The Best Forza Horizon is: FH1 

Nothing will recreate the initial feeling of an open world Forza game and we can all appreciate a proper Need for Speed killer. I'm hoping they will remaster this someday because it will have more players than even Forza horizon 5

5:23 damn this hits hard after just seeing how good fh1 did with the race starts, incredible video with a bunch of things I’ve never noticed about fh1 , my fav thing about fh1 was the online KING mode , FH1 was the only game to have 1 king at a time , all other horizons used 2 which imo just wasn’t as fun

1000% agree. The atmosphere is better. You actually start at the bottom and not with a supercar. Bosses were corny but fun to have. As cool as the make your own events are in FH3,4,5, FH1 events feel tailored to the cars. With NFS waning at the time, FH1 hit the spot when it came out.

They got a real live DJ and festival organiser to pick the soundtrack for this game, that is why it is so good even today

I had never played FH1 and went back to play it last year and hoooly, it is so damn good. It really clears the modern Horizon by a mile, and it's definitely become my personal favourite.

This game created a vibe unrivalled not just by any other racing game, but by almost any other game full stop. Its amazing how much they could create with so little, compared to how little they can create with so much now. Imagine what we could have if someone managed to recapture the vibe and progression of this game with todays open worlds, graphics, and car lists.

FH1 just felt really...romantic, a feeling that was first seeded by GT4 for me, and FH1 took it over to a new height.

I miss Horizon Colorado 2012, it was just a simpler time. I remember I was 12 years old when this game came out and I would just come home turn on my 360 and once I started playing It felt like I got transported to the festival. All mental struggles of mine just evaporated and I loved the visuals of driving around through a place that felt like home. It had beautiful trees, buildings, sunsets and of course beautiful cars. I partied at the festival and I think we all did. Unfortunately in this universe everything has a set lifespan even the universe itself. So make every bit of your life count, make your life fun it will only come once. So my final message is make life your horizon! Goodbye.

I was 13 years old when the game game out, I still strongly believe that this was and still is the best Forza horizon game, everything down to the music, the whole festival vibe, actual bosses to beat and progression in this game. U had to be there back in the day to fully experience what this game was like, and then the online multiplayer oh man😭 this game was just perfect!

The user created lobbies specifically for online free roam was amazing. Having the abilities to set time of day, spawn location, car upgrades, performance class restrictions, and adding a title on top of it for people to join. I dont get why they dont bring it back, and why racing games dont do it more often. It created a sense of community and expanded the longevity of the game and what you could do outside of the main story. I remember just spending hours joining drift or drag racing lobbies with the occasionally cruise. Something about jumping onto online and actually interacting with players is something that lacks in Horzion.

2 main reason FH1 is actually my favorite: 1) The atmosphere is by far the most complete and vibrant 2) The sense of progression is real and satisfying. You did an amazing job explaining these points in detail, and none of the other Horizons even remotely try in these areas. It's almost a shame.

The introduction to Forza Horizon 1 as a kid felt like listening to a favourite song for the first time.

I still have the OG Horizon on my old 360 at my parents house and will play when visiting home where I don’t have my PC. It’s so much fun to go back to this game for the nostalgia trip and the different feel compared to modern Horizon games. Amazingly it still feels fresh when you’re used to Horizon 4/5. And Horizon’s soundtrack had a huge impact on the progression of my taste in music through middle school and high school. Horizon Pulse was absolute fire in this game.

Most modern games lack "World Building", which to me is where the soul of a game comes from, if the game does not have any serious "World Building" you have what I would call a game engine demo, not a game.

