Forza Horizon 6 Review: Flying in Japan!
Forza Horizon 6 is the chapter that the community of the series has been asking for for over a decade. Since the debut of the first Forza Horizon in Colorado in 2012, Japan has remained at the top of the wish list for fans and industry professionals alike. Playground Games has finally realized this with the highest ambitions: the largest, densest, and most vertical world ever built in the series.
The choice of Japan is not just scenic. The Japanese car culture — from touge mountain circuits to neon-lit night street races, from drift zones to JDM (Japanese Domestic Market) races — is the common thread that runs through the entire production. Japan has indeed inspired the cars, the soundtrack, the gameplay, and the environment, and Playground Games has worked with local photographers, artists, musicians, and consultants to ensure respect and authenticity towards a complex and multifaceted country.
A Map Built for Racing
The map of Forza Horizon 6 is divided into 10 distinct regions, each with its own character, biome, and driving opportunities. The winding mountain roads reward drifting and require precise steering angle control. The open highways push high-power cars to their speed limits. The narrow and technical streets of Tokyo, which correspond to the largest urban area in Horizon history — roughly five times larger than Guanajuato in Forza Horizon 5 — offer a visual spectacle of neon lights, elevated bridges, underground tunnels, and quiet residential neighborhoods alternating with industrial zones. Every road has something to offer, and the map is built with vertical density as a primary value: altitude variation can radically change the dynamics of a driving session. Moreover, in Tokyo, there is no performance drop compared to the less detailed areas of the map; however, it should be noted that FH6 does not represent a significant graphical improvement over its predecessor, as we will see later.
The freedom of exploration is reminiscent of Grand Theft Auto: the open map is not just a backdrop for races, but a space to inhabit. Misjudging a corner at high speed and ending considerably off the track is not only possible but often spectacular, thanks to barriers that break upon impact to avoid the feeling of racing in artificial corridors. Night Street Races, in particular, take place on roads open to traffic, marked only by flares, with no barriers or closed courses. The distinction between track and real world blurs, with an immersion effect that few titles of this genre manage to replicate.
Driving in Japan comes with a peculiar challenge: left-hand driving. For those unaccustomed to it, this setting can be disorienting in the early hours of gameplay, especially at urban intersections in Tokyo where the traffic density is at its maximum and overtaking decisions need to be made in fractions of a second. This is not a flaw of the game, but an element of authenticity that Playground Games has consciously chosen to respect the reality of the host country.
The Physics Engine: Every Millimeter of Asphalt Counts
The physics system of Forza Horizon 6 directly inherits the work done on Forza Motorsport, the pure simulation franchise curated by Turn 10 Studios. The engine detects the state of interaction between tire and asphalt every fraction of a second, calculating friction, lateral slip, weight transfer, and tread deformation to provide reactive and layered driving feedback. This architecture has direct and perceivable consequences on driving: modulating the throttle when exiting a corner is not an option for the experienced driver, but a necessity. Opening the throttle before the apex on a rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive car means managing immediate oversteer. Braking with the wheels straight before entering a turn is the difference between a clean trajectory and an excursion off-road.
The impact on driving changes substantially depending on the technical specifications of the car and the engine configuration. A front-engine, front-wheel-drive vehicle tends to understeer under load and therefore requires more patient and anticipatory driving. A mid-engine, all-wheel-drive car is more forgiving but penalizes coarse throttle adjustments. Rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive cars are the most rewarding to drive but the most unforgiving to mistakes. Off-road races and Cross Country routes amplify these differences: the sheer power of larger, heavier vehicles is felt in their ability to maintain trajectory on uneven terrain, where a sports sedan loses any dynamic advantage instantly. Driving on mixed surfaces like wet asphalt, dirt, winter snow, and moist grass at the edge of the track requires continuous adjustments and rewards those who can read the vehicle's behavior instead of applying the same technique always.
Force feedback is supported on both gamepads and compatible wheels. On the gamepad, the vibration effectively translates grip variations, road surface irregularities, and abrupt weight transfers. On the wheel, the level of detail is higher: one can perceive the difference between compact asphalt, bumpy asphalt, and dirt through resistance and micro-vibrations, creating an experience closer to dedicated racing simulators. Physical damage to vehicles is visible both on the bodywork with dents, scratches, and detached parts, as well as in driving in Simulation mode: a frontal impact can compromise aerodynamics, a side impact can alter alignment, and damage to the suspension immediately reflects in unstable car behavior. Almost every car in the roster can be upgraded with visual and actual driving enhancements: new suspensions, boosted engines, sport differentials, slick or rally tires, aerodynamic kits with adjustable downforce.
