Daytona USA Review (360)

In 1993, when most video games were still using hand-drawn 2D sprites, Sega debuted its new Model 2 arcade board in Japan with Daytona USA, a fast 3D racer featuring big polygons and detailed textures.

With an unheard-of 40 cars on the track and as many as eight human players racing together on linked cabinets, Daytona USA quickly became one of the highest-grossing arcade machines of all time. Linked Daytona USA cabinets can still be found in today's ESPN Zones or Dave and Buster's -- the modern-day "arcade."

Though coin-operated versions of Daytona made Sega rich, the company never produced a decent console port. The Sega Saturn version was rushed out as a launch title in Japan and North America. It featured reduced draw-distance, lots of clipping and functioned at only 20 frames per second compared to the arcade version's 60.

A Sega Dreamcast version was released in 2001, but even with redone graphics and eight total tracks, the Dreamcast version's laggy online play, poor car physics and wonky steering controls left fans of the original title disappointed.

Finally, almost 20 years after the original Daytona USA's debut, an arcade-perfect port has been released for Xbox Live Arcade and the Playstation Network.

While the revolutionary Model 2 graphics have lost their "wow" factor, Daytona USA's memorable soundtrack and fun gameplay will have racing fans ready to drop another $10 of virtual quarters into Sega's updated Daytona port.

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