I thought I’d do something low effort fun this time around with an article, but I’ve got a fair amount of trepidation sharing it. When it comes to something like this (what I recommend you play/watch if you’re specifically waiting for Forza Horizon 6 set in Japan), I think I might have some people sad that I didn’t recommend a few other titles.

In the end this is just a mix of games I love, like Need For Speed Underground 2, Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition Remix, F&F Tokyo Drift and so on.

I’m so excited for Horizon 6. I get the impression it’ll be like the previous few: I go into it hyped and then after a month I realize it has the same format as all the others. But the idea of drifting without a care is keeping me happy for the release.

SO, if you wanna see my recommendations for what to check out before FH6 comes out, check my article out:

https://gardinerbryant.com/what-to-play-and-watch-while-waiting-for-forza-horizon-6/

  • 4 hours

    Thunderbolt (1995) is a fun racing movie if you haven’t seen it before.

    Also I love the Tokyo levels in Metropolis Street Racer and the Project Gotham Racing series so recommended those too.

    As for Forza I don’t particularly care for the series anymore so won’t bother with the new one.

  • I’ll add in Tokyo Xtreme Racer to your list. While it’s limited to Tokyo’s expressways, it does those very very well. And it features some delightful japanese jank too. Top notch game.

    Also worth mentioning are the touge battles in the original GRID. Though, dissapointingly, I couldn’t find this one for sale anywhere - you might have to source it on the seven seas.

  • 8 hours

    I really wish I could be hyped for FH6, but I doubt the bland corporate-approved Horizon series will do justice to the cool Japanese racing aesthetic. Part of the fun, IMO, is the thrill of night-time illegal races with cheap sportscars.

    Your other recommendations rock, though! I’m not a huge fun of the F&F series but I like the first few movies, and Initial D is a lot of fun. I’m going through the manga and I’m in love with the aesthetic. It’s been a hot minute since I last played NfSU2 but I remember it was incredible for its time.

    I’ll also add an OG recommendation here: Racing Lagoon. It’s an old Square Soft PS1 racing RPG (a rather unique blend) that released exclusively in Japan, but has received a fanmade translation a few years ago. It’s really dumb, but it’s fun.

    • Burnout 3/Revenge
    • Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit
    • Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec (if you want a relaxing vibe)
  • 8 hours

    A friend of mine was telling me about this game the other day. I’m not a car guy, but driving around Japan does sound kinda fun. I’m out on the Xbox Series tho and doubt my PC could run it.

    There’s gotta be plenty of other games set in a semi-realistic Japan, right? I’d be curious to hear recs, racing or not.

    • Even without being a car person, nfsu2 is a really fun casual game, it isn’t overly difficult, the AI is competent enough to be fun but not be unfair, customization let’s you just play with every part of it visually, while performance stuff keeps quite simple (stage 1, 2 or 3, and then you go to Dyno for more if you want to dive there). Also the game is in depth enough to have quite a lot to do in it

    • One of my favourite parts of gaming was the Tokyo level in Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition Remix. You’ll need a retro setup to run it haha

  • @PerfectDark Those are some really good choices. I think I loved NFS: Underground 2 the most of those by far. I really loved the customization aspect of it, but also it gave a sort of semi-open world where you could just drive around the city doing what you wanted and just enjoying the custom vehicle in general without timers and etc.

    • It always ends up being between NFSU2 and Midnight Club 3 for people, I find!

      It is crazy how these two always get the votes!