Horizon 1 may not be the best Horizon game but it is definitely the best Horizon Festival, it nails this aspect of the series more than every other entry. It's not the best Sandbox though as it lacks the full open-world of the others but on the other hand every area in this game feels like it belongs. There's no throwaway parts of the map with nothing to see or do which I feel is a massive asset desite the limited scale. It also had a fantastic roster of cars (especially with DLC) despite being very small compared to the latest entries in the franchise, one of the best examples of Quality vs Quantity imo. This is also the game that got me into cars and car culture, I'd played NFS and FM3 previously but none of them managed to grip me like Horizon did when it released. So many great memories from this game and it laid the foundation for where I currently am today as a person in terms of my interests. The Soundtrack is an absolute banger, I'm also biased because I spent my early teens listening to similar genres but goddamn Bass Arena in particular still slaps. Pulse is also fantastic and even XS has some great songs that continue to be in some of my playlists that I listen to regularly. Honestly comparing FH1 to FH4/5 feels like a completely different series. Even from FH3 the differences started to manifest massively but FH4 is the start of the game becoming a full-on Sandbox for people of all ages and backgrounds with no particular interest in cars required.

It's like the first time with a drug All the following hits are chasing the high

It's always sad how xbox had enough money to make remaster of fh1 on 10 years anniversary but instead gave us broken update that even forgot to place checkpoints in fh 4 initial race while also showing main menus from previous games with visible remastered models of cars that were introduced into the game few months later during random seazon.

You nailed pretty much every reason why FH1 is the best. I would add that even UI of the game has more character and the certain theme to it, instead of overly complicated tablet look in the newer games. Also I really loved the red filter of this game. It just makes it more memorable and nostalgic. Fits the summer festival theme, speaking of which, I'd rather have that back than have all the seasons that shuffle without your control. What kind of festival goes on all year anyway? The point is, it's not about summer EDM festival with cars you're gonna look back to with nostalgia anymore. Live service has ruined the fantasy and soul of gaming in my opinion. A game has to have an end to make it memorable instead of something that was dragged out way too long and made you sick of it.

What also makes FH1 better than sequels is lack of offroad. Not that offroad racing/driving is bad in itself, but maps, events and races in FH4 and 5 are forcing way too much of that.

The only damn horizon where you can get money for selling cars and those pink slip races man ❤❤❤

It’s definitely not fair how much better 80% of FH1 is better than every other horizon game. The presentation, music, progression, design, and map. Everything just feels like there was actual care and love put into the game, where as it was immediately obvious as soon as you start FH2 that all of that love and care was gone. As for the map, yeah it may be the smallest, but it’s totally the best designed and cared for too. ALSO it was stated on an Episode of Maximum Driftcast a couple years ago, but the exact idea behind gridlife was to make a real life Horizon festival.

it has been almost 10 years since i first played forza horizon 1 and i still have a crush on alice

FH1 is my favorite. I went back and played it a few years ago and it held up to my standards. Love the soundtrack too.

From the moment of opening the box and there being that pink "festival ticket" in the box, to starting it up, seeing the beautiful landscape to Porter Robinson's "Language" being played it just hit immediately. There was so much effort and passion put into this game to make you feel like you were really taking part in something that could possibly be real. The music was fantastic as well and the fact that this was before the game got ridiculous with its race types and stuck to real racing. Following Forza Motorsport 4, this is where T10 was in their stride and while I really like FH 2, it seems it lost its touch afterwards as well as the FM series. I think it's time to pop back in that disc and play through FH1 again. :)

Its by far the best. The vibe and art direction is simply amazing. Dont get me wrong I do like some of the later games (H2 and H4) however I feel FH is suffering a similar fate has the fast and the furious series. Ex: FH1 = the fast and the furious FH2 = 2 fast 2 furious FH3 = Fast 6 FH4 = Furious 7 FH5 = Fate of the furious I agree with every talking point you had one why FH1 is "the best" in the series.

Can't afford to travel to South France, so I want Forza Horizon 2 on PC

Never forget, coming home from best buy, a copy of a fh1 in my hand, dad is sleeping on the coach and I am just play and just emersed by the open world gameplay. FH1 is pretty much up there for me when it comes to racing games. The vibes that emitted from FH1 hasn't been matched since. This game was so much more than my just my childhood. Still miss playing through it. Apart from FH4's very real feeling British map which t me is the most beautiful FH map, FH1's felt the most realistic with really fun driving roads. The sound track is something I still listen to today. Every time I hear Empire of the Sun's Walking on a Dream, R U Mine? or Lonely Boy, every song fit the map and driving feel so well.

