So, if you've been paying attention for the past fifty some odd articles, you may have noticed that I have an attachment to what I like to call the "Saturn Tri-Force" games that came with the system. Among these games came one of the very few racing games that you will likely see me play. Daytona USA was lambasted for its sketchy framerates, lower end graphics, lack of game modes and just overall did not live up to the arcade version. As a ten year old, I did not care about this, I just loved to race in it.
First off, the music in this game was immaculate. You could listen to all of these songs for hours and they would be stuck in your head for the rest of your life no matter what. The sound effects in general were memorable. Even when the guy in the intercom kept pestering you to "Go easy on the car!" or worrying about you after a crash "Are you alright?"
Yes, the graphics aren't great. The rendering is pretty bad as you keep racing and the scenery spawns into existence rather than getting closer. The problem is that I really don't care. Graphics are secondary for me at best, unless they directly affect gameplay or are overly distracting in some form or another and there's really none of that here.
Am I good at racing games? No, not really. I so rarely play them that my enjoyment is mostly out of simple nostalgia and mindless fun. There is not much else to it as far as Daytona USA is concerned.
Then, of course, they had to screw with it. Enter the Championship Circuit. Here we have more maps, more cars, much cleaner graphics, and more "realistic" driving statistics for the new cars on display. All of this should be a great new package for an already nostalgic, great game, right? I'm sure there are plenty of people who think so, so this may be considered a hot take.
But, no, no this is not a great new package at all. In fact, this game seemed to have sacrificed a lot more than it added. Yes, the maps are cool to have and it's nice to have the new car options. But the big problem here is that the new cars should come with a good ten second warranty attached to some of them because if you go for less grip on the tires, the car handles like absolute garbage. Your tires will continuously peel and you will ride around with a smoke cloud following you like you're Pig-Pen from Peanuts. The stats on these cars are wonky and that's just for starters.
The new graphics on this are cleaner. In fact, they're so clean that they look sterilized. Your car gets a huge dent in its frame after you've crashed more than once and everything just looks saturated. It's like when you play an old movie on 4K, without the film grain, it looks like a soap opera. Sega Saturn is at its best with blocky, blurry polygons. I cannot be the only one who thinks this!
One good thing this version brought about was making a 2-player version. The graphics chug pretty hard, but it's still plenty good enough to have yourself a good time with a friend and/or family member. Though, I will say that sometimes those sprites in the background get a little choppy and holes in the Earth seem to come out of nowhere because this is a lot of rendering it's trying to do for a 32-bit system. The Saturn definitely had its limits, but I can't get onto Daytona: CC for trying.
No, what I can get onto this edition for are two things. Everything else has been somewhat annoying or head shakingly bad, but not game breakers. However, these two things are absolutely unforgiveable. There is a lot I can put up with, but when it screws up the enjoyment this bad, we have a real problem.
No Saturn Mode? Really? One of the huge draws to the Saturn version of Daytona USA was that they had a version where you did not need to keep going through checkpoints to finish the race or feed your paycheck into a coin slot. In this version, you can be in position 10 out of 40 and you can still run out of time between checkpoints and the race is over. Yes, I know I'm not good at racing games, but having this reminder for it is a forehead slapper! You put in a 2-player version and you toss out the Saturn Mode, but you keep the "Arcade Mode"? Are you crazy?! One serious mistake from your threadbare tires and it is over! That is just cutting into the enjoyment and putting a brickwall in front of players that are just there for a little escapism.
(© Penny Arcade)
The worst thing the Championship Circuit Edition did was absolutely atrocious! Why in the hell would you change the SOUNDTRACK?! Of all the things, adding these generic, terrible knockoff Hooty and the Blowfish sounding tracks has to be on the top of my list of arrestable offenses. The versions of the old songs they add to this edition are shadows of the former game and everything else is just heart wrenching. Daytona USA was awesome for its strange, otherworldly soundtrack and it added a personality to it that many of us could get behind! They were so catchy and wonderful, this blatantly ruins everything!
Once again, I am fanboying it up and acting like an unhappy Saturn-freak who cannot be pleased. By the same token, this is a case of fixing something that was not broken. You may as well have made this game into an entirely different title or a spinoff of some sort. As a remaster, this is fidgety to say the least. There are many of you who love this port of the game and more power to you. This is a subjective review, yes, but I do tell the truth how I see it and sometimes it's just good to stay old fashioned. If you treat these both as separate entities, CC isn't so bad. Whatever your thoughts, just drive safely, remember to leave the beer at home and drink water.
