Forza Horizon 6 Fans Aren't Happy About the AE86

It appears that Forza Horizon 6 is going to have a slightly subpar rendition of the revered Toyota AE86, according to pre-release marketing materials. One of Forza Horizon 6‘s biggest problems was always going to be the need to rely on certain old vehicle models because Playground Games wouldn’t have the bandwidth necessary to rework all of them up-to-spec, but the AE86 should’ve been a priority in this particular case.

Forza Horizon 6 has gone gold, and it seems that Playground Games has successfully navigated all the potential pre-release problems and misunderstandings so far. The community is largely excited about the new title, be it for its Japan setting or for its refresh of the acclaimed Forza Horizon gameplay formula, but that’s not to say there aren’t any potential problems in tow. Case in point is the fact that players spotted some pretty big problems with AE86, even if a layperson is unlikely to actually detect them in practice.

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Forza Horizon 6’s Toyota AE86 Sprinter Trueno is Still Inaccurate, But Slightly Better Than It Was

In what is sure to shock long-time fans of the franchise, Forza Horizon 6‘s Toyota AE86 is still using the old, inaccurate vehicle model even now that the series has gone to Japan. Nowhere is this illustrated better than in a handy gif posted by Martin_Sandman on Reddit, where they managed to get an almost perfect angle of comparison with the real deal. Forza Horizon 6 keeps looking better in most ways, but the AE86 is a sore spot for many long-time players due to how long it’s been since Playground Games did anything with the model. Even in Horizon 6, it’s still going to be oddly proportioned and with mismatched light modules, although the prior games’ issue with droopy flip lights appears to have been fixed.

It’s a nitpicky thing to worry about in a game the size of Forza Horizon 6, but there’s a point to be made that Playground Games needed to do better with this one specific model now that the festival is moving to Japan. The AE86 is an iconic piece of Japanese automotive and anime history, and the community was always going to focus on its Horizon 6 rendition. It’s likely that Playground Games couldn’t get their hands on a proper model of the vehicle for a laser-scan refresh. At the same time, showing it off next to a totally revised and improved upon Mazda RX-7 just makes its problems that much more noticeable.

What makes this particularly egregious is that prior communication from Turn 10 suggests it is virtually impossible to replace car models in a Forza game that’s already been shipped. This means the player base is stuck with a subpar version of the AE86 for a Forza Horizon game in Japan, as far as anyone is aware. This could obviously be outdated or otherwise inaccurate information, but odds are that Playground would ship an improved model of the AE86 on day one if this was at all possible, and it seems not to be. That makes for the second car availability and accuracy problem we’ve seen in the game so far. The first was the fact that one of Forza Horizon‘s title cars is missing from the roster, if Forza Horizon 6 loyalty rewards are to be believed.

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On top of inaccurate and missing cars, there’s also the return of the Auction House in Forza Horizon 6. This isn’t an issue in and of itself by any stretch, but it might affect the game’s economy in some unexpected and negative ways, so the community will have to see how it pans out in practice. Forza Horizon 6 doesn’t have any real, experience-defining problems to speak of at this point, but it’s not going to be the ultimate racing game either. The good news about missing cars, at least, is that they can easily be added to the roster via post-launch releases. As for the AE86, however, the players may well be stuck with it.