Why is Daytona USA 2 far less popular than the original?

[Erik_Twice]

People are still playing Daytona USA to this day but it seems its sequel seems to get very little attention. I know it was never as common in arcades as the original was and it wasn't properly emulated until later but it still seems odd.

Do you guys have any idea why? It doesn't seem a bad sequel at all!

[Ghegs]

it was never as common in arcades as the original was and it wasn't properly emulated until later

You nailed it right there, availability matters a lot to popularity. The first game was ported to multiple systems, to PS3/Xbox 360 most recently, so it's been almost constantly available even without resorting to emulation. To play the sequel you needed to have access to the original cab until recently when emulation caught up.

[Kidpanda]

Daytona 2 is heads above the better game. Still have it on Dreamcast.

Silly me, didn't even realize that it's just a remake of one

[prfsnl_gmr]

Daytona 2 is heads above the better game. Still have it on Dreamcast.

Silly me, didn't even realize that it's just a remake of one

It's on the Dreamcast?!

EDIT: I think you may be referring to Daytona USA (2001), which is a port of the first game (with Daytona 2's graphical quality). That game is amazing, and I love it. I don't think we ever got a home port of Daytona 2, however.

[ExedExes]

Daytona 2 was arcade only, which is an absolute shame. I remember first playing it in the summer of 1998. I liked how the original spirit of the game was kept, the additional cars, and even the motion cabinets were nice. Then the Power Edition came out and restored the Beginner track to a speedway, added the Hornet car from the first game and introduced the Challenge course, which had you race sections of all 3 courses and remains a favorite to me to this day (even better on Time Lap mode!)

Plus who could forget the soundtrack? OPEN ROOOOOOOOOOOOAD! (yes, EGM back in the day broke the news that it was Winger who performed the music for the courses!)

[fastbilly1]

Because Daytona 1 still exists in 8 player mode:

It will forever be one of my favorite arcade games for that reason.

The weekend after Model 2 emulation got to the point where you can play 8 player at home I held a lanparty:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moQ_KUHiQGQ
Sadly, we could not make it work with four wheels on one pc. Ill figure it out one of these days.

Dont get me wrong, I love Daytona 2, but no home port makes it remarkably less popular and harder to play. Sadly, I always confuse Daytona 2 with SCUD race.

[ExedExes]

Because Daytona 1 still exists in 8 player mode:
It will forever be one of my favorite arcade games for that reason.

Dont get me wrong, I love Daytona 2, but no home port makes it remarkably less popular and harder to play. Sadly, I always confuse Daytona 2 with SCUD race.

Yes, the 8 player setup was at the Dave & Busters I went to around the turn of the century. There were cameras and monitors set up too, the winner would have their picture on the screens.

I came back to this thread because I totally forgot to mention Scud Race. Before Daytona 2 came out, I was all about that game. The connection is that Toshihiro Nagoshi of original Daytona fame also designed Scud Race and Daytona 2. Both Scud Race and Daytona 2 were on Model 3 hardware. It's no coincidence that the shmup team I have this month on our STGT is named Model 3, and why I chose Scud Race to appear with my name in our team banner. It's also the only game soundtrack CD I own. I just loved everything about that game.

[Kidpanda]

Daytona 2 is heads above the better game. Still have it on Dreamcast.

Silly me, didn't even realize that it's just a remake of one

It's on the Dreamcast?!

EDIT: I think you may be referring to Daytona USA (2001), which is a port of the first game (with Daytona 2's graphical quality). That game is amazing, and I love it. I don't think we ever got a home port of Daytona 2, however.

Sorry, that's what I meant lol!

[Pulsar_t]

Daytona USA came out late 93 iirc, arcades were still popular back then, and it had incredible textured graphics, so naturally it became quite popular. By the time Daytona 2 and Sega Rally 2 came out arcades were falling out of favour with people because the PS1 and N64 (and to a lesser extent the Saturn) were increasingly household items that delivered arcade-quality graphics.

[racketboy]

Part of it, also, was that the original was a pretty big groundbreaking title when the arcades were still more of a thing.

Remembering back to when it was rather new and always thinking it was one of the cutting edge games (just like when Virtua Fighter and Virtua Fighter 2 were new in the arcades).

When Daytona 2 showed up, it was -- oh cool a new Daytona! But it wasn't like OH WOW THIS AMAZING NEW ARCADE RACER!