The picture-Esque roads towards the mountain side, overlooking the bustling metropolis on the left and a few corners towards the right, the ever-glorious Mount Fuji welcomes you, as your Nissan Pao powers towards the destination.
Forza Horizon, I feel, is all about the celebration. From the cars to the location and even seeing the friends/enemies you made along the way in a game where you always get to see other players doing their thing. And, nothing really brings people together than something like playing Forza.
The Sixth entry of the series goes to the land of the Rising Sun. where JDM and Kei cars await, so how was it, for my month-long trip around virtual Japan? Lovely, actually.
Presentation
By far, this is one of the best looking Forza Horizon title personally, with how the snowy mountain-side roads have reflective ice patches after sprinkle of rain, or how vibrant the lighting of Tokyo is, that driving at points of the Mount Haruna pass could just see the shimmering of the city in the distance, much like how Surfer’s Paradise was back in the third game.
And I respect the commendable work of Playground Games to make sure this game is pretty much optimized for not only the Xbox Series S (which I played on), but also the likes of the Xbox ROG Ally and even Steam Deck, it’s just solid 60fps without any sort of frame drops. It’s just that incredibly polished, considering the previous three Horizon titles were released in the Winter period, they took their time for this one and launched it in Spring, was a major good call.
Audio good a nice bump as well, thanks to the recent Forza Motorsport, so now the cars like the Honda Civic Type-R actually has the VTEC noises properly noted, or the beautiful sounds of the Mazda’s 787B Rotary engine singing from a few lengths away sometimes if you turn off the music, is just magical.
It doesn’t stop there too, like keen listeners could actually hear more interesting tid-bits like the tire noises when you turn a car’s wheel while stationary, or a modified car with racing brakes would squeak like its actual counterpart. These sorts of little things that really help sell the presentation of the game quite well.
Though one nitpick I do have is that the avatar customization is lacking when compared to the fourth or fifth game. Like there are stuff like a maid outfits and a food delivery outfit (which is both hilarious and on-the-nose), but the normal outfits are recycled from the previous games, which are fine but, when you’re in the land that has Shinjuku, the capital of weird outfits, you would think there would be some unique stuff, alas the variation front is lacking quite a bit.
Gameplay
One of the major complaints from most of the player base is perhaps that both 4th and 5th game were a bit on the easier side, as they would often shower with fast cars that could do most, if not all, of the races with a select few cars that are within the upper brackets of its class system. But Playground had an ace up their sleeve and reintroduced the wristband systems that locked players in a certain class of cars, which helps with the flow of the game better.
Doing the races and all of the side content such as the Speed Zones, Drift Zones and even Trailblaze does help contribute to the road to a Legend Wristband while the side-story stuff such as Day Trips around Japan, or the Raku-Raku delivery missions help with the other collectable, which are Stamps, that count towards the game’s 100% completion and awards you with cars, of course.
But one addition to the gameplay that I would appreciate is quite miniscule addition is that in-game steering wheel now rotates to a proper 900 degrees lock, even on the controller, which helps with immersion of driving these powerful machines that could glide around traffic like it’s nothing, flicking the joystick in-tune with the flow.
And one neat added feature for the gameplay was how you acquire the cars. Besides the usual places of the Autoshow, getting it via Wheelspins or even during Showcase events, You could purchase vehicles on the side-road, something that is a common occurrence in this part of the world, and it’s quite ingenious how most of the placements of these “Used car for sale” are.
Few of them are close to a racetrack, so expect Track-Day cars to be there, or in the mountain side, it’s either a new Acura Integra or in some rare occasions, a Forza Edition car that you can purchase without needing to spin any wheel. It’s a nice and refreshing way to acquire the cars, and in-character with how the Festival usually works. Plus, the descriptions for some of them are hilarious.
All in all, it’s still one of the more enjoyable open-world arcade racers in the market, with how accessible it is and just how the flow of the game just fits with the semi-casual affair of the Horizon games, it’s all about having fun, after all.
Content![]()
The usual formula for these Horizon titles is that once you have done enough activities and races to reach the “END”, for this edition is getting the Gold Wristband, there is still stuff to do and cars to collect. In fact, even 100% the base game doesn’t also mean that everything is done due to the Live Service nature of its Seasonal events, where each week means a new race or activity to do to unlock cars that aren’t in the Autoshow or those who are new to the series.
It’s always constantly evolving, so there’s always content for days, or heck, even years to do and it’s those sort of games where leaving it up and coming back to do it later is the way to go if you want to avoid burning out of the game.
It is the festival that never ends, after all. And leaving it for a while and returning for a new expansion or car pack is sometimes more viable.
Personal Enjoyment![]()
I’ve been played the Forza Horizon series for quite some time now, from the second game onwards exactly, so I have been around the proverbial block f and, when I say this is one of the more enjoyable ones since picking up Forza Horizon 4 and an Xbox Series S back in Nov 18 of 2020, I really meant it.
In food terms, it’s like coming back to the restaurant that you always frequent to, who refreshes their store ever so often, but the moment you sit down at the table, it all feels familiar and you get to digging in your comfort food once again, now older and have better (or worse) taste buds than before, but you’ll return to it like nothing changed.
As a tourist reference, it’s quite good that most of the areas the game portrayed are mostly accurate and quite culturally respectful (according to my own reference trip last year), with the roads in the countryside being narrow and hilly, while also being scenic.
And though Tokyo itself has shrunk quite considerably (Ueno and most around the lower regions of Tokyo isn’t there), its entre map design is quite flowing and easy to navigate, with the Expressway going all across the map making it great for those times when driving at Midnight in a 992 Porsche, or the many switchbacks when climbing down a certain Akina-shaped mountain to touge in a Peel P50, both just feels right.
Verdict![]()
Forza Horizon 6 rocks. The series still has that good flow state that makes playing them enjoyable to race,create or even chill out. There’s a reason why this is still the high bar for Open-World Racing games, and I think it will be a while before a fair contender matches them, band for band.
Played on Xbox Series S, Review copy purchased by the reviewer.
Forza Horizon 6
The series still has that good flow state that makes playing them enjoyable to race, create or even chill out. There’s a reason why this is still the high bar for Open-World Racing games.
- Presentation 8.5
- Gameplay 9.5
- Content 8.5
- Personal Enjoyment 9.6