We've already addressed the 20th Anniversary update for Forza Motorsport (2023) that includes the return of Fujimi Kaido. We never really stopped and took a moment to focus on the actual anniversary of the series properly. The original Forza Motorsport was released on May 5, 2005, for the original Xbox, so this post comes a handful of days late for the actual anniversary, and for that we are sorry.
I would like to have a video montage of all the games from the series but I don't have clips readily available and I don't have clips of my own from the original 2005 title so I'll link to someone else's video, in this case from a channel called TheBoss Gaming.
I personally played racing games long before Forza Motorsport, but never actually got into Forza Motorsport until Forza Motorsport 2 on the Xbox 360. Looking back, I deeply regret not having actually played the original. I later (much later) bought a used copy of the original but by then we were well into Xbox One and my old Xbox was around but not hooked up, so I have it but haven't had the honor of playing it.
Prior to my time with Forza Motorsport 2, my racing game experiences have been varying degrees of arcadey. Typically we're talking about stuff like Mario Kart, F-Zero, Ridge Racer, Need for Speed, and that sort of thing. The first time I tried Gran Turismo was GT3 and I was thrown off by the driving physics, as they were wildly different from what I was used to. The same happened when I tried Forza Motorsport 2. At the time of FM2, I was dabbling with Project Gotham Racing, which is an arcade racer, but at that time leaned relatively more real than most of the games I had been playing, which got me interested in revisiting FM2.
Upon returning to FM2 for a second chance, willing to adapt to more realistic car behavior, like actually having to slow way down for turns, I was hooked. I appreciated the nuances of different car characteristics and actually driving a vehicle around a race track, rather than driving car-shaped objects at high speeds and wondering why there's even an option to brake. Yes, from the perspective of someone that plays sims like iRacing, Gran Turismo and Forza Motorsport aren't sims, but they're relatively sim-y compared to 99% of racing games on the market. A kid that's only ever played Need for Speed would probably hop into GT or FM and swear it's a sim.
The games haven't always been perfect, but they've always been great, and I want to thank Turn 10 and the Forza series for twenty years of awesomeness.
In Forza Motorsport (2023) there are currently events and unlockables celebrating the past twenty years. The Spirit of Motorsport Tour has races featuring the games' cover cars, and completing them unlocks racing suits themed around each Forza Motorsport from the original to present. Completing all of them unlocks a new-to-Motorsport 2022 Acura NSX Type S.
Thank you again, Forza, and here's hoping for another twenty years!
