What is Forza Horizon 6?

• Forza Horizon takes players to the much-coveted location of Japan
• Suits Japan’s extensive car culture

For as long as I can remember, Forza Horizon fans have been clamouring for the game to go to Japan. The land of the rising sun has been one of the highly requested locations for the better part of over five years, and rightly so. The country eschews a long-time car culture that has crossed mainstream media throughout the decades. From the classic anime Initial D to the Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift, Japan is firmly within the wider global car culture phenomenon.  Now, in 2026, fans of the long-running open-world racer will finally speed across Nippon, and it is triumphant. 

Developer & Publisher // Playground Games, Xbox Game Studios
Platforms // PC, Xbox Series X|S
MSRP & Release Date // $69.99, May 14th (Early Access) & May 19th, 2026
Reviewed On // Xbox Series X

The Horizon Festival is Back and Better than Ever

• Similar to earlier Forza Horizon games, you start as a nobody and work your way up
• Earn different wrist bands (7 in total) to unlock access to higher-tier cars

Like the previous installments of Forza Horizon, you play as an amateur racer who dreams of making it big in the sought-after Horizon Festival. As a new entrant, you have to prove to the Festival that you are worthy of a shot and do your best to prove your keep. It is a nice contrast from previous entries, but it is a familiar setup (the last one was from Forza Horizon 2 in 2012) for long-time players of the franchise. 

In previous Forza Horizon iterations, your character was an established racer in the Horizon Festival. This put you at the top and made you the star of the show. However, in Forza Horizon 6, the tables have turned and have taken progression back to its roots. In other words, you are essentially a nobody and are vying to be a somebody. 

In Forza Horizon 6, you assume the role of a newcomer trying to leave your mark on the prestigious Horizon Festival. You begin the game in Qualifying races, trying just to make it to the Horizon Festival. Slowly, you get your wristband -essentially your rank in the Festival- and move your way up in the rankings. For older Horizon fans, it’s a familiar system, one that evokes a sense of steady progress as you try to make your way to the top of the Horizon food chain. 

There are seven total wrist bands, starting from the Noob yellow, all the way to the prestigious golden wrist band, saved for the top of the pyramid elite racers. Each new wristband offers new events and class vehicles (D, C, B, A, S1, etc.) available for purchase. 

A Better Onboarding Experience

• Forza Horizon 6 has improved its onboarding system
• The game gently guides players and systematically opens up the map
• The GPS ANNA helps find what activity to do next

Forza Horizon 6 smartly avoids the typical trappings of previous entries. Especially when it comes to onboarding players. No longer with the open world map spit out tons of icons for you to tackle. Instead, as you work your way up to getting higher-level wrist bands, you can purchase more events and new car types. This helps guide players through a coherent progression without feeling overwhelmed. This systematic progression is a godsend, as it helps to keep things in line as you progress further into the Horizon Festival. 

Moreover, the ANNA navigation tool really goes a step further to make sure you know exactly what to do next. At any point, pressing down and right (what’s next) will pull up some options on how to progress in your current Horizon Festival level. This helps keep a good rhythm and flow throughout the game. The Ava recommendations will even pull up interesting activities for you, such as drift challenges or speed traps, when you need to get more XP. 

Collectors Beware!

• The Collection Journal helps keep track of the Festival and Discover Japan progress
• Has different objectives, and achieving them unlocks rewards

In Forza Horizon 6, the game features a Collection Journal, which helps track your progress through both the Horizon Festival and Discover Japan activities. The Festival is well the racing competition, while Discover Japan provides the Japanese culture and car enthusiast subcultures. 

Best of all, by completing different objectives, you get an actual reward the more you progress in both tracks. This includes credits, livery designs, horn sounds, and even cars! It’s a nice addition that will definitely add more to your to-do list.

Estate Management Anyone?

