I've played Forza Horizon 6 and it could be the best arcade racer of all time

No-one does an open-world arcade racer quite like the Forza Horizon devs.

Forza Horizon 5 is arguably the greatest game in the genre ever and there's a lot of expectation on Playground Games and Xbox on the upcoming Forza Horizon 6.

But take everything you know and love about Forza Horizon 5, refine it, set the game in Japan and add in a jaw dropping version of Tokyo which allows for superb street racing?

And we might have something even better on our hands.

I've played the digital preview build of Forza Horizon 6 on Xbox Series S with a code provided by Xbox.

Forza Horizon 6 is set in Japan / Playground Games, Xbox Game Studios

The preview build consisted of the prologue plus the first round of Horizon qualifier races, featuring road racing, off-road sprints and time trials, and free roaming the open world.

To note, this build was locked in a quality mode at what seemed to be 1440p at 30fps on Series S.

Forza Horizon 6 starts out by teasing you with its absolutely stunning open-world recreation of Japan and its capital Tokyo before giving you a taste of what to expect in its prologue.

Like in Forza Horizon 5, this consists of driving a handful of cars across different terrains with the world popping off around you through confetti cannons, flybys and more.

These sections offer a tantalising glimpse of the different events of what's to come and had me grinning from ear-to-ear as I thrashed a supercar through the glorious vistas or drifted my way onto huge jumps across snowy mountains.

Even in this section, it became apparent the handling immediately feels a lot more responsive and you need to be much more careful with your steering inputs - it's easier to lose control of the car.

As someone that loves the granular nature of racing, this was a bit eye-opening at first in an arcade racer but is something I've already grown to love and appreciate more throughout my playtime so far.

And another thing that immediately stands out is the sound.

Each car, even in the prologue, sounds absolutely amazing, none more so than when you're accelerating through a tunnel as fast as you can just to hear a throaty engine note.

Forza Horizon 6 looks so good visually / Playground Games, Xbox Game Studios

After the prologue and character creation, you pick one of three starter cars (which are the Toyota Celica, Nissan Silvia or GMC Jimmy 1970 with them all available in your garage at any point) before you're thrust into a race to test out a Horizon qualifier route through Tokyo's winding streets.

This is an incredibly clever move by Playground Games to give street racing its chance to shine and offer an early impression of something that's a huge addition when compared to Forza Horizon 5.

That game did have tight and twisty sections but with it being set in Mexico, focused more on sprawling expanses. In Forza Horizon 6, you still have that but then the element of proper street racing through Tokyo's streets.

And Forza Horizon 6 comes alive here.

The race takes place at night with the bright lights of the city coming alive with rain too. Even on the Series S, it's an absolute visual feast.

With it being street racing, some roads are extremely narrow with frequent sharp turns and it's an absolute joy throwing your car around the game's version of Tokyo in this way. It feels like the best parts of the classic Need for Speed games from back in the day.

Inevitably, I started getting the odd scratch on my car and this looks good too. It did start making my car look quite bear as the paint continued to be scratched off around some tight turns and rubbing other cars.

Tokyo is fantastic too. It's stunningly detailed and although there aren't any human NPCs, there's plenty of live with loads of cars whizzing around its streets.

Tokyo in Forza Horizon 6 is incredibly dense, looks fantastic and offers brilliant street racing / Playground Games, Xbox Game Studios

After this, I was let loose with the chance to roam the open world freely and compete in Horizon qualifier events at my will. I went for the qualifier events first before exploring as the Spring season started, meaning cherry blossom is plentiful in your opening experience of the game.

These races included a point-to-point road race, circuit race, off-road race and time attack.

Each one was really fun and unique in its own way - I tried out all three different cars across these events and they all felt brilliantly different in their own way, each requiring different skills to master.

It also quickly becomes apparent you have to be on top of your game to win races, small mistakes are punished which I found to my detriment on the final corner of the circuit race. Twice.

Using the rear-wheel drive, snappy Silvia, I kept drifting around that blasted final corner and lost a lot of time all the way up the main straight, which plummeted me from first to third each time.

But on the third attempt, I managed to nail the final corner, learning what I'd done wrong and trying something different, and it worked.

Each race gave me the feeling that I'd earned the win or beaten the objectives, nothing was given to me on a plate here and I really enjoyed that.

In Forza Horizon 5, in some races around the halfway mark, races could usually be wrapped up but so far, these events will have you fighting all the way to the finish.

And the open world... My word the open world. It's huge and so diverse.

Forza Horizon 6's setting is so incredibly varied / Playground Games, Xbox Game Studios

It's so distractingly beautiful and detailed that you'll easily spend hours and hours just driving around and finding all the little collectibles dotted around the map you have to drive through, like mascots that earn credits, the in-game currency, and XP signs.

It becomes addictive so quickly to go off the beaten path and just explore the game's absolutely beautiful open world. It's so varied too from the mountains around Fuji to the streets of Tokyo and everything in between that it's highly unlikely you'll ever get bored.

And in the open world, you can challenge online racers to quick head-to-head races, going from one point to another as fast as you can to see if you can beat them.

This becomes addictive too and you'll be racing people all around the open world, even outside of events.

I explored a bit and completed a handful of extras such as drift zones, trailblazer gates, speed traps and drag races and these had me grinning from ear to ear in direct contrast to the more serious Horizon events.

I've had just as good a time playing through each aspect of Forza Horizon 6 so far. And when those skill songs come on...

There's a photo mode and taking the perfect shot with iconic locations such as Mount Fuji in the backdrop is so incredibly satisfying. The radio is back but this could only be toggled on and off in the preview build.

I can't wait to see what else Forza Horizon 6 has to offer / Playground Games, Xbox Game Studios

I'll be honest, I came into this digital preview with high expectations given how good Forza Horizon 5 is.

But even these high hopes have been surpassed and then some so far. Even in this preview build, I've spent hours just enjoying Forza Horizon 6's open world, even though the missions themselves only took around an hour to complete.

Forza Horizon 6 is one of the best looking games out there even on Xbox Series S, the granular differences of each car I've driven so far are so satisfying to learn and master and the open world of Japan is on track to be the best open world in any arcade racer.

If the rest of Forza Horizon 6 can deliver up to this standard, then it will not only be the best open-world arcade racer of all time, but among the greatest games ever made too.

Forza Horizon 6 is out on Xbox Series X/S and PC on 19 May and in Early Access on 15 May.

Elsewhere from indy100:

• Fable and Forza Horizon 6 PS5 'verdicts' revealed by insider
• Forza Horizon 5 on PS5 preview: Why it could spark open-world arcade racing revival

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