Up next on the Forza Horizon World Tour is a place filled with rich history. And an even richer cultural background. Tradition blends exceptionally well with the modern worldview, whether it’s the environment or the cars available on the terrain. For the first timers, it sounds like a riveting experience. For the returning players, it feels like a trip down a familiar path even if they’ve never been to the place at all.

When Playground Games announced Forza Horizon 6, I just knew that I needed to play it for a variety of reasons. From the trailer alone, there are things to be excited about, especially with how they will carry over the Horizon system of gameplay to a more car-centric cultural location in Tokyo. The driving, the cars, the sights, and even a preview of the Horizon events — all these are gearing up for a grand release on May 19.

And the special preview from Xbox alone has already surpassed initial expectations in my book!

Hot like rising sun

Right off the bat, the game wows you with the breathtaking scenery and the equally cool-looking cars to match. Even as someone who has never been to Japan in this life, I felt that they perfectly captured the hustle and bustle of Tokyo. Including highly visited tourist spots. The developers wanted to reflect a more realistic feel of the city. And I appreciate that a lot.

As you immediately jump into action, the familiar mechanics start kicking in. Simply put, Forza Horizon 6 didn’t change too much in terms of how you play — from the controls in races to the customization. If anything, they mostly applied clarifications to previous descriptions of existing mechanics. Furthermore, real-world feel for the cars still exists especially when you take cars only meant for city driving off-road and into harsh areas.

Of course, the Forza Horizon experience wouldn’t be complete without the free-driving across an entirely vast area, exploring nooks and crannies and engaging in all the quests. Similar to previous releases, the Horizon events were tailored referencing car culture in the country they roll in, which they nailed even in this preview. Also, they added even more breakable elements to collect and work towards potentially earning more cars, spendable credits, or other cosmetics.

Exploring Tokyo with ease

Even with keeping things roughly the same in game feel, Forza Horizon 6 felt substantially different, catering to both new and returning players. For starters, they divided the entire map of Tokyo into their own regions, each with a designated checklist. Instead of aimlessly wandering about the roads, you actually get an idea of what you should be looking for this time.

Second, remember ANNA, your guide to Horizon? Well, she got several significant upgrades that help out content creators immensely. One of which is adding in a Drone Mode. This allows exploration without driving and can help with video recordings on Xbox. The other is having a dedicated Auto Drive Mode. It takes inspiration from Waymo and Tesla in driving routes for you. Though, I still think that they need to work on the automatic driving just a bit. Sometimes the cars would just take the weirdest routes to get to your destination.

Finally, though there wasn’t access to the Buy and Sell market in the preview, you could get other cars in the overworld called Aftermarket Cars. These basically replaced Forza Horizon 5‘s car barn-hunting by basically just showing you the car, and it’s sold at a much lower rate. I love that some of these cars truly represent some of the more famous brands in Japan, both for casual travel and intense races. Hopefully they add a lot more in the final build, especially vintage Japanese car models!

A furious Tokyo drift over the horizon

So far, Forza Horizon 6 promises to be another exhilarating edition of a franchise that prides itself in celebrating car culture to the fullest. Playground Games kept everything mostly intact for overall gameplay yet fully poured in the effort to perfect the environments and activities well. It’s obvious that they did justice to Tokyo as a whole, to the point that even someone who hasn’t been there will enjoy the experience very much.

Hopefully, they continue to work on some of the wonky mechanics like Auto Drive and apply a deeper integration of the four seasons into accessible events. Also, it would help out immensely if players get better rewards for clearing all the hazards – similar to what was present in previous games. Overall, there are a ton of things to be excited about with Forza Horizon 6 when it finally gets released on May 19 for the Xbox Series X|S, Steam, and as a Day One Release for Xbox Game Pass subscribers.

So, time to dust off those racing wheels and, maybe, hold off on booking that flight to Tokyo for now!