Daytona USA

"Okay for casual gamer, but I was expecting a LOT more"

Chances are, you've seen this one before. A lot of arcades featured this game before it's Saturn release, and where I come from, it was a rather popular game. The graphics were good, the music was catchy (kind of weird though), and the game had a multiplayer feature. Personally, I didn't see what all the hype was about... it's just another racing game. Years later, the Saturn was released with this, Virtua Fighter 2, and Virtua Cop, and that's when we decided to buy the Saturn. Let's just say, I played VC and VF all night, and Daytona for about 10 minutes.

Now, Daytona USA for the Saturn is almost a direct port of the arcade game. You get the same graphics, sound, and good control of the original. The presentation is excellent, indeed (play this with stereo sound!), but that's it....

Gameplay: 3/10

Please don't flame me for saying this, but Daytona is REALLY lacking in the gameplay department. What you get is good (racing can be fun!), but there is not nearly enough of it. You get the original Arcade Mode (where you must pass through the checkpoints to obtain extra time and whatnot), and the new Saturn mode, which is basically the same thing but without a time limit. There is also a Time Trial Mode. There are 3 (!!!) raceways in the game, and about 4 cars.... that's IT!

Is this game supposed to be a demo disc? I mean, 3 tracks and 4 cars can't be the full game, can it? It is, really. C'mon, I've played games on the SNES (Top Gear) with 4 different cars, 2 Player Mode, about 32 tracks, and adjustable difficulty. Has gaming taken a step back? Was Sega out of their minds? This kind of thing would be okay in an arcade (where casual gamers go to play), but as a consumer who is asked to pay around 50 dollars for a game with 3 TRACKS and 4 CARS, I am more than a little disappointed with Sega.

Story: N/A

Not really applicable, because Daytona USA is a racing game.

Graphics: 8/10

Part of the reason my dad likes this game so much is because of the pretty graphics. The Saturn seems to be used to it's potential here. I haven't run into any pop-up or slowdown or any of those things every gamer dreads.

Controls: 7/10

Good controls, steering is handled quite nicely as well. An overall good job by Sega here.

Audio: 7/10

As stated earlier, the music is fairly catchy, but the singing is a little odd, to say the least. The first track in the game has you listening to someone yelling ''ROLLLLING FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSST!'', which is disturbing. The second track's song is based around something like ''DAYTOOOOONA! Let's pull away!'', and the third track features the questionable lyrics known as (I kid you not) ''I want to FLYYYY, sky high! I'm born to get high!''. That can be taken out of context. The voices in the songs are easily noticable as Japanese, and they sound good, but the lyrics remind me of broken english.

Replay: 1/10

Well, you'll be done with it rather quick, but would you want to play again? Maybe the die-hard racing fan would give it another spin, but not me.

Buy or Rent:

Don't buy it unless it's on sale at a low price. It's not worth a whole lot of money in my opinion.

Overall, I feel insulted by this game. As a gamer, I think I deserved more than the limited thrills that this waste of a CD gave me.

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 08/16/02, Updated 08/16/02