Enter Daytona USA 2001. Now powered by Dreamcast, Daytona USA 2001's graphics put its Model 2 counterpart to shame. Framerate? A rock-solid 60 fps. Pop-in? None whatsoever, even with 40(!) other cars on screen. Yes, much like F355 Challenge, if you should see it, you can see it. Nice touches like transparent car windows and plenty of trackside objects round out the impressive graphical display.

Granted the the graphics are good, but what elements will be included to set Daytona USA 2001 apart from the rest? It all lies in the vast degree of features. Take a seat race fans, Sega's got you covered. Not only are 9 drivable tracks planned to be included (3 from Daytona USA arcade, 3 from Daytona USA: Champion Circuit Edition, and 3 Dreamcast original), but also more cars, modes, and even online play; but more on that later. Game modes are pretty standard, with single race, arcade, championship, and time-attack. Before each race you are able to edit your car to your liking, so if you prefer manual transmission, or look pretty in pink, make it so.

Daytona USA 2001 features multiplayer over Sega.net and traditional split-screen action. Playing split-screen takes the graphical detail down a few notches, but the framerate stays high, so it's a tradeoff worth making. Sega.net is a whole different story however. Sega is promising an unheard of 40 player per race limit. Somehow, Sega is allowing a human to take control of each of those computer cars. If Sega can pull this off it will be yet another trump card for the fledgling Sega.net.

Sega has pulled music from the entire Daytona collection for inclusion in Daytona USA 2001. However, instead of just playing the originals (although they will be included), Sega had their own Wave Master remix each of the tracks to techno perfection. And that includes the wonderfully annoying Daytona theme, which I'm sure most fans know well, because its probably engraved in your brain by now.

All is not well in Daytona land however. The Japanese build of the game features a particularly nasty bug where if you change the default analog sensitivity (which is almost a necessity), player one controls player 2 as well in split-screen mode. Don't fret though as Sega is aware of this and is (presumably) going to have it fixed before its US release.

Sega is giving gamers an awful lot of bang for their buck with Daytona USA 2001, but when don't they? A simple re-release of Daytona USA would sell an awful lot of copies, but when you factor in the extras, including the lucrative online play, and you have a potential system seller on your hands. We will see how Daytona USA 2001 fares when it's released February 27th.

· · · piku