Games of the Abstract: Daytona USA – Championship Circuit Edition (1996)

 

Developer: Sega

Publisher: Sega

One to Two Players

Sega Saturn

 

Poor Sega Saturn – never was there a console which should have been a more appreciated machine, or least with its software more readily available and not as expensive to buy second hand as it is nowadays. Some of its failure in the West was the fault of game critics, their fickleness and jumping on the bandwagon that polygons were of greater importance over two dimension sprite games, but let us not kid ourselves in how Sega made huge mistakes with the system. Even as a Saturn fan boy myself, the console that Segata Sanshiro even beat kids up about not playing in Japanese advertisements, whilst a success for Sega in Japan, was a console whose failure in the West was the company shooting themselves in the foot at a time when Sony would enter the hardware market for the first time, and do so much right from the first attempt with the Playstation. Nintendo, even if they made similar mistakes with the 64, had a rare advantage of being late to the party and being able to ride a wave of hype with the games which were also well regarded. Saturn with its great games however had poor luck with poor management, be it an ill advised surprise release in the North American market which instead antagonized retailers to many games simply not being released, or least not outside of PAL European territories, or visa-versa.

One of its most contentious aspects, which could have not been a problem if the guides were there, was the console's twin processors. Saturn even to emulate roms in emulation was a challenge for a long time to preserve games, even decades after, let alone with even creating games for the machine, but that could have been resolved if companies were provided with the tools and/or guides to make the process easier. The lack of third party games eventually was a huge factor against the Saturn, when there was a hurdle in releasing titles for the machine, a healthy backlog of games available something which could have actually led the Saturn to surviving longer in the West even if the second place niche machine The tale of Championship Circuit Edition itself begins with how, at first, even Sega did not fully produce games that took advantage of the machine’s virtues without drawing unfavorable comparisons to the Playstation.

The game’s origins come in mind to the 1994 release of the Saturn itself and the first attempt to convert the 1994 Daytona USA arcade machine to the home. With a lasting legacy into the modern day, Daytona USA machines (the originals, not just the remakes) can be found at British seaside still among the ticket winning machines. Daytona USA is a special game for me, but ironically the Saturn version is the one I am familiar with since childhood, knowing full well it struggled under a harsh public glare with notable compromises for the conversion. Next to Namco’s own conversion of Ridge Racer (1993), their arcade racer, to the Playstation, Daytona USA for the Saturn has notable issues even I admit exist, such as the popup of everything just before your car on the racetrack. Bear in mind, though, that the original Daytona USA arcade machine was a game with a lot of moving parts despite having only two cars and three racetracks, being a premier title for Sega’s Model 2 arcade board with aspects such as thirty cars onscreen for the Beginners course to the opponent AI which were built into the machine. Sega, to be honest even in terms of these games not being released on modern consoles decades later, have struggled converting their arcade machines from the Saturn onwards, because theirs were so innovative in terms of graphics and their machinery. The other irony is that Daytona USA for the Saturn is still an exceptional game in terms of gameplay – the problem was that, rushed as a launch title for the console like Virtua Fighter (1993), it was compromised for the home release. Launch titles and/or anything rushed are usually not perfect at all, but Daytona USA’s release was clearly such a notable one that plans would be afoot to try a reinterpretation.

A lot of work was done with a few of the Saturn titles over the next years. Very quickly after Virtual Fighter came Virtua Fighter Remix (1995), which for a limited time even was free to acquire¹. Notably later arcade conversions, with the sense of time being taken to convert them graphically and in replication to the home console, would become some of the machine's most acclaimed games with the time passed. The conversion of Virtua Fighter 2 (1994) became one of its best regarded games, and thankfully among its cheapest to still buy, and Virtua Cop (1994) was a well regarded tale of success in terms of being converted too. Another of significance, become also another of the console's most well regarded games and the cheapest to still buy, is the conversion of Sega Rally Championship (1994), which is significant for this review as those behind that conversion worked on Championship Circuit Edition.

The original Daytona USA itself, for the Saturn, is still a great game only with the visual signs of its graphics not being perfect; even with how unconventional the twin chip hardware for the Saturn was, it was a conversion that should have been delayed to fully correct its notable weaknesses, something to consider in how launch games for almost every console, almost all of them, are some of the weakest of their entire systems. The Saturn version is still visually rich and a great game, not with nostalgia glasses on, in that the energy of the original machine, the bright “Sega Blue Skies” aesthetic to Takenobu Mitsuyoshi's music, is still there and the challenge is too. You could practice the game, even with a controller, and learn tricks to play on the original machine with actual peddles and a steering wheel, a testament to its successes. The conversion's shortcomings were entirely that, for a debut on the new machine, a huge success for the arcades, its visual appearance would have been seen as a black eye regardless of the game's quality in gameplay. The resulting game to make up for this, however, is a very different game. The creative decisions pose a significant aspect to Championship Circuit Edition, which is still a good game, a huge growth graphically to the first game and even in new content, but not really Daytona USA the arcade game at all. It is its own sequel, with reworked mechanics, which has to live under the shadow of a game with huge legacy.