It's a realized world instead of a sandbox, and one that emphasizes all of the advantages of that approach. You can give modern games as deep a car list, as large a map or list of tracks, as much graphical fidelity, and as brilliant a handling system as is possible, but without a good story to provide the motivation to keep playing, a game can feel empty. The greatest games of all time transport you into another world with different, fantastical rules and a great rival you need to bring down. When talking about games like that, it's not just the motivation to keep playing. It's about the motivation they give a player to keep walking the path towards victory. The greatest games of all time aren't tech showcases with photorealistic graphics and 8K ass hair - they're games that possess 8 polygons total and yet still manage to build a more compelling experience than most modern games even try to. And they do it the old-school way: by telling a damn good story. Forza's Horizon series has a lot of good games, but only one good story. Hate to break it to ya Hoki, but just an episode in, and the winner is clear.

Horizon 1 story with Horizon 5 game play would be awesome

😢 Couldn't play Horizon when it hadn't turned into Festival Playlist: the game

Haven't tried any Forza game, but this is the only one that I really regret not being able to play. Yeah sure the PS3 had Motorstorm and PS4 would have DriveClub which are good but this? It's such a vibe

just a suggestion - you should totally review the two Shift games made by Slightly Mad studios. They're so obscure, niche and they flopped so hard that the internet could really re-evaluate them using the perspective of a sim racing enthusiast, even though neither of those games is a sim. Who knows, maybe you could find something worth appreciation? and regarding Shift 2, the default steering sensitivity, speed sensitivity and deadzone settings are garbo and need to be lowered

For me FH1 just feels like a complete version of the later games. It's like if someone saw all the latest forza games and tried to build an actual well thought-out game. It has progression, atmosphere and good world building, good sound design. It has everything that makes any kind of game memorable.

I really do think FH1 is the best one, compared to it all the others don't even feel like they have a campaign and I hate that. My only complaint about FH1 is that there was no car tuning. Also I miss the online car clubs and having friends be able to borrow some of my cars.

This is absolutely the best one. I’ve played and enjoyed them all. This one is absolutely incredible. Best campaign (actually has people) and best map

I love the 2013 wrx STI. Trying to do the work to be able to actually take mine to the track (and not be worried), hopefully only another year until I can put on the finishing touches. And yes I’m on my second long block lol (if you were wondering).

I agree and I'm sad that, even though I bought and played the game when it was new, I never bought the DLC and I would really like to play the Rally expansion.

I've gone back and replayed FH1 several times, it has the most enjoyable map and physics/driving feel to me. The only downside is the comparatively thin car selection. The atmosphere, soundtrack and sense of progression haven't really been matched by another title.

Man you captured all of my thoughts on Horizon 1 into one incredible video, its great to see that people still acknowledge the older forza games even to this day nearly 12 years later. Its a trip down memory lane.

This game was so beautiful. I can't put my finger on it but like the FH2 map it just felt so special. It had so much character. It always felt like you were in a dream world. I really hope in FH6 we have more beautiful roads like the canyon road. Amongst all of the things mentioned in this video such as the awesome race starts in FH1, we need 'meet up' locations drive to. I feel like the main FH5 map is just a vast expanse where you aimlessly drive around with no real place to go to. There's no proper meet up locations or dreamy driving roads to travel. We pretty much just have the festivals. We need some cool pubs, cafes, petrol stations and garages!

1 and 2 had strong personalities in their own way on top of being awesome games, the latter is my all-time favorite. 3 was really good though the festival aspect started to take a back seat. I love the intro to 4 but after that's over the spirit dies out very quickly, which to me marked the point where Horizon stopped being a game and became a live platform with little to no charisma. I deeply hate 5, even its intro is meh at best. I had some hopes we could get a return to how it was done in the first Horizon but I would be fooling myself to think it will ever happen now that the sandbox approach is their golden goose when it comes to attracting the widest audience possible. Perhaps something in the AA or indie space could move forward what Horizon 1 stands for.

