Daytona USA Championship Circuit EditionReview by: Scott Giangrande After reading the first review posted on this page I felt I had to give a point-counterpoint review to his claims. For starters, I'd like to say that this game is by far the best Saturn racer I've played. What distinguished this game from the others back in May for starters was the Daytona Theme and the multi-car races. This is still all here in tact. The graphics are FAR better than the first. How can I say this? Just look at the Desert Canyon track... The last two turns suffered from MAJOR pop-up.. Even the first two turns through the Rocks suffered. This game suffers from none of that same pop-up. The only real "hot-spots" left from the original are turn 4 on the tri-oval (ie the Sonic rock) and turn 1 on the same track. Possibly the bridge on the old expert track still suffers the same type pop-up. Even then, the pop-up still isn't nearly as bad as the first... Frankly the pop-up will always exist to some extent. If anything, I believe that this game mainly suffers from the fact that a lot of people forget how bad the first game really was since they havn't played it for so long. The graphics in general are more colorful, smoother, and overall well done (all thanks to the better textures and higher frame rate).. As for options, there are likely going to be a lot more cars to choose from than the first(with hidden ones). The two new tracks are better IMOP than the other three because of their moving background objects, and overall design. They are almost like formula 1 tracks in some ways. The Music IS BETTER. Even if you liked the old music, it is still in the game... just in a non-vocal more 80ish beat form. I just can't stand how everyone now says they liked the music of the first when I swear that everyone basically trashed the first game because of the music. What gives people? As for control, this game is still very close to the first in the sense all of the old tricks are still there.. You still have to powerslide, hit the walls a bit, etc. If anything, the difference is the fact that the cars that they give you really aren't as well rounded... Grip really does play a HUGE role. The MAX car can take turns that only the Wolf car can; The Pheonix can afford to hit a wall on a given turn because it can speed up fast enough after to compensate... the game requires you to really change your style with any given car, whereas the first only made it so certain cars could run on grass or hit the wall at 190 and keep the speed after. And for the people who think the control is too touchy, you can adjust the response of your car in options.. The only other complaint I can think of is the fact it is harder to crash the CPU cars. For the announcer, I think it is supposed to be a Robert Duval-like guy from "Days of Thunder." (ie Harry from DOT). I personally do not feel he hurts the game, unlike the guys in Sega Rally who just get annoying with every turn. And luckily you can turn him off if you want. Finally i'd just like to say that clearly many people will look at this game and say "it's just Daytona with a bit better graphics and some new options." I can honestly say I think it is a lot better. The pop-up point seems to be always 4-6 seconds ahead of you, which I think is a big improvement (give you more time to adjust to the track). The Two Player mode is well done, maybe not as well done as Rally, then again, Sega included many more background objects in Daytona's 2 player mode and the only real track that suffers is the Galaxy Track. Its easy to say Rally looks better, but many of Rally's tracks do not have the long straight aways with background items that Daytona has. Even then, I think Daytona still is more appealing due to the better colors, better textures, better selection of tracks, cars, and options and now it has better music than the first.
Graphics: 8.5 Overall: (not an average) 8.85 |