There are notable updates, more cars with different performances, two more race tracks to the original three, a two player mode, which was missing from the Saturn original, and Time Attack mode. Due to how few race tracks the original arcade game had, and still with only five here, those first three tracks were able to have their own personalities as much as iconic levels to platformer have been able to. Daytona USA’s legacy, and why its aesthetics are iconic, are in mind it was never a realistic game in tone at all, and those three race tracks do show the personality of the game fully. Ironically, whilst the franchise is named after the Daytona International Speedway, the most prestigious racecourse for NASCAR, only the Beginners track (named Three Seven Speedway here) is close to the source, starting with its ironic rolling start with your Hornet car already moving, driving a fully circular track where you go left only. You still need to negotiate the track, especially if the time limit between checkpoints is still on, one which is the huge challenge for first players until they learn how to negotiate the race course without losing speed. The other cars are more obstacles than opponents through this franchise, the main corner at a cliff with Sonic the Hedgehog’s visage carved into it the first test in learning how to get past corners quickly without crashing, a huge skill you need to learn as you play.

The visual iconography, as much as Takenobu Mitsuyoshi's music, is what lasted with Daytona USA, not realistic at all with Three Seven Speedway, still with the iconic cliff face or the giant slot machine over the race track, on which secret button combinations can be stopped in certain ways. Intermediate is now christened “Dinosaur Canyon” due to its most iconic aspect and its toughest corner, a huge corner you need to slide pass so not to spill out off the track, with a whole dinosaur skeleton exposed in the cliff face, and Seaside Street Galaxy was the Expert track, a two lap and vast dash across a city, over the bridge through streets and pass the statue of Jeffrey from Virtua Fighter, the challenge of negotiating huge corners including through the bridge’s underpass and around a hair pin at the dock where large ships are to be found. Championship Circuit Edition adds between Beginner and Intermediate National Park Speedway, which is based on one very specific corner, and a few smaller ones, with a rollercoaster off the course as playful visual detail. The highest difficulty track denoted is Desert City, where corners come out of the gate. These two tracks, speeding past a freight train for the last one, feel closer to the Sega Rally Championship courses in tone, but they have their virtues. Sadly unless you have access to the Daytona USA Deluxe release for the PC, released in 1996, you cannot have access to the sixth course, Silver Ocean Causeway.

This moved away from the bluest of blue skies energy from the original arcade game, and there are also the facts the driving mechanics themselves are different from the original game. It is prominent how the games play differently to each other in how the vehicles handle, and that is not factoring in how the new cars (with varying degrees of Grip, Acceleration or Max Speed gauges) actually can make the game easier. Arguably the challenge to Daytona USA in any form is that, with all the other cars baring the first are merely obstacles in your way, the challenge is to successfully negotiate all corners, even if willingly bouncing off a wall, whilst still retaining top speed, being fast enough to catch the elusive first place vehicle just out of reach unless you can negotiate those corners perfectly. The new cars add an advantage unlike the original in that, say, if you want a ridiculously fast car and can figure out how one without grip can be piloted without gliding directly into a wall, you can and have a new advantage in being significantly faster than with the default car.

Nothing is amiss about Championship Circuit Edition in terms of the gameplay. With the Time Attack mode, the two player mode the closest thing yet to the arcade machines having the full cabs able to be connected, and unlockable cars to win, and this is a solid overhaul. The graphical overhaul itself is a success by itself, showing an admirable work in using the Saturn’s virtues; whilst its tech was the likely culprit behind many games not being released again in the modern day, and a pig for some programmers back in the day to program with, those who were given the time and knowledge, as this shows, could match the Playstation. It has a more muted aesthetic look closer, which is where also out of a preferences, my heart is still going to be for the original (if graphically compromised) Daytona USA conversion even if I have admiration for this as its own game. The original in its brightness, even if compromised in the Saturn conversion, will win me over, as is the legitimate crime Championship Circuit Edition does commit, not having Takenobu Mitsuyoshi's music at all beyond instrumental remixes. They are still memorable here, but there is something wrong with the lack of his voice, one of the series ' most iconic details. That is not even a slight against the couple of vocal tracks you do get here, rock songs sung by Eric Martin, who was the front man of the band Mr. Big. Sounding like Sammy Hagar of Montrose and of the "Van Hagar" era of Van Halen, Martin's work is cheesy American rock apt for the game, but Mitsuyoshi's voice still should have been here.

His would, as the legacy of this game is that it had multiple versions, not just the PC release mentioned earlier when some Saturn games got PC ports. The Japanese release of Championship Circuit Edition had so many prominent changes of its own that it became Daytona USA Circuit Edition (1997) instead, which allowed all the original and new music to be optional to choose between, alongside much more significant touches and improvements, such as in terms of the graphics but also inclusions closer to the original arcade game in driving mechanics. Daytona USA: CCE Netlink Edition would be released in North America later as its own release, a tie-in to the Netlink, part of bringing online access including multiplayer over the internet to the Saturn, including titles like Virtual On: Cyber Troopers (1994) and Sega Rally Championship among those that used the system. Sadly, as with many things with the Saturn, this was for a brief time in the West, whilst the ultimate irony is that, among all the versions of Daytona, the original arcade game is the one that has lasted. Championship Circuit Edition is a good game, in context a real gem for the system, but it faces peril to driving games, like sports, having an ephemeral quality that it could have been easily replaced with a sequel with more improvements and new tracks. Ironically Daytona USA, even with its early polygonal graphics, even with its remake in new glossier ones and the ability to see your face onscreen driving available, has lasted and because of the likes of its cheesy brightness and Mitsuyoshi's songs, the traits that made it stand out as a game which had a personality you could not replace with a new yearly release.

 

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1) Press release, Sega "Knocks Out" Sega Saturn owners with free Virtua Fighter Remix giveaway, published August 2nd 1995.