You don’t have to argue when everyone agrees that FH1 is the best (especially with the mod that adds all the content)

This is the reason why I love forza horizon 1 it is one of the best forza horizon series all time and that’s why I love it

FH1 will always be the best of the series. The fact that you couldn’t customize the events forced you to have a diverse garage. The lack of proper offroading sections made you actually follow the roads instead of cross countrying everywhere like modern horizons does. And it’s the only one with a couple proper mountain roads. All of that combined with the great vibes makes it unbeatable. I even got some crazy unicorn cars through the forza forums and you felt like a real VIP because it was hard to get them, not by micro transactions or crazy auction prices, but by actually interacting with the community. I love the game.

I never played this, but the way you describe how the game is laid out, makes it seems like so much love and care was put into this. Wish the newer Horizon games had this much care put into them.

fh1 was special to me alongside fm4 cause it was kind of my gateway into the car culture of the time. one thing that REALLY helped this was the old fm4-era social features, like lobby multiplayer and the old storefront for paints and tunes. you could really get a sense of what was big at the time through interacting with the social features and it was seeing all of this creative content that made me want to dive further into the broader 2012 car scene.

Great points on how "lived-in" the Colorado world felt, and the commentary on merging sim physics with arcade game modes

I know its impartial to rate a game with nostalgia, but the memories that I have from fh1 will never be recreated. The era of time was different and the community that was established was truly alive. Nostalgia aside, the game has so much charm with a feeling that can't be matched. FH1 is not only my favorite in the series but my favorite game entirely

all you need to say is : this one has a story with a purpose.. Forza Horizon 4 and 5 just feels barren

Great video. Excited for you to cover FH2

Hi HokiHoshi, you are by far my favourite forza youtuber and i really enjoy everything you do. Something that would up my love for your channel even more though would be if you made a video explaining Forza Horizon 2 PC emulation. Thank you and keep up the amazing videos!

As a Forza racing game fan, I love all Horizons. and your videos bro!

This still has one of the best intros to any game I've ever played. The Porter Robinson track coupled with the cut scenes. It was just incredible and very nostalgic today.

I think this video is a knock out of the park, and you probably only discussed 40% of the amazing things about FH1. The online, coop challenges, realistic wheelspins, the car list, the maps specific locations, they chose neon pink and neon yellow as primary colors in the menus all for atmosphere, the fact that the true off-road section are highly limited and yet this game still feels so free. The pinnacle of any open world racing game, and it was all made for a 360. Imagine if they could’ve made this game using the One’s hardware.

Forza Horizon 1 will forever remain in my top 5 games of all time. It has sat at my #1 since I was 9 in 2014 and got my xbox 360. It is easily the best game on the 360, better than halo 3, 4, the cod golden era, anything like that. This game was what lit my love for motorsports and cars, as well as shaping my music taste from the ground up through bass arena. The one thing you didn't mention that I would have would be the car sounds. Some of them are definitely not great, but a lot of them are better than the sounds we have on the current cars, like the rx-7, and even the cars we have nothing to compare to sound great, like the gumpert apollo. Like you said, the vibe is really what makes it so special, it's unparalleled in any game I've ever played since aside from maybe mirror's edge catalyst. I genuinely feel bad for anyone who couldn't or didn't play the game in its heyday, because if someone plays it now it just won't be the same because they've probably played a game or multiple games that use the things that made horizon 1 special, so to them it'll probably be good, but just an xbox 360 game. It's gaming's greatest example, just like old halo and cod, of you had to be there to understand.

