Spent the whole day trying to make Daytona USA run. First the Windows version, because I wanted high resolution, but unfortunately I couldn't make the car accelerate for some reason. And there were no control settings. So then I tried to emulate the Arcade version, which strangely missed a few files in practically every rom I tried downloading. For some reason you have to download those files separately. And after I did that, it ran, but again I could not figure out which button accelerates. I literally tried pressing every single button on the keyboard, and it didn't work. So finally I went for the Saturn version, and I'm kinda glad I did. Even though running it was also a pain in the ass. I went through two different roms and two different emulators, the latter of which I had to edit a file of just to make the sound work.

As a result I was left feeling a little disappointed. This game is usually considered one of the best racing games of all time, but it didn't impress me that much. And it's not even the fact that it's old, because I have played better older racing games.

I loved the visuals, and the controls and physics are pretty decent, but there isn't really much else to praise about the game. There's this cool pit-stop feature, but I couldn't for the life of me figure why you would wanna use it, since all it does is slow you down.

Although the graphics are pretty impressive for the time, the pop-in in this game is so bad that it's like driving at the edge of reality (this seems to be common across all versions). And I know this is subjective, but I fucking hated the music here. I think there's only like 3 songs, and I couldn't stand every second of them. And despite the fact the game is seemingly very short (as most Arcade games tend to be), I did not complete it. Though that's more due to the insane difficulty.

The good thing about this Saturn version is that it has the so-called Saturn Mode, which lets you play the game as if it was a console release, without the timer and more customization and progression options. This is why I was glad I played the Saturn version. Still I couldn't win a single race, but I did do better than in the Arcade mode. Nevertheless, to anyone trying out the original game, I'd recommend this over the Arcade or the Windows versions.

Overall, this is more of a mixed-bag, imo. If it wasn't for the soundtrack and the difficulty, I would've played longer. But still I can't quite figure out why it is so revered. Seems like a pretty standard racing game.