When I was making my Look & Listen list for the Look & Listen survey thing, I felt I needed to put a racing or sports game. Just like Atari games they deserve representation too, but for some reason my mind went straight to Daytona USA. I could've repped car combat with Twisted Metal 2 or something, but instead in went DAYTOOOOONAAAAAA!!! Now I know what you're thinking, "Vee, you are the biggest idiot on the planet Earth! Everyone else is putting real entries and you're over here wasting your spots on a stock car racing game!" That's fine! I too thought I was a nincompoop for leaving off Off-Road Challenge, but clearly something had to be clicking for me to use this...

I remember being mostly unimpressed by 3D racers for a while when I was but a wee guppy, the likes of Hard Drivin' just made me laugh and Stunt Race FX while cute felt less fun to me than something like Biker Mice From Mars on the same system. Will 3D ever catch up to the likes of only two dimensions? It only took one step forward in the console generation for me, as unfortunately I was a bit small at the time to make use of the racing cabinets in the arcades at the time. What was I missing?! Someone gimme a hand with the pedals at least! Stop kicking my ass at X-Men Children of the Atom! I don't even know the moves!

My dad eventually came home randomly with a Sega Saturn and copies of Daytona, Virtua Fighter 2, and Virtua Cop. I assume he used me as an excuse again to buy a new console, hence why he probably let me play first to convince my mom.

"Hey, you get dibs on first play! Pick something will ya!" (100% guesswork on the situation)

I chose vroom vroom car game of course! What else? Soon as you knew it I was taken aback by the 3D game that was running with an actual sense of speed! It even came with a free singer to serenade to my heart! The sight of seeing Sonic the Hedgehog's lazy pose carved into the side of a cliff while my mom cheered me on is forever ingrained into my mental capacity. There's a fine art to porting a real sport into the world of gaming where things are allowed to be even more hype, which gives us master class entries like NBA Street vol. 2 or WWE Smackdown Here Comes The Pain. It makes a world of difference when you get rid of the snazzy tunes and the dancing Jeffry McWild statue, which leaves nothing but what feels like a void of unhappeningness. No fun allowed!!! Screw you, gimme my fun back!

"B-b-but...you're talking about the terrible Saturn port!"

B-b-but get over it! I'm never more happier than when I play this shoddy port!

G! A! M! E! O! Voo! E! R!
G-A-M-E-O-Voo-E-R!
GAME OVER!
GAME OVER!
GAME OVER!
GAME OVER!

Reviewed on Dec 09, 2022


3 Comments


1 year ago

Dude this game’s soundtrack goes so hard, between Let’s Go Away and Rolling Start this is like a top 10 VGM soundtrack for me

1 year ago

I still don't really get the sight and sound thing and how it's meant to differ from a top ten games of all time list, which I refuse to participate in! Anything below my top five will be a safely guarded secret...

1 year ago

Daytona definitely feels like one of the peaks of Sega's sound team, the early Saturn era to me is that sweet spot with this game, Sega Rally, and Virtua Cop.

@weatherby I kinda thought of it as a special 3x3 myself for a while, I think it just depends on putting your own set of rules. I mostly went "I like the art in some way for this game, and I also really enjoy it", then tried to think of "games that give me the same feeling as Ecco", but even then it's hard to fit only ten games. I'm still reeling from having to leave Tempest 2000 off my list.