Daytona USA Championship Circuit Edition

"After the original Daytona conversion was rather poor, the Sega Rally team try to recreate Daytona for the Saturn, but is it actually any better?"

To put it bluntly, the original Daytona USA conversion on the Saturn was quite poor – slow frame rate, huge borders, tons of pop-up and glitching, no multiplayer mode, and an overall lacking lastability. A year later, in an effort to meet their consumer’s demands, Sega put the team that did the Sega Rally conversion in charge of recreating Daytona for the Saturn. Using their proven Rally engine, the team has produced a game with some improvements, but also some drawbacks too.

Firstly the graphics have been greatly improved compared to those in the original conversion. In fact the detail level has been vastly upgraded, that it is much better than the original coin-op in most ways. More textures have been added to make the game look slightly realistic, and it is quite a good job. You would think that the higher detail level would decrease the speed of the game, but the frame-rate remains at a constant 30 fps throughout! Even the huge borders from the original PAL version have been removed, making the game appear much better than before.

However, there are drawbacks with the graphics. Firstly there is still a fair bit of pop-up and glitching going on in the background, where the track is being drawn in. Mind you, it’s nowhere near as bad as it was in the original conversion, but it is still noticeable. However, it doesn’t the overall look of the game, unless you’re constantly on the lookout for it. The other problem is that some of the details, like the reflections of the sky on the cars, have been scrapped. This was probably done to keep the frame-rate high though, so it is forgivable.

The audio quality, whilst good in the original, has been improved upon, so you can actually hear what the announcer is saying properly. Also the sound effects sound fresh and realistic, and it can actually sound like there is car in your lounge room!

The music from the original conversion was memorable because of the fruitiness of it, and the sometimes-annoying vocals it contained. However, it’s been scraped for this version and replaced with rock or dance remixes of those tunes, without the lyrics. Now whilst the new music is great, and suits the game well, fans of the original tunes will probably find that something is missing with the game, and it’s that fruitiness that the lyrics give off. It would have been nice to have the option to turn the vocals on or off, or even choose between the new or old soundtrack. As it is though, it’s decent background music for power-sliding around the tracks to, it’s just that fans of the original tunes may feel that something is missing from the game.

Other improvements come in the form of eight new cars available from the get go, with a few more hidden away, and this is a vast improvement over the original conversions two cars. Each car has it’s own unique driving characteristics in terms of grip, acceleration, and maximum speed, which adds to the game’s lastability, because players need to test each of the cars to see which one best suits their driving style and the tracks they are racing on. However, the omission of the Hornet (the main car in the original) is a little disappointing. It is available as a secret car, but it has been supped up so much so that it doesn’t feel like the same car anymore.

Accompanying the original three courses are two new tracks; Desert City – a track set out in the desert with some nasty corners; and National Park Speedway – a fairly simple circuit set within an amusement park. In fact both courses contain object animations in the backgrounds - a train, and a roller-coaster, respectively, something that adds to the atmosphere of the track, and looks pretty cool. They are both quite unique in design, and are of a similar caliber to the original circuits.

Finally, a two-player split-screen mode has been included, something that the original sorely needed. The graphical compromises are immediately evident, whilst not as bad as some of the other split-screen modes in other games, there is still room for improvement. Unfortunately, the developers weren’t able to capture the same atmosphere of playing Daytona multiplayer in the arcades for this version, but nonetheless it’s still fun to race against other players.

All the modes (Arcade, Time-Attack, and Two-Player Battle) can be found in Sega Rally, as can most of the various options, as well as a few extras from the original Daytona conversion, but a Championship mode (also found in Sega Rally), amongst other modes, would really have improved this games lastability, and been easy enough to implement into the game, but it just goes to show how lazy developers can be sometimes.

In terms of lastability Daytona USA C.C.E. uses the old racing game concept of beating previous lap times and course records as it’s main component, and it doesn’t fail to keep most people entertained, as proven here. However, a few more modes, or other techniques would have been a nice and welcome addition.

However, there is a huge problem with Daytona USA C.C.E – somewhere during the conversion the atmosphere of the coin-op was lost, and so it doesn’t feel or play like Daytona anymore. This has to do with the handling of the vehicles being very different from that in the coin-op, meaning that the inclusion of the new cars and leaving out the original ones was a mistake. However, this doesn’t completely ruin the gaming experience, but if you are expecting to be able to play the coin-op in your home, then this isn’t it - go and check out the original conversion instead, as it plays the same as the coin-op.

A lot of people have picked up on this and claimed that the game is rubbish, which is far from the truth. As a racer in it’s own right, Daytona USA Championship Circuit Edition is definitely one of the best racers on the Saturn – just forget that it’s supposed to be Daytona and you’ll have plenty of fun with it.


Visuals: 9 / 10
A definite improvement over the original games, and even the coin-op to some degree.

Audio: 8 / 10
Great rock and dance remixed tunes, that unfortunately lack the fruitiness of the original songs and their lyrics, that were so memorable. The excellent sound effects do a good job of simulating the racing experience.

Gameplay 8 / 10
The handling is completely different to the coin-op’s, and it must be said that the game is not the same Daytona from the arcades. However, the new cars do handle reasonably well and the game is quite fun to play.

Lastability: 6 / 10
There’s 5 tracks, 8 cars, plus 3 hidden ones, plus a decent 2-player mode, and some tough records to beat. It’s not going to last you forever, but it’s not something that you will be done with within a couple of days either.

Overall: 8 / 10
Whilst not the conversion we were hoping for, nor being Daytona anymore, Daytona CCE is a good racing game that most racing fans will enjoy.

Recommended For:
Anyone who enjoys a racing game and already has Sega Rally. Not for people expecting it to be the Daytona coin-op though.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/10/01, Updated 10/10/01