Review by: Pascal "Saturnman" Vellet

Rating: 8 (out of 10)

Summary:

Daytona USA on Saturn is the conversion of the arcade smash hit. The near-perfect gameplay and playability of the arcade game are faithfully ported into the Saturn version. But the less than spectacular graphics might be a turn-off to many.

The review:

It's quite possible the Saturn conversion of Daytona USA is the most contreversial video-game since Night Trap. But whereas Night Trap was vehemently attacked for its violent content by concerned parents and senator Lieberman, Saturn Daytona USA's problem was of not coming up to anxious gamers' high expectations.

And a great deal of attention was given to the development of Saturn Daytona USA. And quite rightfully so. Arcade Daytona USA is a two year old racer that can still be found in most arcades. It is considered by many (present reviewer included) as the best racing game of all time. After quickly replacing Ridge Racer in the arcades, Daytona USA has successfully fought off the arrival of other racing games (by the competition and Sega themselves) such as Sega Rally, Ace Driver, Cruisin' USA, Rave Racer, Indy 500, Manx TT and Cyber Cycles. So while most of those rival racing games have come and gone, Daytona USA is still here. Case and point: Daytona USA was (and still is) a game of immense standing and thus was a key game in the Saturn's surprise launch back in May 1995.

Saturn Daytona brings the same number of tracks as its arcade counterpart; three. That might be not enough for most home racing games but the trio that you have in Daytona USA are no ordinary tracks. The first one is the famous oval track of Daytona Beach but with some obvious changes. The layout of it all is the same but the generally flat scenery of Daytona Beach has been vastly improved with pine trees and mountains making this 3D representation more interesting than the real thing. The first track is ideal to get to know the subtle play mechanics of the game. This track is also the only one which gives the chance of racing against 39 opponent cars. Nothing beats the bumper-to-bumper action experienced here. The second track is set in an imaginary canyon with everything like a small port, a tunnel, windmills and even a newly discovered and rather large fossil. It's also longer and harder than the first track with ups and downs and more hairpin turns. To undertake the canyon track, the player must have mastered powerslides like he should have in the first track. The last track, the Sea Side, is the longest, hardest and probably my favorite track of the whole game. One second, you're passing by skyscrapers, the next you're on a huge bridge, a small village or even near the space shuttle's launch site. That's one of the main quality of Daytona USA. Every corner is different. While some doom-sayers have preached next-generation gaming has brought nothing new, I beg to differ. Diversity as seen in Daytona USA is a big step foward to 16-bit classics such as Super Mario Kart and F-Zero.

Playability and gameplay are also key elements of Daytona USA. Subtle controls bring a lot of technique to master (especially those powerslides) and spectacular crashes remind the inexperienced player he still needs a lot of pratice. Playing with a joypad is surprisingly easy as opposed to the steering wheel sold seperately for Saturn Daytona (the Saturn steering wheel is just too touchy). In fact, I'm so used to playing with a joypad that I have problems adjusting when playing the arcade game! Either on Saturn or in the arcades, Daytona USA has always had wonderful playability. And although Saturn Sega Rally plays even better, there's no shame for Daytona USA of being second in this category. It's one thing to have great playability in a racing game but if there's not enough competition when playing, what's the point? Luckily, Daytona offers more competition than any other game on the market (including Sega Rally). Depending on which track you're racing on, you can have between 19 and 39 opponent cars to race against. But those cars are not just some moving obstacles, they often try to block you and you can actually fight them, heck, those cars are even fighting amongst themselves! If you get tired of the same old tracks, well, you can have access to many different cars with unique characteristics. You can also try the "endurance race" where you race for a gruelling 30 minutes. You'll need to make many pit stops here! There's also two different difficulty settings to make things harder. Some might say those are just gimmicks but the fact I'm still playing with Saturn Daytona a year after I bought it (and before buying it, I played Arcade Daytona for a full year) must mean this game has plenty of replay value.

But enough praises, Saturn Daytona is certainly not perfect. One of the things that disappointed people with this game is the lack of any two-player option (split-screen or link-up). After all, this is one of the main attractions in the arcade game, the chance to not only play against the machine but against your friends as well.

The contreversy surrounding Saturn Daytona's graphics is justified. First of all, the graphics have a rough look, like the game was rushed (indeed it was like Virtua Fighter on Saturn and Toshinden 2 on PSX were). It is not that bad, by PC standards, they would be considered very good but in the world of home systems, this is substandard. Like most arcade conversions of high-end 3D games, Saturn Daytona's frame rate has been cut. But whereas in most arcade conversions, we're talking about a reduction from 60 fps to 30 fps, Saturn Daytona's frame rate is down to 20 fps. 20 fps is nothing really to complain about as other next generation games also run at the speed like Jumping Flash (PSX), Bug! (Saturn) and Pilotwings (Nintendo 64). But still, the frame rate could have been better in Saturn Daytona's case. But perhaps more annoying is the large amount of "pop-ups". The scenery doesn't stretch indefinitely in the distance, it appears in huge blocks very late. Here again, Saturn Daytona is not the only game to suffer from this problem, Wipeout (PSX) and even the mighty Super Mario 64 (Nintendo 64) do too. But in the end, it's the accumulation of those graphical deficiencies that left a bitter taste in many gamers' mouth.

Perhaps even more contreversial is the soundtrack. Although those are the same (remixed) tunes as in the arcade game, the Saturn game reveals an incredibly eccentric soundtrack that was previously inaudible in the arcades (can you hear anything in an arcade anyway?). The music's pretty good but the constant singing and wailing is clearly an acquired taste. At first, I was turned off by it but after a while it grew on me to a point where I'm not sure if I like it or not. But luckily, there's a code that allows you to remove the singing while keeping the music in (see Karaoke mode in the tip box).

Despite some superficial flaws, Saturn Daytona USA remains a solid racing game much like the arcade game. Some people may be aware of a "Daytona Remix (actually it's called Daytona USA Championship Circuit Edition)" coming this fall and is supposed to correct all the flaws the current version of Daytona has (better graphics, better frame rate, a new soundtrack, new tracks and a two-player option). While it might be wise to wait for the upgraded version, one must not forget the old Daytona will probably be discounted to make way for the new one and that could mean big savings...