Forza Horizon 6 Review: The Next Racing Royalty?

This Forza Horizon 6 review is dedicated for newcomers to the franchise as much as it is for all long-time fans out there who’ve been begging for a series entry set in the gorgeous country of Japan. Famous for its global, passion-driven JDM scene, it’s practically the perfect backdrop for anything related to car tuning, drifting, and street racing.

At long last, the wait is finally over. The open-world arcade racing king has returned as Playground Games, with support from Turn 10 Studios, takes us to a stunning recreation of Japan in Forza Horizon 6. 

Published by Xbox Game Studios, this absolute beauty launched on May 19, 2026, for Xbox Series X/S and PC on Steam and the Microsoft Store. If you are a subscriber, you can play on day one with Xbox Game Pass or PC Game Pass.

You can grab the Standard edition for $69.99, Deluxe for $99.99, or Premium for $119.99. If you use Game Pass, the $59.99 Premium Upgrade lets you jump in early and get the pre-tuned Ferrari J50 pre-order bonus.

As you can see, it’s a bona fide AAA release price and hype-wise, but can it really be considered a worthy purchase and a true successor to the beloved franchise? In this Forza Horizon 6 review, I’ll go over everything you need to know: the gameplay, the massive Tokyo map, the car roster, performance, and overall community feedback – just to see if it lives up to the massive expectations as its predecessors once did.

TL;DR – Forza Horizon 6 Overview

IN STOCK

EXCLUSIVE DEAL

Forza Horizon 6

PUBLISHER$69.99

YOUR PRICE FROM$58.74

★★★★★

DISCOUNT-16%

Shop on Eneba

What’s So Interesting About Forza Horizon 6 Anyway?

In this game, your journey begins as an eager tourist landing in the middle of the Horizon Festival’s most ambitious destination yet. This entry takes us to Japan (the largest map in franchise history), where you’ll be able to cruise through dense, neon-lit city streets, slide down steep mountain serpentines Initial D-style, or race past cherry blossoms and snowy winter landscapes. 

Basically, your main goal in the campaign is to secure a spot in the Horizon Invitational. You’ll start as a simple rookie driver, working your way up the Wristband ranks to earn the title of Horizon Legend. Doing this eventually unlocks Legend Island, a special endgame paradise reserved for the most skilled racers in the game.

Throughout my playthrough, I enjoyed collecting stunning homes across Japan with big garages to store my favorite rides. I was also able to design my own layouts in the Estate – a mountain valley sandbox – or jump into CoLab, the upgraded multiplayer-focused evolution of EventLab, to create wild custom events with my friends. Very nice to see the devs mix things up even with the tried-and-tested.

Now, to be clear, even with these amazing new mechanics, this is still an arcade-style open-world racing sandbox. It borrows some realistic physics elements from Turn 10, but it’s not a hardcore track simulator like Forza Motorsport or Gran Turismo. You don’t have to worry about a rigid career mode either. The classic FH loop is fully intact: you get to drive what you want, when you want.

As the fourteenth installment in the wider franchise, this title sits proudly atop the Forza Horizon series collection. It builds directly on the foundations of its predecessors in Mexico and the UK, with Tokyo being the main attraction. The developers built a massive city space that is five times larger than any city in previous games.

It was a blast exploring legendary locations like Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo Tower, and Ginko Avenue. As a huge Initial D mark growing up, I had a smile across my face the whole time I skidded uncontrollably all over Mount Haruna, trying to replicate Takumi’s tofu delivery skills with my very own Panda Trueno AE86.

To be clear, I legitimately sucked at drifting and hitting my apexes on Tokyo Xtreme Racer, Forza Horizon 5, Need for Speed: Heat – hell, practically every single awesome racing game I’ve ever played, but it didn’t matter here. I was having too much fun taking in the scenery and re-learning the mechanics to care.

To make sure the game felt authentic, art director Don Arceta and cultural consultant Kyoko Yamashita took a deep-dive research trip to Japan, and, by golly, did they hit the mark. They focused heavily on capturing the true spirit of local car culture, featuring authentic Touge Battles and car meets at Daikoku.

