Playground Games and Turn 10 Studios transport the Horizon Festival to Japan in Forza Horizon 6, the latest chapter in Microsoft’s celebrated racing series.

Since its debut in 2012, Forza Horizon has taken players on high-speed tours across some of the world’s most memorable locations, starting in Colorado, then moving through Southern Europe, Australia, the British Isles and most recently Mexico. Each setting has brought its own character and driving culture, helping to cement the franchise’s popularity among racing fans.

This time, the festival arrives in Japan, a country synonymous with rich automotive heritage and vibrant car culture. Rather than beginning as a fresh-faced competitor, you take on the role of a tourist visiting friends, earning your place in the Horizon Festival through a series of qualifying races. From there, the gameplay follows the familiar and enjoyable structure of previous entries.

Forza Horizon 6 captures Japan’s most iconic locations, ranging from the bustling streets of Tokyo’s Shibuya Crossing to the winding touge roads of Mt. Haruna, compressing them into a vast yet manageable open world map. As with earlier titles, the game successfully preserves the atmosphere and identity of its setting, even if the scale is condensed for gameplay purposes.

As you would expect, Forza Horizon 6 is all about racing.

The map is filled with Horizon Festival events to take part in, including road races and dirt rallies, both on closed circuits and point-to-point routes. There are also time trials and one-on-one challenges, either as organised events or optionally triggered when passing another driver. Multiplayer is also a key part of the experience, allowing players to team up with friends and compete together.

Beyond the main Horizon championship, there are several Discover Japan activities to explore. The Crazy Taxi-inspired food delivery missions provide a light-hearted diversion, although they do not quite match the excitement of the core racing. The same can be said for the city tours, which feel like an interesting idea but fall short in practice.

Alongside these activities are barn finds, treasure cars, XP boards, regional mascots, speed zones and the dramatic jumps at danger signs, ensuring there is always something to do. All of these contribute to earning XP and credits as you progress.

As you race, you earn points that unlock special showcase events, which in turn open up new races. In previous games, players have competed against planes and trains, but this time the setting is Japan, so it feels fitting to go head-to-head with a giant mech straight out of an anime. Racing towards Tokyo with the shadow of a towering Gundam overhead creates a real sense of tension. With the robot gliding past on one side and a Shinkansen bullet train rushing past you on the other, the showcase delivers a classic Forza Horizon moment that will be difficult to top.

As impressive as the setting is, the cars are still the true stars of the game. The developers have confirmed that there are 630 vehicles available at launch, with 550 accessible through the autoshow or as in-game rewards, while the remainder are tied to other activities. Players who own the Car Pass also receive additional vehicles over time as they are released. From everyday sedans to high-end supercars, the selection is extensive, and you will likely spot in-game versions of many cars you have owned or admired in real life.

The handling and physics benefit greatly from Turn 10 Studios’ work on the mainline Forza Motorsport series, though they are adjusted here to suit Horizon’s more accessible simcade style. The result strikes a balance between realism and enjoyment, offering the thrill of high-speed racing without the harsh consequences you would expect in the real world.

Beyond racing, there is plenty to appeal to more creative players. Vehicles can be tuned and customised, allowing you to turn already powerful cars into unbeatable machines or, which is often more fun, transform underwhelming cars into surprisingly potent performers. There is also a full race creation editor that lets you design your own events, complete with scenery and props such as ramps to shape unique experiences, and these can be shared with the wider community. The game also includes the series’ signature car livery editor, giving players the freedom to create and personalise their own designs.

The visuals are breathtaking. From the dense urban environment of Tokyo to the twisting cherry tree-lined mountain roads, the game runs as smooth as butter. With a full day/night cycle and dynamic weather, the environment is constantly changing. Racing at night, in fog and rain, across tarmac, mud, grass and snow, with changing seasons thrown in for good measure, means every race feels different, affecting both visibility and car handling.

I played the game on Xbox Series X, Series S and PC, as well as on the Xbox ROG Ally X, and I have to say it feels perfectly suited to the handheld device. Across all platforms, the performance was excellent, but being able to play Forza Horizon 6 on the go takes the experience to another level.

With Xbox Play Anywhere, owning the Xbox Series X|S version lets you play across the entire Xbox ecosystem, including consoles, Windows PCs, the Xbox ROG Ally X, and even via Xbox Cloud Gaming on your phone or Meta Quest VR headset.

The game has been designed with strong scalability in mind, delivering the best experience on Xbox Series X while still running smoothly on the less powerful Series S. This also benefits PC players, ensuring solid performance across a wide range of hardware. On my Nvidia RTX 4090-powered desktop, the game ran flawlessly at full 4K resolution with raytracing enabled. At the same time, the Xbox ROG Ally X provides an impressive portable experience, with sharp visuals and responsive, smooth handling.

All up, Forza Horizon 6 is a feature-packed experience that is difficult to fully capture in words. Racing through Tokyo is breathtaking, delivering strong Tokyo Drift energy, while the touge races feel lifted straight from Initial D. The landscape is stunning, at times recalling the rolling countryside of the UK in Forza Horizon 4 more than the deserts of Mexico in Horizon 5. Every race feels intense and exhilarating. Building on everything that came before it, this is the most complete and refined entry in the series to date and stands as a definitive Forza Horizon experience.