Forza Horizon 6 Preview: Once more with cherry blossoms

Forza Horizon remains a delight to play, but Japan or otherwise, is more of the same.

Don’t get me wrong: I do love myself a sequel. I absolutely adore Resident Evil Requiem, the ninth instalment in the long-running franchise, but keep in mind that I started playing that a whopping thirty years ago in 1996. Forza Horizon, meanwhile, is already up to its sixth iteration in only fourteen years.

This time around, Horizon 6 uses Japan as its backdrop, in a condensed map that features the bright lights and bustle of Tokyo’s major districts alongside small Japanese country towns and landscapes, and of course, big ticket draw items like Mt Fuji. And while it’s jaw-droppingly gorgeous and a tight, polished racer, it’s ultimately more of the same.

Microsoft let me loose in the opening hours of the sequel, and I’m able to most things beyond its opening. Speaking very generally — and writing this specific section before I started to play — I imagined that Horizon 6‘s opening was like all others before it, flashy and showing off a number of Japan’s locales alongside the game’s different race types. Was I correct in my assessment? Well, I can’t say… but I bet you could figure it out.

While more of the same Forza Horizon experience isn’t a bad thing, I’ve recently dipped my toes back into the formula thanks to Forza Horizon 5‘s release over on the PS5. As I loaded into Akihabara and marvelled at the Japan-iness of it all, I quickly put my foot down and started off on the hunt for PR stunts, bonus boards, and a new collectible in regional mascots. It felt very familiar, perhaps a bit too quickly.

That said, one of my biggest gripes with the ever-growing Forza Horizon formula has been addressed thanks to a new update to the ANNA helper system; this time around, she’ll wade through the Ubisoft-like pile of icons on your map to pick out an event or action that you could try next. With simply too many icons on the map, even as you start the game, a little direction is always appreciated.

Locked to quality mode and 30 frames-per-second for the purposes of the preview, and playing on the Xbox Series S that I dragged out from my closet as ‘Xboxes that used to be Xboxes but are now just PCs, I guess‘ weren’t supported for the preview program, things were silky smooth. As per usual, I prioritise frames over textures, so I can’t wait to bump things up to 60 frames-per-second and beyond over on a PC.

Or, really, I’m happy to wait until Forza Horizon 6‘s eventual PS5 release and play things over on my (newly more expensive if I had bought it in the last couple weeks) PS5 Pro. Like I’ve stated, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with Forza Horizon 6 — it’s the high level of quality that we’ve come to expect from Playground Games releases — but I’m a little burnt out by it all.

This is the same, polished experience that you’ve driven through in the USA, Europe, Australia, and the UK, now in Japan. You’ll know if that’s a reason to jump in from day one (or pay even more to jump in ahead of day one) or not.

Forza Horizon 6 heads to Windows PC via Steam and the Microsoft Store, alongside Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, Xbox Cloud Gaming, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, and PC Game Pass from 19 May 2026. Those who pay a mind-blowing expensive premium anywhere between $80 to $94.95 AUD, depending on whether or not you already pay for Xbox Game Pass, can play four whole days earlier.