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Dom Robinson reviews
For
Distributed by
Sega
For Daytona 2001, has anything improved upon previousversions, or is it just a name/date change?
Previous I’ve only played a version in the arcade, plus one of Sega’s attemptsto port the franchise over to the PC – and that was not very much fun at allsince it wasn’t that well programmed.
It’s fun to crash into things like signs and cones, knocking them down the roadand hitting them again next time you come round the track, as well as leaninginto an opponent’s car, ramming them against a wall and flipping them over,but it’s just another driving game going round and round and round.
Graphics are fast and fair, being arcade perfect, but the Daytona series hasn’tprogressed much from when it first began so is looking a little dated now.
The sound FX consist largely of a roar of your engine, a roar of the samefrom the other 19 cars as they zoom past and leave you on the starting line,plus the hitting of objects, or a wall, as you make your way from A to er…,well, back round to A again!
It’s also very difficult to control the car. A tap on the analogue joystick can oftensend you lurching across the road, giving it worse handling than that if evencontrol by the D-pad was possible – and I like to sometimes use the D-pad fora driving game – making it all too easy for your car to spin round the wrongway or head off the track.
Also, you don’t feel like you’re travelling along at anything like 300kph whenhitting top speed.
There is one major restriction with this release. NO online play, which issurely the logical step for such an old franchise?!
The US version allows you to play online from wherever you are, while forthe Japanese release, online play is available, but at a cost. They have topay 300 yen (or $3) per month for the service and according toIGN.com,you can play the Japanese version online from the USA, but you’ll needan isao.net account and a Japanese Dreamcast with a copy of Dream Passport 3!
If Sega had really wanted to have “up to 6 billion players” online, they shouldhave insisted on every online game to be accessed via whichever ISP (InternetService Provider) you choose. I use Freeserve Unlimited and that is who myDreamcast dials when I fancy a game of Phantasy Star Online,but if you were to use the original Dreamkey settings, you’d be paying throughthe nose to BT via the Dreamarena setup.
Frequently, I ended up in 20th position again – and that’s where this gamedeserves to be.
SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC
PLAYABILITY
ORIGINALITY
ENJOYMENT
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.