Forza Horizon 6 brings the open-world car racing franchise to Japan and it is a winner

The Japanese concept of kaizen – continuous improvement – could be used to describe the evolution of the Forza Horizon franchise. It is a series that began with a simple concept. Playground Games wanted to build an open-world racer that was truer to life than its peers using the ForzaTech engine.

It offered the realism of a sim but livened the genre’s cold edges with a vibrant environment full of activities celebrating car culture. Since then, Playground Games has taken on the kaizen ethos, continually improving every facet of the series. It has gone from an amusing spin-off to a Microsoft tentpole franchise and game of the year winner, a rarity for a racing game.

Forza Horizon 6 brings the series to Japan. It is a destination that fans have been clamouring for, given how the nation has developed its own car culture through anime such as Initial D and aftermarket customisation.

Japan has racetracks and street courses featured in video games, but rarely, if ever, has the country been part of a car-centric open world.

Players again take on the role of the star driver in the Horizon Festival. The structure is split into two parts. Players can enter contests and earn points towards a Showcase race, which is essentially a boss confrontation. The wild events are spectacles that show off the developers’ creativity as players race planes and a giant robot that stretches the boundaries of realism.

Organisers reward players with a new wristband for each Showcase victory, which opens up more events that require faster and more expensive vehicles. It keeps going until players earn the gold wristband and become a Horizon Legend.