The entire campaign is playable solo, but online play makes it much better. Although, keep in mind that playing online multiplayer on a console requires an Xbox subscription that supports online play. 

If you want to play day one via the subscription library, checking out options for Forza Horizon 6 Game Pass access on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass is your best bet because they bundle both the game (Day 1 access to new games) and multiplayer access. If you want to purchase the game outright, an Xbox Game Pass Essential subscription is perfectly sufficient to get you online racing with your friends.

If you want to knock the price down for the full game, pick up your copy on Eneba via the Forza Horizon 6 hub, or – if you’d rather pay $10 to $15/month than $69.99 upfront – grab an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate key instead.

Burning Rubber from Tokyo to the Touge: How Forza Horizon 6 Plays

One very important thing I have to give the game credit for in my Forza Horizon 6 review is that it makes no secrets about its identity. It sits firmly on the arcade side of racing and pure fun over realistic simulator physics.

The new setting brings incredible Japan-specific events. The Touge (Mountain Pass) Battles introduce technical, narrow mountain-pass duels where you slide through serpentine roads. It’s the most exciting addition to the franchise since weather seasons. I also love Daikoku, a legendary social hub where you can meet other drivers, show off your latest builds, and challenge rivals in a more intimate setting than the massive festival grounds.

Tokyo itself is a massive achievement. The developers built an urban area five times larger than any city in past games. You can speed through Shibuya Crossing, cruise past Tokyo Tower, or tear down Ginko Avenue. 

This massive city layout uses elevated highway designs inspired by the prior Hot Wheels expansion, surrounded by neon lights, quiet suburbs, and industrial docks. When you drive from the cockpit view, the new 540-degree wheel rotation and upgraded steering animations make the cabin feel remarkably realistic.

And, of course, the car selection is massive. You can collect classic JDM icons like Skylines, Supras, NSXs, and RX-7s alongside high-end hypercars and muscle cars. You can search for rare Aftermarket Cars through dedicated dealers, or look for modified Forza Edition cars hidden in the wild. If you buy the Deluxe or Premium version, the Car Pass lands 30 extra rides in your garage, with one car dropping every week starting May 19.

For creators, the old EventLab evolved into CoLab. Now, you can build custom tracks anywhere in the world alongside your friends in real-time. You can also customize your personal homes and garages across Japan, so you can show off your collection. VIP members get a massive Tokyo house for free, while others can save up credits to buy it.

Handling is great, but not perfect. Cars still oversteer quite easily, much like in Forza Horizon 5. Turn 10 helped tune the physics, sure, but true to its roots, this is still a loose, high-speed arcade racer.

For accessibility, the developers added a high-contrast mode, a proximity radar, and sign language support. These features make this a highly approachable racer, which is always a wholesome bonus. Add in the gorgeous dynamic seasons – like cherry blossoms during Sakura season and deep snow in winter – and Japan feels incredibly alive and welcoming.

The JDM Lifestyle: Progression, Story, and Atmosphere

This wouldn’t be a complete and truthful Forza Horizon 6 review if I didn’t say this upfront: Forza Horizon games are just not story-focused, and this one’s no different. You won’t find deep, cinematic plotlines or tear-jerking character arcs here. If you come into this looking for something heavy on narrative, like Need For Speed: Most Wanted, you’d likely find the plot pretty thin and somewhat cookie-cutter. 

BUT if you compare it to other open-world arcade racers, I’d still argue that the Festival structure gives you a fantastic sense of progression. This game is a vibrant celebration of cars, music, and Japanese culture, not a dialogue-heavy role-playing game.

Your personal journey starts the moment you step off the plane as a simple tourist. During this early phase, you get a feel for the stunning landscape, learn the basic driving controls, and get keys to your very first cars. It is all about the joy of discovery. Before long, you enter the Horizon Invitational. This serves as the big qualifier where you have to prove your skills. Once you pass this test, you officially join the Festival as a rookie driver, and that’s where the real fun begins.

