Bonus: Why doesn’t anybody know about Daytona USA 2/Sega Racing Classic 2?

The (second) never-ported sequel to one of my favorite games, hidden away in Like a Dragon Gaiden, is just weird and difficult enough to take it out of the mainstream

I feel the same way about the arcade racer Daytona USA that a lot of people feel about Zelda: Ocarina of Time or Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. It’s the peak sentimental game of my youth; everything in video games that I personally value, it does perfectly.

So as a lover of 90s Sega in general, I’ve always been proud that Daytona USA has always been popular. People really like it: not just obsessive Sega nerds like me, just average folks in arcades and bars and every other public place the game appears. If you ask me, it’s because the game is friendly: not threatening or violent, but bright and joyful, inviting, easy for everyone to play together and handles like a dream. That its mechanical depth is also just right is nice for super-fans like me, but that’s not the reason it’s got such wide appeal.

And that original game, perfect as it is, has just continued to sell in arcades forever. As the game ages, a (somewhat underwhelming) remake has begun to replace it and draw just as much traffic as ever with its one car and three tracks, of which 99% of players only ever choose the one.

So would you be surprised to hear that the Daytona USA line actually consists of three arcade games? Sega Super GT (SCUD Race) featured super-cars of the day (Porsche 911, Ferrari F40, McLaren F1, and Dodge Viper), and Daytona USA 2 returns to stock car racing for a full-on sequel.

So why isn’t Daytona USA 2, or even Super GT, the game you see in all the bowling alleys and bars and movie theaters? Why don’t most people even know those games exist? Well…