Forza Horizon 6’s ‘Gundam’ race celebrates an important part of Japan’s culture

When Playground Games decided to set Forza Horizon 6 in Japan, the studio quietly committed to making the setting feel authentically Japanese. Icons like the famous sakura trees, traditional Japanese gates torii, Mount Fuji, and the Hachiko statue outside the exit of the Shibuya station were all expected as part of a game that portrays the country’s nature and culture. But a 100-foot-tall mecha?

“Mech My Day” is one of the first mandatory races in Forza Horizon 6‘s campaign. In it, you drive a 2022 Acura NSX and race through the countryside against a giant humanoid robot called Chaser Zero (note: not a Gundam). Mechas are cool, but aren’t exactly “realistic” in the way most racing games are (or at least pretend to be). Even Forza Horizon, with its penchant for dropping cars out of cargo places and setting up races against bullet trains, hasn’t pulled a stunt like this before.

For most of the race, Chaser Zero skates beside you using wheels under its feet, but it also walks in the ocean, jumps over you, uses its boosters, and at one point even hangs itself from Tokyo Tower using a grappling hook. The 2022 Acura NSX is likely one of the fastest cars you’ll have driven up to that point in the game, but you still can’t compete with Chaser Zero. Your victory only comes due to a malfunction in Chaser’s system, making the giant robot stop a few meters from the finish line. However, it’s important to remember the wise words of Dominic Toretto: “It don’t matter if you win by an inch or a mile. Winning is winning.”

The race feels out of place even for a racing game that’s not that interested in being realistic. Forza Horizon 6 sometimes veers into silliness, as you smash cute food-themed mascots with your car. Nevertheless, these are brief detours in a grounded game about the experience of Japan’s automotive culture. However, in a not-so-subtle gesture, Playground Games shows that pop culture and technology are part of Japan’s identity.

As a half-Japanese Brazilian, giant robots remind me of Japan as much as a photo of Mount Fuji does. I grew up watching live-action shows called tokusatsu like Jaspion, where the protagonists, besides wearing cool armor, could also control giant robots. Later, I was introduced to animes like Gundam Wing and Patlabor reinforced the connection between these machines and Japan for me.

While my personal experience with Japanese giant robots begins in the early 1990s in Brazil, we can trace their presence in Japanese culture much further back. In 1963, the show Tetsujin 28-go featured a kid controlling a giant robot. The tradition of live-action shows with giant robots began with the 1978 Japanese adaptation of Spider-Man, in which the spaceship Marveller transformed into the robot Leopardon. Since then, these metallic goliaths have populated pop culture in many forms.

Chaser Zero is not designed after a specific character, but it is impossible to avoid comparing it to a Gundam, Eureka Seven‘s Nirvash typeZERO, or one of the Macross mechas. Its long shoulder pieces, red-and-white paint job, and high-octane leg boosters are classic elements that make Chaser Zero feel familiar to any mecha fan. At the same time, it references more than just Japanese mecha history.

When Chaser Zero jumps from the water back to the island, it flies over you with its arms stretched backwards, hands pointing outward, and its left knee raised. What might appear as a failed attempt at a ballet pose in midair is actually an unapologetic reference to Sailor Moon. The manga written and illustrated by Naoko Takeuchi in 1991 tells the story of a group of magical girls, and its anime adaptation constitutes part of the current general understanding of Japan’s 1990s pop aesthetic.

At another moment during the race, Chaser Zero slides on the floor in front of you to pass under an elevated road. The movement and the scene composition evoke the classic bike slide scene from the 1988 animated movie Akira, which tells a story about motorcycle gangs, psycho kids, and government secrets in a futuristic Tokyo. While a mecha is not a motorcycle, we are still watching this futuristic vehicle stylishly sliding through the streets of Japan’s capital.

While dropping these references, the “Mech My Day” race also subtly praises Japan’s technology. In one of the final slow-motion scenes in the race, your car (an Acura, Honda’s premium line of vehicles) emerges from a tunnel, followed by Chaser Zero on the left and a Shinkansen bullet train on the right. Playground Games placed, within the same scene, different forms that technology takes in Japan’s culture, from reality to fiction.

Image: Playground Games/Xbox Game Studios via Polygon

There may be many other references and details that I wasn’t able to catch. Even so, the convergence of these many elements, represented through the body movements of a giant robot and the scene compositions, was a feast for me. It made an exaggerated, nonsensical idea to feel like a mix of personal nostalgia trip and anthropological glimpse into a culture that feels subtly my own, turning a silly race into an awesome moment.