From there, you climb through the Festival Wristband ranks by taking part in races, stunts, and special challenges. Every single tier you unlock opens up faster rides, cool houses, and exclusive festival zones. At the very top of this ladder lies the Horizon Legend status. Reaching this rank unlocks Legend Island, which is a massive endgame area built specifically for the best drivers. It’s easily the most rewarding endgame structure we have seen in the franchise so far.

Along the way, you don’t just race against nameless AI. You also encounter the Legends of the Horizon Festival. These are special, themed character arcs that focus on fictional drivers. Each driver represents a unique corner of Japanese car culture. You will meet drift masters, JDM tuning enthusiasts, classic car restoration experts, and mountain pass racers. They act as your guides, and they give the festival a much more personal feel.

The new Touge Battles have their own cool narrative thread, too. This mountain pass racing mode is wrapped in a story about Japan’s real-world street racing subculture, and you’ll have to go head-to-head with specific NPC rivals who rule these winding mountain roads. When you want to take a break from racing, you can head over to the Daikoku car meets. 

These social spaces act as the perfect hangout spots. You can park your favorite builds, show off your custom paint jobs, and chat with other players. It captures a side of Japanese car culture that prior games missed completely.

The beautiful setting I’ve probably glazed one too many times in this Forza Horizon 6 review by now is a stylized tribute to Japan rather than a literal, street-by-street map copy. As I mentioned before, art director Don Arceta and cultural consultant Kyoko Yamashita spent a lot of time on research trips to make sure they captured the true cultural spirit of the country, and it shows.

The audio design plays a massive part in that atmosphere. The soundtrack is incredible, and it features a mix of energetic Japanese tracks with rock and electronic music (no Eurobeat is my only gripe). Aside from that, the car sounds are a massive highlight. The developers spent a lot of time on authentic engine audio, and every throttle blip, turbo hiss, and exhaust crackle sounds incredibly realistic.

Is Forza Horizon 6 Worth It? Editions, Game Pass & Value

Now, this Forza Horizon 6 review finally gets to answer the question most of you here are probably asking – is Forza Horizon 6 worth it? To help you decide, you’d have to look at how much gaming bang you get for your hard-earned bucks.

This is one of those rare giant game releases where using a subscription service is wildly cheaper than buying a game key outright, especially for your first month of play. A standard retail box costs you $69.99, but you can jump in on day one with an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate key on Eneba for a tiny fraction of that cost.

You have five distinct buying paths depending on your budget, hardware, and how deep you want to go:

• Path 1 – Standard Edition ($69.99): This gets you the base game and nothing else. If you hate subscription plans and just want the core racing game forever without any extra cars or early access, this is the best way to go.
• Path 2 – Deluxe Edition ($99.99): You get the base game plus the Car Pass, which drops 30 extra cars into your garage over time. It also includes the Welcome Pack with five pre-tuned cars to start your career fast.
• Path 3 – Premium Edition ($119.99): This is the ultimate package for hardcore racers. It includes Deluxe content, four days of early access, two future expansions, and a VIP Membership that doubles your in-game credits while gifting you a beautiful Tokyo City House for free.
• Path 4 – Xbox Game Pass Ultimate ($22.99 / month): The best way to go for console-first players. It grants full day-one access to the base game library on May 19, 2026, alongside native cloud streaming and online multiplayer functionality on Xbox Series X|S.
• Path 5 – PC Game Pass ($13.99 / month): The ultimate high-fidelity budget lane designed strictly for desktop and handheld PC players. It fully includes Forza Horizon 6 on day one through the Microsoft Store app and is highly efficient for PC gamers, though keep in mind it does not grant cross-play licensing to play on an actual Xbox console.

Just make sure you check your active subscription tier closely before launch. Under Microsoft‘s current setup, specific Forza Horizon 6 Game Pass eligibility for day one access is strictly locked to the Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass tiers. Essential and Premium tier subscribers will have to wait up to a year to play. You can easily compare these tiers and find the right option for you on the Xbox Game Pass hub.