Forza Horizon 6 offers several view modes, including classic third-person and first-person cockpit view. The latter sacrifices the perception of the car's body because it becomes impossible to appreciate the custom livery or read the visual behavior of the suspension, but significantly increases emotional involvement in driving. From the driver's seat, the streets of Tokyo at night become a spectacle of lights reflecting on the hood, the mountain roads gain depth, and speed feels more real. First-person view is also the one that allows better enjoyment of the physical simulation level: the body roll in fast corners, the pitching during braking, the vibrations on uneven surfaces are all information that is partially lost from the third person. The choice of view is not just aesthetic; it is a decision that alters the relationship between the player and the driving model.
550 Cars and JDM Culture at the Center
On day one, Forza Horizon 6 offers over 550 real cars from over 80 automotive manufacturers. The roster spans very diverse categories: from JDM icons like the Nissan Skyline GT-R, Toyota Supra, Mazda RX-7, Honda NSX, Subaru Impreza WRX STI to European hypercars, American muscle cars, and classic collectibles. There are also hidden cars off the beaten path and in non-immediately visible locations, like a vintage Nissan Figaro by the Tokyo riverside, and Aftermarket cars that dynamically appear on the map, pre-modified and available at prices lower than the Autoshow. The Forza Edition Cars are unique versions with exclusive characteristics, particularly sought after by completionists.
The tuning system allows for both aesthetic and mechanical modifications. Visual novelties include Japanese-style plates, window liveries, new rims allowing different combinations between front and rear, new paints, and revised aerodynamic components. On the mechanical side, every installed part has a verifiable impact on performance stats and track behavior. The Car Mastery system adds a layer of progression for each car: skill points earned through drifting, jumps, close overtakes, and other maneuvers unlock specific perks that increase credit earnings, enhance performance, or provide exclusive advantages based on each car. Players, in fact, face a sort of skill tree for each car and can progress through it as soon as they obtain the necessary experience points, collectable by driving that specific car for a long time.
Beyond this last aspect, it is a familiar mechanic for Forza players, where upgrading cars becomes essential for gaining that small competitive edge necessary to overtake opponents. The performance level of cars, as usual, is indicated by class and numerical indicator, allowing players to immediately compare their performances with those of their opponents.
The Festival, Events, and Game Structure
The game structure is organized around two main paths outlined in the Collection Agenda: the Horizon Festival, focused on competition and progression as a driver, and Discover Japan, meant for explorers and fans of car culture. The player starts as a tourist and climbs the ranks to become a legend. This is done after passing through various qualification phases and facing competitions that require owning and driving increasingly powerful cars, within a mechanism that encourages collection expansion as a progression goal. For each of the two progressions, players must complete specific challenges to earn rewards for improving and customizing their cars.
The events are strongly characterized by the Japanese setting: those of the Touge type, in particular, pay homage to legendary downhill challenges on mountain roads like Hakone, Mount Haruna, Bandai Azuma, Norikura Skyline, and Arashiyama Takao Parkway in 1v1 duels against specific opponents in iconic vehicles. The Showcases, on the other hand, pit the player against unlikely rivals: a race against acrobatic planes through the Japanese woods or a chase of a giant mech through the streets of Tokyo are moments designed to be spectacular and emotionally engaging. The fundamental characteristic of these events is that the world does not stop around the driver: traffic flows, people watch from the roadside, events happen all around the driver while driving, with no loading breaks between the open world and races, in a continuity that enhances the sense of presence in the environment. Aspects like this highlight Forza Horizon's attempt to merge different racing souls: it recalls both DiRT and TrackMania, but also the simulation of Forza Motorsport.
The types of races cover three categories: Road Racing on urban and highway asphalt, Dirt Racing on mixed surfaces for rally cars, and Cross Country completely off-road for rugged vehicles. Like in the previous chapter, there are also Seasons, which change weekly and visually and functionally modify the world: winter brings snow and slippery roads, summer brings saturated colors and greater grip, the day-night cycle alters the emotional texture of the environment in surprising ways.
Regarding accessibility options, the difficulty level is adjustable for every aspect. Difficulty of Drivatars, driving assistance presets, tire wear, and damage level are all customizable, with the advantage that reducing assists increases credits earned per event. Moreover, the Drivatar system confirms the good performance seen in previous chapters, as it dynamically adjusts the performance of other cars based on the results obtained by the player.
Multiplayer, Creation, and Community
The online component of Forza Horizon 6 is structured on multiple levels with championships divided into rounds, drift races, Touge Showdown, and much more. Within Horizon Play, there are various game modes, some quite curious like **