Sega T&T ClubDaytona USA Hands-On

The Sega Touch&Try Club, which was held over the weekend, had the first playable version of Daytona USA for the Sega Dreamcast. This is Amusement Vision's - formerly Sega's AM4 R&D division - first game for the console. The game is a culmination of the entire Daytona series - arcade, Sega Saturn, Sega Saturn Circuit Edition, and the PC Circuit Edition. This means all the tracks from those versions will be included, as well as new additional courses. The playable demo allowed us to select from five to six courses.

Despite the lack of backgrounds (as the demo's races were held in Daytona) and the Dreamcast version not being as bright as the arcade, the graphics in this version are much improved over those of its arcade predecessor. The game was running at 60fps with a higher resolution, more colors, and higher polygon counts. The car models have also been revamped quite a bit, and the loading time was faster than expected. This version had over 20 cars on the track, which occasionally led to some slowdown, especially when the cars crashed off the tracks. The game played well on both the normal DC controller and the racing controller, but the analog stick felt more like it was digital while running on the tracks. At this point, it is safe to say that the Dreamcast port of Daytona USA is a successful one, keeping the series' classic flare and adding updated graphics.

Daytona USA is scheduled for release this winter in Japan. The game will be released in North America under the name Daytona USA: Network Racing, but no release date for that territory has been announced.