For what it’s worth, I’ve never been to Japan, but have certainly fallen in love with their cars over the years. Growing up, the JDM (Japanese Domestic Market) scene was massive in the early 2000’s here in Australia, and I actually knew a fair amount of people, be it family or friends, with these cars in their driveway. Be it the old Nissan Skyline R31, my mate’s 1994 Honda Prelude Si, or even my brother-in-law’s old silver 1973 Mazda RX-3. Being in and around these cars has not only helped build my love for cars in general over the years, but their inclusion in Forza Horizon 6 simply takes me back to a simpler time and fills me with nostalgia.
Personal stories aside, Forza Horizon 6 is, quite simply, the best game in the Forza Horizon series to date. While I am surprised it took this long to get to this side of the globe, this is, without a doubt, a largely successful celebration of Japanese car culture, and even pop culture at times; a virtual holiday, complete with some of the most accurate representations and pictureaseque versions of Japan’s greatest landmarks.
While the broader Horizon Festival formula remains, and might feel a little dated or repetitive to some, depending on how invested you are in this franchise, it’s safe to say that the formula has been further refined and practically perfected in Forza Horizon 6.
Bring Your Party Hat
The Horizon Festival returns, with racers from all over the world flocking to Japan to take part in and compete with one of the most prestigious car-infused festivals out there. If you’ve played any of the previous Forza Horizon games before, then you’ll feel right at home here. While it’s a great way to give players something to do, explore or find in every corner of its open world, the formula itself might be due for a refresher course in the coming sequels.
That being said, things are arguably better than they’ve ever been. There’s simply so much racing it can make your head spin, but it’s presented in such a way that it not only gifts generous amount of variety to the player, but also celebrates Japanese car culture, and even broader Japanese culture for that matter, in the process.
Players begin by creating a character from a selection of preset designs, pick one of three cars to begin racing in (I went with the chef’s kiss, which is a 1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four ST205), and head to the Horizon Festival. You’ll then need to compete in a variety of race types, from street races, drags, cross-country races, and even take part in specific events like Time Trials and Drift Zones to gain HP (Horizon Points) to unlock coloured wristbands, which help you progress to the next stage of the Horizon Festival.
Earn enough HP, and you’ll even unlock a special Showcase Event, which usually leads to something very cool. I’m sure people have seen it, as it’s been circulating around and even shown to me by friends, but the Mech My Day Showcase Event, where you race against a Gundam-like robot named Chaser Zero, is so awesome that it made me jump off my couch and scream in excitement.
Progressing through the Horizon Festival and gaining access to new wristbands essentially grants you access to new races across new areas of the map, complete with access to faster and more prestigious vehicles. Your virtual assistant ANNA (Automated Natural Navigation Assistant) also returns to help guide you around Japan and through various events, now complete with a new Auto Drive feature, if you need to step away for a second. This also strips away your HUD and makes for an incredibly cinematic experience.
I’m a fan of the Horizon Festival formula, but with the addition of these much more consistently exciting Showcase Events this time around, it has simply left me begging for more experimental content to be infused into the series moving forward.
Ride Like the Wind
Thankfully, driving any of the whopping 638 cars on offer in Forza Horizon 6 feels like an absolute joy. While all vehicles can be bought, earned, or found, the list seemingly grows with each instalment, and there’s no stone left unturned here. Everything from previous titles can be found, but the love for Japanese manufacturers is strong here, with a diverse offering of old and new, iconic and revolutionary vehicles on offer.
Forza Horizon has always been the more arcade-inspired alternative to the mainline Forza Motorsport series, but you can really get the best of both worlds here. From various customisation options in each vehicle, to the ability to tune various aspects or simply choose a tuning package that automatically rounds out the performance of your car, it gives you plenty of options to spend Credits on and mess around with. Custom liveries are back and can be applied to cars after purchasing them. Players can also earn Skill Points to unlock certain abilities for each vehicle, which can come in handy if you have a small list of favourites you like to take out and about.
But out on the road (or track), vehicles have a fantastic sense of weight and presence at all times, with various types of vehicles not only handling differently on various road types, but across various race types as well. I would be happy with 638 variants of a Honda Civic Type-R, but Forza Horizon 6 gifts you with on and off-road vehicles, along with some hilariously out of place commercial vehicles like delivery trucks, complete with their own races called Eclectic Domestics. While those vehicles definitely feel about as slow as a snail in mud, they too can be customised and upgraded to your liking.