• Design your own home race course or obstacle course through Forza Horizon’s Estate Management
• The more players that visit your estate, the higher your daily payouts

One of the new features in Forza Horizon 6 comes in the form of Estate Management. You read that correctly, estate management. In FH6, you can purchase homes and act as your main hubs throughout Japan. However, now you can revamp and fix up some of these properties. Players can add roads, ramps, and decorations to make their properties truly their own. This includes creating tracks, jumps, and driving obstacle courses (or obbys as the kids call them).

Other players can visit your estate, and if they spend a lot of time driving around there, you’ll get a nice daily payout. Personally, as a father of young children, I don’t have the time or patience to play at home in this mode since I already do that in real life. Similar to the brilliant artists that create high-quality liveries for other players to download, the estate creation kit is more content that players can dive into, which helps create that sense of community. 

Nonstop Dopamine Hits in Forza Horizon 6

• Tons of different activities to complete in Forza Horizon 6
• The game has 10 different regions, with the Sotoyama and Tokyo District regions standing out in particular

Forza Horizon 6 never lets up on the gas (pun intended) when it comes to constant rewarding progression. The game will constantly keep dopamine levels high as you are continuously getting XP from events, for the Horizon festival, for your car and car XP, and best of all, for discovering Japan. The latter also nicely ties in with the different activities, such as hitting mascots, XP boards, or completing the touristy yet educational stories found throughout the 10 different regions found in the game. 

The Discover Japan story events provide mini-cutscenes and often give brief trivia on the particular car that is being used, as well as, at times, cultural trivia, including local geographic background on where you’re racing in Japan and the country’s infatuation with drifting and high-speed engines!

My favorite story was in the snowy Sotoyama region, where this particular story went briefly into the history of the Lamborghini P Miura P400 car, which set the blueprint of modern performance vehicles while giving a geographical background on the noted snowy region. It’s like taking a vacation, but your butt is firmly on a couch or PC chair. 

Mechs, That’s Right MECHS!!!!

• There is a mech on display in the heart of the Horizon Festival
• Let’s just say, the cars aren’t the only thing you will race in Forza Horizon 6

When the Foriza Horizon Trailer dropped, no doubt what shocked people the most was the leg of a giant mech that closed the trailer. Now, without going into spoilers, you will see that same giant mech proudly shown off in the heart of the Horizon Festival. Well, as you progress through the Festival, let’s just say you will test your horsepower beyond other cars and leave it at that.

Next-Gen Car Handling

• The latest iteration of the ForzaTech engine is almost on full display in the game
• Different cars and terrains have a unique feel to them, creating a highly immersive driving experience

But how do the cars handle in Forza Horizon 6? Well, I am happy to report extremely well! Built on the same tech found in the recently released Forza Motorsport, FH6 is a testament to how far the car handling has come in the series. Building from the updated ForzaTech engine found in Forza Motorsport 2023, FH6 is a testament to driving with feedback. Every car has a unique feel and feedback, which creates an amazing driving feel. 

Driving over surfaces is immediately noticeable and distinctive. Tarmac physically feels even and precise, while driving over ice is an unpredictable mess. Snow, dirt, and patchy asphalt roads have their unique feel and properties that are beautifully recreated in a virtual world.

It is a testament to how far the ForzaTech engine has come. Besides feeling amazing to drive, this feedback nuances give though perhaps the feel might not be as precise with every gear shift, sharp turn, or other racing dynamics like in Forza Motorsport, but make no mistake, this is the best feeling driving open world game available in the market. 

Graphical Options

• Quality mode locks the FPS at 30 but gives you all the reflection and ray-tracing bells and whistles, while still feeling very smooth
• Performance mode takes it to 60 FPS, but at a loss of graphical quality

On the Xbox Series X, players are presented with two graphical presets: Quality Mode and Performance Mode. The former includes all the graphical bells and whistles, which influence a higher resolution, real-time reflection, and ray-tracing, but at a lower 30 FPS. While Performance Mode locks everything at a buttery smooth 60 FPS with lower quality reflections and ray-tracing.

