Daytona USA is an icon of the 90s arcade scene. The sit-down racing cabinet, energetic presentation, and an unusual amount of secrets to find all contributed to fond memories of why we loved arcades, so a port cashing in on that nostalgia was a pretty smart idea. The good news is that Sega isn’t here to just exploit your warm memories, as this version of Daytona USA has some meaningful updates. It’s still an arcade racer and thus very quick to play with an intentional focus on being difficult, but they’ve added new modes to play with and even allowed for online versus racing with up to eight players total. This is definitely a game that holds up fine today, and the new content just makes it a better deal.
The player is given control of their choice from a few cars, the major differences being the automatic transmission version is easier to control but a little slower, while the manual transmission one is faster but requires more effort to use properly. Once you pick your car and track, you’re quickly put into the race as there is no car tuning or running a qualifying lap or anything else like that. The flow is ’pick mode, pick car, pick track, now go play’ and even the beginner’s course emphasizes this. As your car enters play already speeding at 180+ miles per hour while someone enthusiastically sings "Rolling Start!", you know you’re in for a fast-paced game. In the normal play modes, all you have to do is ensure you finish the race before time runs out.
Daytona’s controls deserve mention since they demand precision from the player. Attempting to steer the car with the sort of motion and ’force’ you might in other games will just send it plowing into walls and spinning out, so you must learn that you’re using an analog stick (or steering wheel, which is supported though I was unable to test due to lacking such a controller) and it will require delicate, gentle motions. Sometimes just a tiny little tap to the side is all the steering you need to make a turn, and players who fail to realize this won’t get very far. On the other hand, sometimes you have to slam your steering all the way to the side while braking to make an impressive drifting turn, so this is definitely an ’action-oriented’ racing experience. Mastering the controls and learning each track are the primary skills required here, since having deeply realistic racing in an arcade game wouldn’t have made much sense.
For a game all about racing cars, Daytona USA has a surprising amount of charm to it. The colorful world design and upbeat music certainly help accomplish this, but they’re joined by a lot of secrets. Pressing the Back button at certain points can bring up some fun things on each track, with the most obvious being the giant slot machine on the first course; it’s actually playable and pressing the button at the right time can be rewarded with an increased time limit to finish the race. Another course has a hidden path, one that if followed to its end has a rather funny sign teasing the player for their willingness to take a race car far away from the track. These were strange additions to an arcade game, since seeking them out ensured you would lose that session, but they’re much more effective when you can replay the track as many times as you like in this console release.