Whether you’re drifting around mountainous roads or smashing through the thick snow around Mount Fuji, each vehicle delivers its own effectiveness, making them feel like tools at your disposal, ready to call upon based on the intended race type.
If that wasn’t enough, Forza Horizon 6 once again gives players the ability to tweak various assists to enhance the experience, making it one that can either feel more accessible or more realistic. Competing Drivatars are still a thing here, but I feel as though the AI can’t always hit the right balance when it comes to difficulty.
These Drivatars take the form of players you may have in your friends list, or see out in the wild, and their effectiveness can be either increased or decreased based on your skill level. There are moments where the game feels you’re winning too easily, and offers to increase the difficulty and aggressiveness of your opponents for additional Credits. But in doing so, you end up losing the next handful of races, for it to recommend that you drop the difficulty level again.
While Forza Horizon 6 hasn’t necessarily reinvented the formula when it comes to mechanics, I would argue it never really had to. With its variety of vehicles, race types and environments all culminating to bring the best out of these races at any given moment, it’s hard to argue with the results.
The Open Road
The Forza Horizon series has tackled a new country with every instalment since Forza Horizon 3, but as I mentioned before, I’m surprised it took this long to get to Japan. This version of Japan feels like a living, breathing city, complete with every single area and hotspot you would have seen on a postcard, to the quieter and more tranquil villages and mountains that feel out of sight, yet equally important to the look and feel of the country.
Exploring Japan is easy enough, should you want to go that far, but the game does such a great job at introducing you to its four corners by simply progressing through the Horizon Festival, that its expansions and scope feel incredibly natural, and all the more impressive as you rack up the hours. I can’t tell you the number of times that I had to stop on a particular road or alongside the curve of an inclining mountain road to admire the view behind me.
Previous Forza Horizon games have done this before, making each experience feel like a virtual holiday of sorts, but up until this point, I forgot the amount of activities you’ll complete that unpick and expose hidden parts of the country that account for their own memorable moments.
Picking up clues to track down all 15 of the Barn Finds on offer is also a great way to get acquainted with the larger paddocks, hidden dirt roads and underpasses or even behind buildings. It makes the city and its broader environments feel not only incredibly large, but much more dense and detailed as a result. You can even hit little toy mascots to complete challenges and unlock achievements, find hidden billboards to crash through or dash through speed cameras for extra XP.
Look the Part
From a performance perspective, Forza Horizon 6 runs like a dream. On the Xbox Series X, players can choose between Quality Mode, which maintains 30 FPS with higher detail and a sharper resolution, and Performance Mode, which targets a much smoother 60 FPS across both the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S.
The Performance Mode is definitely the better mode of the two, as I never really saw the frame rate drop in any meaningful way, and also helps create not only a much more responsive experience, but a more engaging one while driving at faster speeds. I did notice a few pop-ins via traffic lights and road signs at certain points, but it’s never so terrible that it detracts from the overall experience.
I will finally add here that certain assets out in the world can behave differently and rather strangely. For example, while most smaller trees will be taken down as you drive through them, slightly larger trees act like immovable bollards, buried 100 metres down into the earth as your car slams to a halt. This also brings out the somewhat awkward minimal damage your cars receive, detracting from the overall realism and immersion. But once again, these are only minor grievances, and have been issues noted in previous Forza Horizon games.
Final Thoughts
Overall, Forza Horizon 6 brings together all of its best bits from previous titles, culminating in the best entry to date. Its move to Japan is definitely the right choice, bringing with it a laundry list of vehicles that highlight and celebrate the JDM scene, complete with epic vistas to admire and races to partake in.
While the general formula and pacing remain unchanged, this is without a doubt one of the most premium racing experiences in recent memory, and one of the best games of 2026.
FOUR AND A HALF STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Highlights: Superb driving mechanics; Japan is gorgeous; Plenty of vehicles to unlock; Awesome Showcase Events highlight Japanese culture and pop culture alike
Lowlights: Horizon Festival formula from previous games remains almost untouched; AI difficulty levels can vary drastically
Developer: Playground Games
Publisher: Xbox Game Studios
Platforms: Xbox Series X/S, Windows PC
Available: Now
Review conducted on Xbox Series X with a pre-release code provided by the publisher.
The featured header image was also provided by the publisher.
