Daytona USA
When I first got my Sega Saturn, it came with a 3-game pack to start that included Virtua Cop, Virtua Fighter 2 and an arcade favorite of mine, Daytona USA. I've always enjoyed racing games previously on the Genesis and on my PC, but without the ability to properly render the track in 3D they always felt lacking. There were a few small exceptions; Hard Drivin' and Virtua Racing on the Sega and F-Zero and Mario Kart on the SNES. But they never quite had the sense of realism that you got with Daytona USA. And that's bearing in mind that in Daytona USA you drove cars with practically square tires..
Really though, this was one of the first games that I felt really simulated the 'driving experience'. Just the fun of rolling along behind the wheel with going forward being your
only objective. There was an option to run a 99 lap race and at times I would just set that up so I could just drive non-stop for an hour or so. It was no Tokyo Xtreme Racer, but at the time it was still enough to create that fantastic zen driving experience. Heck, I don't even like stock car/Nascar racing very much but I had a blast with this game. It's biggest downfall was that it didn't actually play like a modern racer. Since it was a port of a Sega arcade game, it's still designed to eat quarters. So rather than running a full set of laps and hoping to win, you have to battle against a timer and possibly loose even if you are currently holding first place. The only more modern racer I've seen do that as a major part of the game and get away with it would be Vanishing Point on the Dreamcast. But it really was a strong game mechanic in it's case.
We also can't forget about the amazing soundtrack. It was really super-bad. It's main track consists of some dude singing about stock car things. (Check the video beside.) "This is your crew chief" and "This course is really tough". It's really absurd and to this day I can't think about this game without hearing "Daaaaayyytooonaaaaaaa" playing in my head.
So, square tires, (They really weren't able to produce proper curved surfaces at the time.) a terrible soundtrack and an unfortunate arcade conversion. And yet, it still stuck with me as a super fun game. Part of it was just due to the timing it was available and the tech was still new and part of it was that it was yet another game that crossed over between arcade and home console. But either way, it was an enjoyable stepping stone.
When I first got my Sega Saturn, it came with a 3-game pack to start that included Virtua Cop, Virtua Fighter 2 and an arcade favorite of mine, Daytona USA. I've always enjoyed racing games previously on the Genesis and on my PC, but without the ability to properly render the track in 3D they always felt lacking. There were a few small exceptions; Hard Drivin' and Virtua Racing on the Sega and F-Zero and Mario Kart on the SNES. But they never quite had the sense of realism that you got with Daytona USA. And that's bearing in mind that in Daytona USA you drove cars with practically square tires..Really though, this was one of the first games that I felt really simulated the 'driving experience'. Just the fun of rolling along behind the wheel with going forward being your
So, square tires, (They really weren't able to produce proper curved surfaces at the time.) a terrible soundtrack and an unfortunate arcade conversion. And yet, it still stuck with me as a super fun game. Part of it was just due to the timing it was available and the tech was still new and part of it was that it was yet another game that crossed over between arcade and home console. But either way, it was an enjoyable stepping stone.
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