Daytona USA: Championship Circuit Edition

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Daytona USA: Championship Circuit Edition
System(s): Sega Saturn
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sega AM2, Sega AM3
Genre: Racing
Number of players: 1-2
Release Date RRP Code
ESRB Sega ELSPA USK Tectoy

Daytona USA: Championship Circuit Edition is an update to the critically acclaimed Daytona USA and was released exclusively on the Sega Saturn in 1996.

Daytona USA: CCE exists because many were dissatisfied with the original game's Saturn release, which is said to have been rushed to market in order to meet the Saturn's launch date. Daytona USA on the Sega Saturn was plagued with draw distance and framerate problems (averaging about twenty frames per second, as opposed to the arcade version's sixty), and looked comparatively worse than the PlayStation port of Ridge Racer, released around the same time (and the arcade Ridge Racer is less impressive on a technical level than the arcade Daytona USA.

CCE was handled by Sega AM3, who had previously been responsible for bringing the Saturn Sega Rally Championship. They brought a number of new features to the table as well as retaining all those found in the original release. Daytona USA: Championship Circuit Edition includes a steady framerate of 30FPS, a new selection of cars, two new courses, a two player mode and a new remixed soundtrack composed by Richard Jacques and Jun Senoue. The PAL region version was also notable for making use of the full PAL resolution, rather than resorting to black borders like many other games of the time.

Like the original, the game is also compatible with the Arcade Racer Joystick, and this time 3D Control Pad support was intentional. It is also compatible with the Virtua Stick.

There was a separate release of the game in North America, made to be compatible with the Sega NetLink adapter called Daytona USA: CCE Netlink Edition. This version of the game was only made available via Sega's online store, and aside from some extra NetLink instruction manuals/leaflets, is mostly indistinguishable from its non-NetLink counterpart. This version of the game is widely believed to be the rarest North American Sega Saturn game, with the latest eBay sighting reaching $1100.

Daytona USA: CCE was not released in Japan. However, the Japanese did receive Daytona USA: Circuit Edition a year later, a further update to the game which includes the original soundtracks as an option. Circuit Edition also has new drift mechanics and allows the user to set the time of day in which to race in, whether that be night, dusk or morning.

Additions

Daytona USA: Championship Circuit Edition adds two new tracks - "National Park Speedway" (an easy track) and "Desert City" (a hard track).

It also includes several new types of stock car, some of which could be seen in the arcade version of Daytona USA but were not playable:

• Hornet (19)
• Gallop (27)
• Max (2)
• Pheonix (8)
• Orlole (16)
• Magic (33)
• Wolf (41)
• Balance (99)

This breaks the Daytona USA tradition which always gives the first car (usually the Hornet) the number 41. Every car is slightly different in design when compared to their arcade counterparts - the Hornet for example has a thinner blue stripe across the top. They also all have varying grip, acceleration and handling statistics.

AM3 decided to improve the physics of Daytona USA: CCE, creating something more akin to their previous port of Sega Rally Championship (e.g. the car won't flip if it crashes head first into a wall anymore). The majority of bizarre features from the original version carry through, such as the ability to unlock a horse. Holding and at the "gentlemen start your engines" screen will allow the player to play as a hovercraft.

Production Credits

Producer: Noriyoshi Ohba
Director: Ryuichi Hattori
Project Leader: Shiro Kinemura
Main Programmer: Akihito Wada
Programmers: Toru Nakagawa, Atsutoshi Takahashi, Noriyuki Takano, Susumu Ise
Main Graphic Designer: Shiro Kinemura
Graphic Designers: Yoshihito Takahashi, Makiko Suzuki, Maiko Kitagawa, Sanae Tatsuo, Takehiko Akabane
Planner: Osamu Ohashi
Sound Director: Tomonori Sawada
Sound Effects: Tatsuya Kozaki
Sound Programmer: Atsumu Miyazawa
Vocal:

• Vocals for "Sons of Angels" and "The American Dream" performed by Eric Martin.
  
• Lyrics for "Sons of Angels" and "The American Dream" written by Eric Martin and Andre Pessis.
  
• Eric Martin appears courtesy of Atlantic Recording Corporation

Music & Remix: Jun Senoue, Richard Jacques, Kenichi Tokoi, Tomonori Sawada
Advisers: Toshihiro Nagoshi, Atsuhiko Nakamura

Physical Scans

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Daytona USA: Championship Circuit Edition

Saturn, US
Cover

Saturn, EU
Cover
Disc

Saturn, JP
Cover

Saturn, Brazil
Cover

Saturn, South Korea
Cover