When I first tested out the game, I didn’t even realize that quality was set by default. I just played FH6 like normal and was just blown away by all the fancy reflections from the car’s body and the interior as well. To my surprise, when I went to check on the graphical preset, I noticed the 30FPS for Quality Mode. While the reflection and ray tracing work are absolutely jaw-dropping on the Xbox Series X, and the performance was quite smooth on a C1 LG OLED, I opted to go with performance mode since it feels the best for a racing title.

Dodgy Character Faces 

• Human characters’ faces look weird and awkward
• Can easily be remedied with the right head accessories or helmet

Some of the graphical inconsistencies during my playthrough came in certain areas. First, objections (such as boxes, barriers, etc.) would constantly load in front of you. Second, the player model faces just look weird and unnatural. Luckily, the stars of the game are the cars, and you can easily hide your character’s face with hats, helmets, and other accessories. Lastly, the Tokyo District regions during the day can look uninspiring and dull, but when night falls, and those neon lights turn on, oh boy, the city looks gorgeous.  

Supreme Reflections in Forza Horizon 6

• Sublime reflection and ray-tracing effects on Quality Mode in Forza Horizon 6
• Some graphical hiccups in assets popping in

Let’s get real, ray-tracing reflections on consoles are typically meh at best. Even in our review of Forza Horizon 5, the ray-traced reflections were decent at best, in hindsight. The reflections worked as intended, but they looked pixelated and weren’t crisp at all. But now, there’s a visible improvement in Forza Horizon 6.  Real-time reflections are much sharper in Forza Horizon 6 while still maintaining that speedy dynamic behavior. 

Even the hand reflections in the cockpit look much more convincing than before. Yes, it can be distracting to see when you turn the steering wheel, but it is a far more graphically immersive experience. Kudos to Playground Games for improving and optimizing ray-traced reflections on the Xbox Series X console.

There were some visual blips. The most common graphical hiccup would be assets (such as different items) popping in ahead of you during a race. This would result in boxes and other obstacles being loaded into the game while you are driving. The most susceptible location would be during the events themselves.

Forza Horizon 6 – Audio & Soundtrack

• Expansive officially licensed music across several genres
• Linkin Park and Babymetal tracks stand out

Once again, Forza Horizon 6 excels in every aspect when it comes to the audio department. Every car is meticulously recorded and reproduced in the game, where no two cars sound the same. Best of all, the cars reverberate with such gusto that it just adds to the overall immersion. 

When it comes to the game’s soundtrack, the game is packed with different radio stations for your listening pleasure. Radio stations like Pulse (rock and indie), Hospital (house and EDM) are back and in full force. However, due to my personal heavy metal/rock proclivities, I was taken aback when I heard “Up From The Bottom” by Linkin Park and “Gimme Chocolate” by Babymetal blasting through the radio when racing around Nippon. By far, this is Forza’s most expansive and licensed music pack iteration yet, and I’m all for it. 

Accessibility

• Tons of general and visual accessibility options are available in the game
• You can even set the car so it can race on its own

When it comes to accessibility, Playground Games goes above and beyond. The fact that there are separate general and video accessibility options is indicative of the sheer amount of accessibility options available for players. 

Options include high contrast mode, auto drive (you read that correctly!), proximity radan, sign language options, and many, many more to help players from all walks of life to enjoy the expansive content available for players to enjoy. Of course, players will find their assortment of Drivatar difficulty levels, damage and tyre wear, driving assistance, and much more for players to adjust to their liking. I still use the braking lines for multiple Forza titles, and when I feel spicy, I will turn on the simulation damage. 

Final Thoughts on Forza Horizon 6

It’s difficult to top an already stellar game. Forza Horizon 6 does everything right while finally answering a long-time fan’s dream of setting the game in the land of the rising sun. Setting a new bar for open-world racing, content progression, and onboarding, user-generated content, and cultural representation, Forza Horizon 6 is a triumphant testament to the iterative progress in the long-running franchise. 

Note – A key was provided for the purpose of this review.