Forza Horizon 6 Review: Japan, the New Arcade Racing Eldorado - IGN France's Analysis

After a detour through Mexico, Playground Games' saga makes a stop in Japan. Forza Horizon 6 brings back the well-honed recipe of its predecessors, but is simply transferring the formula onto a map inspired by the Japanese archipelago really enough to kickstart the franchise again? Let's see what IGN France's journalist thinks of it.

From the very first kilometers, the new map impresses, he tells us. Between the neon lights of a fictional Tokyo, coastal roads whipped by sea spray, and hairpin turns drowned under cherry blossoms, the level design calls out for a journey. The density of the map, rightly highlighted, deserves a mention here: less spread out than that of Horizon 5, but more vertical and above all designed for drifting, with a multitude of mountain roads that clearly winks at Initial D aficionados. The handling with the controller is reminiscent of Horizon: it's fun, snappy, and scalable through a host of driving assists. The new wet surface system, combined with more dynamic weather, truly shakes up competitive play. On wet asphalt, a Supra and an RX-7 no longer behave the same way at all, while mastering racing lines becomes a real balancing act. That said, the Drivatar AI still recycles some of its old flaws, oscillating between erratic behavior and a pack that's sometimes too aggressive on higher difficulty levels.

Technically, the engine still delivers. 4K, whether in the nighttime lighting of an urban district, in the reflection off a car's bodywork, or in the detail of the vegetation, is a real punch to the face every time, given how huge the gap is compared to the previous installment, aside from extreme weather conditions. The soundtrack mixes, as usual, pop, electro, and hip-hop, but also a selection of J-pop and city pop that fits perfectly with nighttime runs. Engine sounds have gained in intensity, and Japanese car lines are instantly recognizable.

On the content side, Forza Horizon 6 hardly disappoints according to IGN: a gargantuan car collection awaits you, a flood of events, a more scripted main campaign, and multiplayer modes that are already solid at launch. The journalist would have liked the festival to reinvent itself a bit more in depth, though it's admittedly hard to complain about such a generous automotive sandbox.