Forza Horizon 6 pokes fun at Pokémon – community laughs at radio gag

For some light entertainment, players can simply switch on the car radio in Forza Horizon 6 (see Notebookcheck’s benchmark review here), which was fully released on May 19, 2026, and listen to the soundtrack or the radio hosts. A short clip is currently going viral on X, showing two in-game hosts encouraging players to photograph Japan’s nighttime cities and picturesque mountain landscapes – with the call to “snap ’em all.” Immediately afterward, one of them says the phrase sounds like “that Japanese collectible game that cannot be named for legal reasons.” For many, this is clearly a humorous jab at Pokémon.

The reference is hard to miss: “snap ’em all” immediately recalls the famous Pokémon slogan “catch ’em all.” The following line is also a fairly clear, but clearly humorous, sideswipe at The Pokémon Company, which is known for taking its trademark rights very seriously. For Forza, the gag fits rather well. The new Horizon is set in Japan, and Pokémon is one of the world’s best-known Japanese brands. The community has reacted with amusement.

Hardly anyone seems to be accusing Playground Games of malicious intent. Users on X are mostly joking that the developers “obviously didn’t want to get into trouble with Nintendo.” Since Pokémon is not directly mentioned in the clip, that seems unlikely in this case. Fans can now keep an eye out for more pop culture references hidden in Forza Horizon 6 (Xbox version currently around $70 on Amazon). With Han’s recreated underground garage from The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, at least one other well-known franchise has already made it into the game.