’re driving toward the edge of the world until the next length of scenery loads in. This was a major problem for games back then but somehow this seems to be one of the cases that really stands out in my mind as being particularly bad, and a recent replay confirmed that my memories were correct.
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| Ah! It hurts the eyes! |
Things only get worse from here. Everything is heavily pixelated in this game. From every texture detail to even the writing on the back of the cars. It’s almost a little hard to look at to be honest. The lower polygon counts also make it a little more difficult to properly tell the damage your car has taken which I sometimes need to squint to confirm. On the plus side the framerate and pop-in are at least steady – I never noticed them getting any worse when multiple cars were on-screen. Furthermore I really like the colorful aesthetic this title offers. It’s a bright and cheerful game and that definitely works in its favor.
Daytona USA gets mixed reception for its soundtrack, and it’s not hard to see why. The music makes use of that pop jazz style Sega was so fond of in this era, and features some very unusual vocal work by the composer himself. Most of it doesn’t make a lick of sense as he just repeats ‘Oh!’s over and over again, and other themes are just absurd with him repeating ‘blue blue sky!’ Personally I absolutely love it. It’s flamboyant, bouncy, and fun that those are three defining traits of Sega releases in this era. The music will certainly get stuck in your head regardless of if you love or hate it, and that speaks volumes to the care that went into it.
