Daytona USA however ranks as one of my favorite racing games. Even though I come in at like 20th place, and am really bad at the game… I have tons of fun playing it.

In fact, in the Arcades, SegaRally didnt do very well. But Daytona USA always had
people playing it. Their sequels to Daytona were not as good as the original, and
had poor earnings comparatively. Sega recognized this, and put out a complete
remake of the original Daytona USA, years after its release… and it sold out Again.

Plain and simple, most people do like the extra difficulty, control, and realism
that the game gave.

Even Virtua Racing was better than Sega Rally, Imop.

Other Driving Greats:

1) Ridge Racer 1 – For its awesome Power slide control system. Required a developed skill in timing and precision to master. Very fast & fun game.

Played this game days on end on PS1, finally beating the game, and able to
use car 13 Very difficult racer, but very fun & rewarding.

2) Out Run – Very fast & Furious racer. Heavy traffic, hairpin turns needing fast
reflexes / braking, Beautiful “oil-painting” like look / levels, Excellent soundtracks. Violent Shaker motor to top things off.

Too bad the sequels never even came close to the originals Challenge & fun.

3) Race Drivin – for its ultra realistic physics, funny replay wrecks, & superior arcade
controls.

Take a Classic, “Robotron”. The game is infinite if you are superhuman… But,
no matter how many times you have played this game, you will always want to
fire it up again, and play for +hour blocks at a time. Why? Because the difficulty is
so insane, that surviving each level is like an artform. Each second is packed with
blood pumping fear and adrenalin as you narrowly escape death countless times by
a mere pixel. This can often make you giddy with laughter as you wonder how the
hell you even managed the narrow escape, and boost your own ego with how much
of a God you were at that exchange! lol

Of course, if that game is downright too frustrating, with very little reward,
many will bow out. Too easy? Then many players will get bored & stop playing.

Take a game like Super Mario Bros. Even if the game had 12 really well
designed levels, it would still have made a huge splash. The control is very deep
due to the excellent jumping formula, as well as the addition of the Run speed.
This resulted in so many possible outcomes, that it really added to the experience.

A game like Strider isnt half as fun as mario, because the control is just too simplistic. Gameplay is fairly slow. Game isnt really that challenging on a consistent
basis. (once you know how to beat it, everything becomes pretty easy)

Ghouls and Ghost is somewhere in between. It really keeps you on your toes
with constant pressure situations & fast projectiles. The enemies & patterns
change as well, making it very unpredictable. However, G&G does have problems
with high Frustration levels. Poor powerups you cant easily get rid of. Slightly slow
character movement & limited control depth (no partial jumps, no fast run)

Now… some like “Beat-Em-Ups”, but many of us really could care less… because
most are more based on luck than actual skill. You cant easily read when a character will decide to punch, & there was no advance blocking system.. as well as too slow & clunky to dodge things. Just never felt anything like a real fight.. which
is lightning fast actions & reactions.

I could go on and on… but here are some key points:

1) Speed

Speed can turn a so-so game into a real gem. If SuperMarioBros didnt have the
Run button, it never would have became as huge as it did. Speed levels up the
difficulty, and possible outcomes, & keeps things fresh & fun. (and funny too)

2) Control Depth

The more control the character has, the more possible outcomes. The more
challenge it creates.. and the more fun it can become. Defender was a big
example of a game that most thought would be too many controls… yet,
became one of the top earners of the time.

Fighting games probably one of the bigger examples. The simple Karate Champ,
just not cutting it compared to SFII for example. Of course, its very true that a game
could be made to be too complex & a turn off to players not willing to invest.

An even simpler example is Galaga -vs- Space Invaders or Galaxians.

3) Reward

An end to a game is fine. But thats not why we play it. We play a game to
have fun… so, its more about the fun moments in the journey to the end, that count
way more than anything else.

The game could be 3000 levels or 3000 hrs… but if those moments were nothing
spectacular, easy, boring…etc… the game will just be monotonous and tasteless.
Similar to riding a bus and looking out of the window. Nice scenery, but… Meh.

In Robotron, every second of time is an epic story of narrow misses, amazing escapes, glorious victories, or crushing failures. Even Robotron had an end to it..
it wouldnt have much meaning to it. The real reward is the actual gameplay.

You make a game that is consistently fun & challenging every moment, and it will
be played over and over again… even if the player never sees the ending.

4) Precision

Does not matter how pretty or long a game is… If the game is clunky & has poor
accuracy in player control.. it will more than likely bomb.

5) Sounds

Poor sounds & soundtracks can take the best game, and turn it to mudd.
Great sound Effects & Music can turn a low-res black & white game into a
real moving experience – far deeper than conveyed visually.

6) Comedy

Depending on the game, a little comic relief can really add to the enjoyment
of the experience.

7) Replay Value

Hidden secrets, playing levels twice to gain access to other things, getting
certain score levels to open up things…etc… all add to a games replay value…
and hook people into replaying it over and over again, still having great fun,
in the process of the extra challenges.

Best of luck,
Steve