After having tried a little Forza Horizon 6 I’m literally counting the days until its release next month. It’s one of my favorite franchises of all time, but while we wait for the latest and greatest, why not take a look where we started?
That, of course, was the original. Force Horizonreleased exclusively in the Xbox 360 in October 2012. That makes 14 years of this, Xbox’s 25th anniversary. I have to tell you that it still holds up today.
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This is as comprehensive a look at the beginnings of the franchise as you can find, tying up the game with the background of how it came to be.
Forza Horizon was born when the then newly formed yard games partnered with Turn 10 to expand the Forza franchise beyond the motorsports titles that had been produced up to that point.
Gavin Raeburn, formerly of Codemasters and responsible for some of my favorite racing games of all time, was at the helm. In a recent interview with Forbesrecalled how Forza Horizon finally came to be.
“So those games that were delivered every two years, like Forza Motorsport, were now being told, well, you have to release them every year. There’s no way the Forza Motorsport team could do that. So that was the reason they were looking for a second team. That said, at the time, they didn’t really know what they wanted for that second project. That was up to us to decide and propose.”
The rest, as they say, is history. For many years, Forza Horizon was the tok of the Forza Motorsport tik. Annual releases alternating between the two. That eventually came to an end, the latter being rebooted and, for now, shelved.
Forza Horizon 6 arrives after the longest wait between entries in the franchise to date. While the original was developed in a couple of years, we’re closing in on five since Forza Horizon 5 launched. But the scale has now increased significantly.
The first game took us to Colorado in the United States, and although it seems limited in scope compared to the epic we’re waiting for, the DNA of Forza Horizon has never changed. A sprawling open world, poster-worthy cars, wild racing, and plenty of side missions to complete.
However, despite its age, it is still a very fun game. It also looks absolutely stunning. Seriously, it’s a reminder of how impressive both sides of the Forza franchise have always been with their attention to detail.
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Unfortunately, if you don’t already own Forza Horizon, your only way to get a copy now is to find a used disc. It can be played with backwards compatibility on current Xbox Series consoles, but thanks to the wonderful world of licensing, it is no longer available to purchase digitally.
Which is a shame, because there will be many current players who never got to experience it. While the original has been far surpassed in almost every way, it’s important to remember its long-term impact.
All subsequent games were based on this formula in some way, but the core experience that makes the franchise so good has prevailed over the years.
If you have your own Forza Horizon memories to share, whether from the original or any other in the franchise, be sure to share them with me in the comments below!
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