I’ve played all the Forza Horizon racing games, and I’m not going to pretend that a significant chunk of my enjoyment of each and every one of them didn’t come from virtual tourism.
Sure, completing frantic street races, bombastic rally challenges, and elaborate stunt jumps in some of the coolest cars around is always going to be a lot of fun (especially given the brilliant vehicles handling model series developer Playground Games has truly mastered with each subsequent instalment), but it’s the series’ wonderfully realized spaces that has always kept me coming back for more. And on that front, the upcoming Forza Horizon 6 is shaping up to be the most impressive entry yet.
It brings the action to Japan for the very first time, a setting fans have been practically begging for over the last decade, and right from the starting line, it’s easy to see how good a decision that was.
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Tokyo drift
The first few minutes of Forza Horizon 6 (a flashy, scripted race as has become tradition) have you speeding down highways alongside a bullet train, with occasional detours through winding woodland paths, as you zoom towards Tokyo in a rotating selection of eye-catching vehicles, including a beautiful Nissan GT-R.
It’s a lovely celebration of Japanese car culture, complete with little references to popular racing manga Initial D and many other petrolhead details that I’m sure I missed.
Even though I’ve been playing an early build, the rural surroundings already look simply incredible on Xbox Series X with loads of high-fidelity foliage, life-like lighting, and no visible pop-in, no matter how fast you drive. It comfortably looks better than 2021’s already attractive Forza Horizon 5, but it’s when you finally hit the streets of Tokyo that it becomes clear just how much more advanced this sequel is.
The city is by no means life-size, but the sheer scale of it is still pretty breathtaking. One of my biggest complaints with Forza Horizon 5 was the lack of proper urban locales — with its depiction of Mexico mainly focusing on rural villages and skipping major cities — and it seems like Playground Games is eager to compensate with this massive paved labyrinth. Buildings are detailed and varied, including strong representations of iconic landmarks like Tokyo Tower, and even within the city, there’s a good mix of different environments to discover.
A network of wide highways crosses the city, which are ideal for leisurely cruising, and the tighter streets are dominated by narrow alleyways and little hidden-away paved areas just waiting to be found. With a few fairly standard races under my belt, I was more than happy to spend most of my time getting to grips with its layout and hunting the many collectible mascots (smashed for a burst of XP) dotted around.
Although the roads are obviously much less busy than real-life — there wouldn’t be anything enjoyable about being stuck at five miles per hour in rush hour traffic after all — there are still lots of other cars out and about.
They’re mainly cute Kei cars (small, boxy urban vehicles synonymous with driving in Japan), providing a thrilling obstacle to dodge as you speed to the next race, and you’ll occasionally run into another player drifting around corners in something showier.
Growing your garage
While Forza Horizon 6 is expected to launch with more than 550 vehicles, this version of the game was locked down to just three: a 1989 Nissan Silvia K’s, a 1970 GMC Jimmy, and a 1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four ST205.
A decent starting roster, though I can’t help but notice that it contains nothing that hasn’t already been represented elsewhere in the series. It’s quite hard to tell if the models have actually been updated from Forza Horizon 5 (I’m leaning towards no and am sure someone on Reddit will have already posted a detailed comparison of each of them side by side by the time you read this), but the vastly improved ray-tracing is transformative either way.
Watching passing tower blocks glimmer back to me off the bonnet, I’m convinced driving in a game has simply never looked this good, and it feels great too due to the skilled implementation of the Xbox Wireless Controller’s rumble and haptic triggers. Like the last entry, handling changes realistically depending on the weather conditions, too, and my cars picked up an embarrassing number of scrapes the first time I was caught out in pouring rain. Seasons are set to return in the full game (the feature was absent from my preview), with the snowy winter conditions likely to be even more impactful.
There’s still plenty of other things that I need to see (I’m really hoping the scattershot progression system of the last game has been thoroughly overhauled and that the car roster has enough exciting new arrivals to maintain interest), but everything I’ve seen so far has made for a top first impression.
I’ll certainly be getting behind the wheel when it launches for Xbox Series X and Series S and PC on May 19, 2026. PlayStation owners won’t need to wait long to join me either, as the game will also be making its way to PS5 later in 2026.
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dash.wood@futurenet.com (Dashiell Wood)