In FH1, I loved that you needed to really put in effort to get cool cars and it was always the hardest decision to choose between the cars you wanted

I’m a Colorado native and I believe this game really captures the vibe and car culture of Colorado there for even with its flaws it’s my favorite. Also helps that this game came out my senior year of high school and I remember using all of my free time to play this game haha

Just recently beat fh1 on xenia and I gotta say it was one hell of a trip!

I’ve been replaying this game for the first time in years. This game shaped who I am and what cars I love. I truly adore this game and especially the music. Dubstep peaked in the early 2010s and this game takes me back to that everytime I boot it up. What an incredible game

I guess for me it was the community....the fact I could ALWAYS go to the red rock canyons and drift until I could barely keep my eyes open with random people, no matter what lobby I was in, or what time I was on. Even heading down to the dam to see who could drift the whole thing haha.

I remember reading, years ago, an interview with one of the designers of FH1. They went to Colorado and took *tens of thousands* of images for reference when making the map. A ton of effort went into it, and it shows.

Progression. Rivals. In-game Festival atmosphere. No off-road/dirt bloat. Soundtrack. It IS the best one.

This game honestly changed the way I look at racing/driving games and I loved every minute of it, I still hop on it every now and then and it still feels amazing to drive. I really miss the online mode though, I still know all the usual "drift meet" spots were people would just gather and have a good time, drifting the same layout over and over again, tandem-ing with random strangers and showing each other the cool cars you made.

The title screen alone is enough to give me tears of nostalgia.

Fun fact: the drive you did at the end of the video in the blue Diablo is actually a recreation of the real road going through the Colorado National Monument with surprising accuracy to the actual road and environment

I need to play this game on Xenia Canary again sometime. I've definitely had more fun with this than I ever had on Horizon 5.

Nothing will ever recreate the feeling of blasting down a Colorado desert in my new hard earned GTR with skrillex blasting on the radio

I personally like fh1 physics better I think it’s because you can feel the weight and then the roads also felt more drivable like now you can just straight line everywhere and it’s more empty

When we were younger and this game came out, i told my brother that this was legit. That out in Colorado, there was a festival full of racers just dogging it out. Ofc, once he figured out that theyd never close the roads for something like this, it faded. But we still joked on with each new release how cool a festival like this would be cool

Nice. Another great video. Forza Horizon 1 is my favorite FH game, for basically all the reasons you mentioned. The progression and the feeling of being nobody who works to become somebody and characters that make the world and event feel more real. And the little details, such as the actual event sign up areas and characters in the pre-race grid, like you mentioned. With they would just remake it for modern hardware, ha ha!

i loved the game, and i've never been to Colorado before but already fell in love.

This game on a wheel is such an experience. It's literally Assetto Corsa physics but on steroids.

Horizon 1 is my favorite of the series for a lot of reasons. Amazing sound track and also I think it came out at the best time. The car scene was better back then and I also was just about to get my license so the culture was so new and exciting to me. I remember watching thatdudeinblue videos and then driving the cars in horizon and dreaming of myself owning them in the future. This game has a very special place in my heart.

What was also cool was the notification that your friend beat your pb time or top speed. I’d be playing another game then I get a notification saying my friend beat my pb so I’d boot up the game then get to work lol

There will never recreate that first time opened FH1 up too the title screen when I was 12 man, it was unreal I wish I play this game for first time over and over again it’s that damn good. Definitely in my top 10 racing games of all time.

FH4 was my first FH, but I will have to go back and play this game. Going to do it after I play through Midnight Club LA. I am on a racing game marathon.

You hit the nail on the head. I basically gave up on the series after 2- it was such a mess compared to the focus and restraint of the original I couldn’t get into it. The personality and vibe are unmatched and I look into each new game looking for it, but it’s never there. FH1 is one of the best games of that generation, and I think one of the best games ever.

Also have to add that the car sounds were so good. Better than the recent games imo

Played all the horizons except 4, so far 5 is my favorite.

