Review by: Mike Thompson

When I was growing up, I spent a lot of time playing Daytona USA after school in the local video arcade. I still have some pretty fond memories of rainy afternoons spent behind the wheel, but Sega's re-release of the game on Xbox Live has left my spiritual gas tank a bit closer to empty than I expected.

Daytona USA on the console features the same simple —yet solid— racing gameplay of the original arcade cabinet version. Things still feel fast, the drifting mechanics still fun, and the graphics have received a bit of an upgrade, too. In fact, Sega's facelift make the bright visuals really pop on HD displays. That said, they still look rather rough compared to bigger budget games, but they're also a vast improvement over other Sega classics on the current generation of consoles.

Enjoyable as it is, Daytona USA 's far from perfect. Its biggest issue is that there just isn't all that much to do. There are three different courses and two playable cars, and that's about all that the core game contains. Granted, there are also challenge, survival, and multiplayer modes (the latter can support up to eight players online, but stability is a bit unreliable). A big frustration with Daytona USA is that there's no local co-op multiplayer mode. All racing games should have a local option of some sort; that's just common sense. The fact that Sega put together an online multiplayer mode but didn't include a local version is kind of baffling.

It should be noted that, even though it doesn't add anything to the racing, there's a "Karaoke Mode," which simply puts the lyrics to the game's (admittedly, delightful) soundtrack on the screen. When you sing along, there's no scoring system, so this is really only fun if you have some other friends to help get in on the laughs.

If Sega had spent some more time creating content for the game or giving its mechanics an overhaul, there'd be something here for new players to sink their teeth into. As it is, this is one of those titles that will likely only be appeal to folks looking for a quick drive down Nostalgia Lane.