Daytona USA is coming to PSN and XBLA!

Last week Siliconera reported that Daytona USA was coming to PSN and XBLA, featuring enhanced graphics (including widescreen support), 8 player online multiplay and all sorts of fun amazement. This comes on the heels of my previous post (which came via Retro Gaming Australia), where I hoped for nice HD visuals of the original assets and online multiplayer awesomeness. To say I’m chuffed would be an understatement 🙂

If this proves to be successful, perhaps we’ll see some other Sega arcade racers make it over. Sega Rally 1 and 2, Sega Touring Car and Scud Racer would all make wonderful additions to this lineup.

The only question that remains in my mind is the longevity of playing the game online – how long until online participation wears off? Take OutRun Online Arcade as an example – I love the game to bits, but nobody’s playing it on PSN much these days. Not that I can talk – I don’t get a lot of time for gaming these days, so I’m equally guilty of it as well.

So, in a perfect world the game would also support local multiplayer via split-screen and network (or both – 4 players on two networked PS3s for example). The thought of having 8 consoles hooked up for LAN Daytona is mind-blowing – if you ever had the luxury of going to an arcade with 8 Daytona machines hooked up with 8 mates in their respective cabs at the same time while duking it out with another 32 CPU cars on the track, you’d know such a thing is an amazing moment in arcade gaming.

Anywho, enough chatter – here’s the trailer:

We’ll apparently be seeing the game in November, while the US and Canada will be able to get started at the end of the month. Nice to see Daytona USA reflects the time it was developed by delaying the game for PAL territories 😉

7 Comments

  • Frank_fjs says:

    Great news! SEGA produced some CLASSIC arcade games that don’t deserve to rot in the past, so it’s good to see them being reworked for a modern audience and living on for a new era to enjoy.

    Not that it does me much good though, I don’t have any modern consoles aside from the Wii, which is a great collector of dust I must admit. 😀

    I’m hardcore retro, too busy collecting, playing and enjoying the older systems to have money for the latest gear. Maybe once the PS3 and 360 become retro I’ll buy them. 🙂

  • Ji-L87 says:

    That looks pretty good. Having only tried Daytona once or twice in some arcade as a kid, I’m kind of itching to give it another go.

    That said, releasing it in a proper box and giving it the Saturn soundtrack treatment would seriously up the change of me getting it. (:

  • @Frank: Yup, it’s a shame that despite their amazing arcade history, Sega doesn’t push harder with its older IP. What’s also interesting (at least to me :P) is the different approaches SoA take vs SoJ to emulating old titles – the US releases tend to use less-robust emulation but higher quantity of titles; SoJ takes a more anally retentive approach where the emulation is far more accurate, but the quantity is much less. I’m hoping that as time goes on that there’s more emphasis on the latter than the former, and that the titles are given appropriate treatment. How they’re approaching Daytona (which may be handled by SoA, making me eat my words ;)) is the right way I think. I’m hoping it’s successful enough to bring on more games 🙂

    Oh, and don’t feel bad on falling behind on the current gen – it’s great to see all the retro goodness you’re tracking down at the moment!

    @Ji-L87: I’ve been listening to the Saturn soundtrack recently, and I’d love a tangible copy of Daytona with the additional soundtracks and tracks from CCE… however, given how these titles seem to bomb at retail, at least we get to enjoy it via DLC.

    Still, it is a shame that titles like these won’t get physical releases – once the generation is done, it means these games die out as well.

  • Hi mate!

    Have you gotten hold of the game yet?

    Long time since you’ve posted something mate! Hope to read more from you soon and that all is well. 🙂

    Cheers!

  • Sorry for the big delay in responding!!!

    Still haven’t picked it up on the PS3 yet, but it’s on the to-get list 🙂

    I’ll drop by your blog soon as well – it’s been a few weeks since I dropped by!

  • Hi mate!

    No problem. 🙂

    Good to hear that you are still active with blogging. Read your new post today. 🙂

    Hope to see you around Old School Game Blog – lot’s of new stuff to read. Everything from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe to first person shooters on the Amiga.. 😉

    Hope you’re having a nice December and that you are looking forward to Christmas. 🙂

  • Yeah, I think for the next couple of weeks I’ll take it back to blogging once a week until we’re past the festive season 🙂

    Will drop by your blog later today to catch up on what you’ve been up to – sounds like there’s some awesome stuff happening your way!