In terms of raw playtime, you get a massive amount of content. Going through the main campaign to reach Horizon Legend status will take you around 25 to 40 hours. If you want to finish all the story missions, master every Touge Battle, and complete your collection, you can expect to put in 50 to 80 hours. 

For completionists, building your own tracks in CoLab and unlocking every corner of Legend Island can easily extend your playtime past 150 hours. The developers plan to keep the game fresh with years of seasonal updates, meaning you can keep driving indefinitely.

Now, if you own a PlayStation 5, you’ll need to decide if waiting is the smart move. There is no official PS5 release date yet, only a promise that the port is coming later this year. 

If you have a decent gaming PC, you’re honestly better off grabbing the PC version on Steam or getting on the PC Game Pass right now rather than waiting six months or more. If you want to wait for a sale on the Microsoft Store, history tells us that prices usually drop by 10% to 30% within three months of launch, with the lower end being the most likely to be implemented for Forza Horizon titles.

Still, starting your journey near day one is a completely different experience. The Forza community is most active during launch week, when everyone is running the seasonal events and fighting for a spot on the leaderboard. 

If you want to skip the launch day price tag entirely but still want a massive racing experience, you can pick up Forza Horizon 5 or a Forza Horizon 5 Premium Edition (for a more complete experience) on Eneba. Both editions give you hundreds of hours of incredible racing in Mexico for a fraction of the cost of a new release.

Forza Horizon 6 Review of Platform Performance (Which Version to Buy)

Let’s talk about performance across different hardware. This Forza Horizon 6 review should give you a solid reference point regarding the absolute best visual setup for your budget. First off, all confirmed launch versions offer the core racing experience, but PC has a clear technical edge right now. 

The Xbox Series S sits on the lower end of the visual spectrum, and we are still waiting for the PS5 launch. Because of this, your choice of platform will shape how you experience the game. I included a brief Forza Horizon 6 Xbox review, where I’ll be showing you how the console versions hold up compared to the high-end PC experience. I also touch on the PC setup in my Forza Horizon 6 PC review section below, then discuss the upcoming Forza Horizon 6 PS5 release so you can plan out your purchases.

If you only play on PlayStation, you need to know that the PS5 version arrives later in 2026. Microsoft launches the game on Xbox and PC on May 19, 2026. If you have a good gaming PC, my advice is to grab it there now. You can always jump over to a console once that version drops.

• Xbox Series X: This is the console flagship. In Fidelity Mode, you get native 4K, complete with active gameplay ray-traced reflections on your car’s body. If you want buttery smooth driving, Performance Mode drops the ray tracing for dynamic 4K resolution to lock down 60 FPS.

Xbox players can grab Forza Horizon 6 on Eneba via the Forza Horizon 6 hub to start playing, but the smartest play is often Game Pass Ultimate at typical Eneba pricing of $10-15/month, which is far cheaper than the $69.99 Standard Edition.

• Xbox Series S: This version relies on dynamic 1440p scaling at 30 FPS in Fidelity Mode, and dynamic 1080p scaling at 60 FPS in Performance Mode.

It has lower-quality reflections and texture details compared to its bigger brother, but performance stays incredibly smooth because the game is optimized only for ninth-gen hardware. This works because older Xbox One hardware doesn’t hold back optimization.

• Xbox Cloud Gaming: Up to 1440p streaming. You can stream the game on phones, tablets, or browsers without owning a console. It is a solid choice for travel, but input lag means serious racers will still want native hardware.
• PC (Steam & Microsoft Store): Full graphical potential with ray-traced global illumination and reflections. This is the absolute best version if you have high-end hardware. You can hit 120+ FPS on mid-to-high-end graphics cards. It supports ultra-wide monitors and racing wheel setups perfectly, which shows off the new 540-degree wheel animations.

PC players have two purchase paths: Microsoft Store (supporting Xbox Play Anywhere cross-buy and PC Game Pass eligibility) or Steam (no cross-buy). For most PC players, PC Game Pass via the Microsoft Store is the cheapest day-one path.

