By far Sega’s most successful arcade game ever, you only have to walk near a Daytona USA cabinet to realise why – that theme tune is the mating call of Sega racing joy. 
On your own it’s an enjoyable racer against a very muscular CPU, but with a friend or seven it becomes easily the most exciting multiplayer arcade game ever produced. Extremely smart mechanics and AI ensure every single game is sure to include pile-ups, huge crashes and skin-of-your-teeth takeover manoeuvres you’ll be talking about long after the famous Game Over tune hits you. Daytona is full of such iconic moments: the Sonic Wall on 777 Speedway; the Hornet brand; the opening call of "Daaaytoonaaaaa!" in "Let’s Go Away".
Here’s a testament to how integral Daytona is to Sega; I’m still bitter about once being lapped by my brother Phil on Daytona 2 after not realising my foot was slightly pressed against the brake the whole race through. Sometimes counselling can’t help.
My name is James Newton, and this is my website - a collection of my writings about
videogames, music and all my other thoughts.