I like the whole lock-on concept and the smoother flow of the game compared to its spiritual predecessor Missile Dancer. Sadly this game is slightly marred by the combination of only lock-on attacks adding to chain and your main shot being able to damage and destroy enemies, unlike in Missile Dancer. This means the player ends up having to carefully avoid shooting the main weapon too much or else they will lose scoring opportunities, but in doing so may end up missing out on enemies to destroy or prolonging boss fights.

Unlike other games by Terarin, this game has a checkpoint system. Some hate it, some like it, I personally like it since it encourages learning from mistakes instead of just trucking through a difficult section without trying to learn it. I do sort of wish checkpoints were disabled for boss fights though, it can be aggravating to have to start over due to a hit even though the boss had one HP left.

Excellent 90s-style shmup reminiscent of the Thunder Force series with its multiple weapons (the homing weapon is practically the TF Hunter weapon in all but name), with a dash of Gradius thrown in for the last few stages.

My only real complaints are that recovers can be painful due to how underpowered the ship is after death due to losing the Roll Units, and the relatively low difficulty might turn off advanced shmup players seeking an arcade-caliber challenge. But if you want an excellent and fun shmup to 1CC, this might be up your alley.

Also the ranking tables are a little spotty, as they include all scores from all versions. Version 2.0 revamped the Caravan stage and it is now low-scoring, and as a result a lot of the old version 1.0 records are untouchable now.

Not a bad port of a great classic.
Features starting-rank options (the original arcade version alters the starting rank based on what part of the attract demo you insert coins) and the option to play the Japanese version with checkpoints or the international version without checkpoints.
But as usual with Arcade Archive releases, practice options are sorely limited by modern port standards (no stage select, only one savestate and it's meant as a suspend save rather than a state that can be reloaded multiple times) and input lag is horrendous if using a wireless controller in tabletop. If you have a PS4, I suggest getting that console's version of this release instead.

I've been playing since April 2022, and have logged in almost every single day.

I picked this game up because I found out it has an alternate "Technical" scoring system, in addition to the gacha-based scoring also found in games like Love Live! School Idol Festival, BanG Dream! Girls Band Party, and Project Sekai: Colorful Stage!. Some people are opposed to the idea of it being behind a paywall, I figure the reason it's paywalled is because otherwise nobody would spend money, I decided to take the fee.

I was pleasantly surprised by how well-designed this game is. Hold notes do not require releasing them at the exact moment, charts are genuinely designed around two-finger play, each chart has a radar detailing the chart's characteristics, and there's a wide variety of songs, from the obvious originals that have many different styles from the 9 featured units, to cover songs by the same units, and even non-cover songs from outside sources. I was quite surprised that this game features remixes of retro game songs.

I'll...also admit that I've saved up several times for the gacha. I tell myself that gacha is an inherently exploitative business model, but I couldn't stay away from Merm4id cards...

Story is so-so, I only read stories to get free gacha gems, other than M4's and the side:nova stories.

P.S. If you are that rare combination of "Is a Merm4id simp fan" and "likes shmups", please come see me.

Solid port of the original that gives it a 60 FPS facelift while remaining faithful to the source.

That said, it might be a little too faithful for some, as it lacks any of the extra content from the previous home ports.

Also the multiplayer is awful! Local multiplayer can only be done on the same unit and everyone has to use single Joy-Cons, you can't bring a Pro Controller or other non-Joy-Con controllers. The online multiplayer is so terrible it might as well not exist, as it's only two players, there's a forced PvP window that can be distracting, and the performance is pretty bad.

Improvement upon the original upon almost every aspect, I'm not a fan of the soundtrack myself but that's just my personal taste and I'm more partial to Mitsuyoshi. Tracks look great and three different vehicles exist to suit different skill levels.

There is an update of this game, Daytona USA 2: Power Edition, that is not on IGDB at this time, I honestly prefer the original. Power Edition introduces a medley course and the Hornet but the beginner course got a cosmetic downgrade, now it's just a generic speedway instead of a fancy biodome. But I'd rather have PE over nothing.

I got to play this in the few years that it was in service. It's a considerable improvment over the original MUSECA for several reasons: guaranteed full set of stages per credit, easier-to-understand and fairer mechanics, removal of the gacha system, and the option to remove some of the visual flair that makes the game more difficult (such as making the lanes flat instead of that weird W shape).

I wasn't a huge fan of the controls though. I had to keep my foot on the pedal which resulted in some sore muscles from standing in an asymmetric stance. The buttons also felt a bit cheap and I had to apply a considerable amount of force to register.