• PlayStation 5 (Later in 2026): Expected to match the Xbox Series X version. It is not available at launch, and we don’t have an exact date yet. PS5-only gamers can add the game to their PlayStation Store wishlist to receive notifications of the release.

Critical Reception & Community Voice

Early Forza Horizon 6 reviews are officially out, and the gaming world is making some serious noise. I looked at the scores, and the consensus is incredibly high. Forza Horizon 6 currently holds a spectacular 92 on Metacritic for both Xbox and PC, which ties it directly with the franchise’s peak. OpenCritic matches that energy with a strong 91 score, showing that nearly ninety-six percent of critics are telling players to jump right in.

As of this writing, major outlets are absolutely raving. IGN went all in with a perfect 10, calling the game a masterpiece. Eurogamer and VGC also dropped their maximum 5/5 scores, praising how the return of the classic wristband system gives you a focused, incredibly rewarding sense of progression. On the other hand, a few other reviewers are playing it a bit safer. 

GameSpot gave it an 8, calling it a great virtual vacation but noting that the racing doesn’t take many massive risks. Gamereactor UK landed as the main outlier at 70, arguing that the familiar formula feels too similar if you’ve already spent hundreds of hours in Mexico.

What about the community, though? Well, although early players on Steam are drooling over the beautiful mountain scenery, some complaints are popping up online. 

Chatter on Reddit is more or less the same, with some venting about either the expensive Premium Edition price tag or the major 155 GB unencrypted pre-release leak that allowed pirates to access a cracked build days before the official early access window even opened, plus some seasoned drift fans find the new Touge Battles slightly simplified compared to real-world mountain pass runs. 

Others also note that the custom garage building tools feel a bit clunky, as aligning track pieces is a bit of a headache. Still, if you want a beautiful showcase of next-gen hardware, this easily outshines its most recent rivals like Need for Speed Unbound or The Crew Motorfest.

My Overall Verdict on Forza Horizon 6: Same Old Formula, But Better (If It Ain’t Broke…)

I can confidently say that taking the festival to Japan is the best decision Playground Games has made in years. My Forza Horizon 6 review and the overall critical reception backs this up perfectly. So, if you want a visually stunning open-world racer that pushes your modern hardware to its absolute limit, this is the ride to get.

The sheer scale of Tokyo, the technical challenge of the Touge mountain runs, and the deep JDM roster make this a massive, highly rewarding playground. Having Turn 10 tune the physics helps a lot, even if the drift-heavy oversteer remains a slight annoyance from past games. 

What makes the package so appealing is the sheer value. Because you can jump in on day one with a subscription, you won’t have to buy the seventy-dollar box upfront. If you have a high-end PC, you get the absolute visual peak with ray-traced lighting, while Series X owners get a gorgeous, stable console experience.

To round up my Forza Horizon 6 review, here’s my direct breakdown of this game’s highs and lows:

In a nutshell, I think Forza Horizon 6 is…

• Great for → Forza fans who put hundreds of hours into past games; anyone obsessed with Japanese car culture and JDM legends; Game Pass Ultimate subscribers who want high-value gaming; PC players with top-tier hardware; groups of friends who love cruising and designing custom tracks together.
• Less ideal for → PlayStation 5 players who don’t want to wait months for a port; track purists looking for realistic simulator physics; Game Pass Essential and Game Pass Premium members, since the game is not included; players suffering from open-world racing fatigue wanting a complete genre reboot; budget-conscious newcomers (you can buy the much cheaper Forza Horizon 5 that delivers 100+ hours at a fraction of the price).

Playground Games actually listened to us, and they listened well. They took our biggest wish and built a neon-soaked JDM paradise that absolutely slaps. Forza Horizon 6 doesn’t totally reinvent the wheel, but when that wheel is attached to a gorgeously rendered orange-and-black RX-7 screaming down a mountain pass in Japan – trust me, you won’t care.