I would enjoy these in a longer form btw

There are 2 influential games in my life that are responsible for thrusting me into car culture. Need for speed Underground 2 and Forza Horizon 1. NFSU2 being the first video game I ever played on my dad's OG Xbox, and FH1 being the first game I bought with my own money when I was just 13 years old. Nothing beats the grounded in reality attention to detail older games had from small things like showing Scott Tyler spinning records in the Autoshow to having separate garage and paint booth interiors. I still play FH1 on my Series X and love every second of it.

I should really set up pc emulation and play through fh1 considering how much universal praise it's gotten. Will be interesting to see the rest of this series, can't wait 🔥

U nailed all the points on why this is the best horizon. Iv been playing it again for the last 4 months and everything about it is incredible. The one thing u havnt mentioned was the car selection being the absolute best. Sure there are faster cars in the newer ones, but when u first discover the hennesy venom it was mind blowing. Also, this was the first simcade game that had motorswaps. I remember the z4 with a bigger engine was amazing to drive

I've never felt so understood. Thank you for putting it into words. Remake when?

Forza Horizon 1 is my personal favorite game in the Horizon series since it feels so lively and fun as well

This IS the best Horzion game. No clickbait at all. Starting in a VW shitbox and actually making you race and earn the cars you want. It made every car you owned feel special and that you actually worked for it. Just like TDU this made everything you did feel like an actual accomplishment. Love this game. This is my first Forza so I can tell I’m definitely biased

This game made me feel something I havent’ felt with any racing game.

11:19 I would mention one more game that would probably fit into the "more arcade" category like NfS, and that is Test Drive Unlimited 2. Really, FH1 and TDU2 are very similar in a lot of ways and their release dates are just a year apart, with TDU2 being the older of the two. Both TDU2 and FH1 were parts of my childhood and I love them both dearly.

all horizon 1 needs is tuning and better implementation of online, then it becomes one of the best games of all time. which is crazy considering it already is one of the best RACING games of all time

I wish you mentioned the rally DLC as well. Such an underrated mode that while, not accurate to the real-life event, had you blitzing through really awesome offroad tracks that challenged you to get the best time, with a co-driver who read rally notes to you. This was way before Horizon 5's Rally Adventure and far better quality imo. Such a great way to end off the best Forza games.

This will always be my favorite Horizon aside from 2 and 3 because of the time period. This was great, I loved the regular traffic cars and trying to mod them in, the fights in online lobby's, the pink slip races😂. I would be on these lobby's until 1 am Cussing out adults at 10

Man what a fun game. Got some good songs on my playlist from the radios lol

I'm glad you brought up the sign-ups booths. I miss them so much. They also made it easier to not accidentally overshoot and drive passed the race events that are now marked with a nearly invisible floating white line.

that map... that map is super small, yet it feels huge!!! I hope they bring back some restrictions for FH6, because they made the game fun.

I basically rebeat fh1 1 and a half times and i would rebeat it again if i could. Its just so fun and it feels like its got genuine substance

Can't argue with anything you said. I put sooo many hours into this game. It's my first and favorite horizon game. Horizon 2 did blow me away tho....

DEFINIETLY. Bro that was my chilchood game when i was 5 i started playing it and i loved it Until i was 9 and my console crashed and i cried so hard for so much. Even tho the last time i played was 4 years ago i still remember the whole map

The roads are actually interesting in B class. There we go, already the best map in the series (asside from maybe 2, which I haven't played)

FH1 will always be my favorite, bar none. The game dropped at a time (for me at least) where car culture was at its absolute peak. And again, maybe its just from my own perspective, but 2 weeks prior to release, i had gotten my first real car. My subaru. So not only did i finally have a car that i felt put me solidly in that demographic but i could now participate in that culture. So it hit me like a freight train on notch 8. All my friends played and we'd always have a lobby going for just ourselves. On top of that, the following year i got experience my first H2Oi and it just further cemented that culture so deeply into me. None of the other Horizons really hit the way that one did. There will always be a certain energy i feel whenever i hear Language by Porter Robinson come on and it takes me right back to it instantly.

I like the car you featured in the video's thumbnail