Forza Horizon 5’s new season is a ’90s throwback, with appropriately retro rides

By now, Forza Horizon 5 has finished its transformation into the ultimate car-collecting fantasy. Sure, Hide ‘n’ Seek is neat and all, but unlocking and collecting awesome rides is the real meat of the game for many, and the new Back to the 90s season underlines this notion.

Playground Games isn’t about to run out of seasonal content themes anytime soon, by the look of things. We’ve already had seasons riffing on Gran Turismo, Forza Motorsport, and… dinosaurs, just to list a few. From October 10 until November 7, though, it’s all about classic rides from the 1990s, and this means Forza Horizon 5 is getting four iconic vehicles from the given era. Is that a Mitsubishi FTO you hear roaring in the distance? Why, yes.

Image via Playground Games

Forza Horizon 5: Back to the 90s season kicks off on October 10

It’s been a good long while since we’ve last seen a “new” Mitsubishi in Forza Horizon 5, but none better to break this streak than the legendary 1998 Mitsubishi FTO. And this isn’t even the baseline model, but the delightful GP Version R, with stickers to boot. I’m not going to dawdle too much, here’s the full list of Back to the 90s seasonal reward cars and their availability schedules:

• October 10 – 17: Toyota Soarer 2.5 GT-T (1997)
• October 17 – 24: Mitsubishi FTO GP Version R (1998)
• October 24 – 31: Aston Martin Lagonda (1990)
• October 31 – November 7: Subaru SVX (1996)

Remember, though: Forza Horizon 5 is all about that FOMO, and you will miss out on these cars if you don’t collect enough seasonal points during their respective weeks of availability. If you’re a virtual car collector, such as yours truly, then it’d be a pretty big shame to miss out on some of these vehicles. The Lagonda alone is an unexpected and welcome addition to the roster, for example, and I honestly never saw this one coming.

Playground Games also highlighted that “two of the four cars coming in this update” will feature major customization options and a variety of different parts to fiddle around with. Presumably, this means the Soarer and the FTO, because neither the Lagonda nor the SVX were all that popular from the perspective of aftermarket third-party customization. Great news regardless, there can never be enough customizable goodness in Forza if you ask me.

One last tidbit I’d like to highlight here is that Forza Horizon‘s ’90s season also features the return of the Horizon Backstage. This unique shop will allow players to vote on which seasonal reward vehicles may return for purchase in the next season, thus helping out with FOMO by the tiniest of bits.

The first iteration of Horizon Backstage comes with six previously exclusive cars, to begin with:

• Fiat 131 Abarth (1980)
• BMW M4 Competition Coupe (2021)
• Cadillac XTS Limousine (2013)
• Mercedes-Benz 280 SL (1967)
• Pagani Huayra BC (2016)
• Rivian R1S (2022)

It’s an eclectic roster, to be sure, but it’s not themed so it doesn’t matter, anyway. Note that you’ll need to either spend a whopping 1,000 Forzathon points or score 40 seasonal points to earn a single Backstage Pass which nets you a single vehicle. You can only earn two of them in total per season, too, making this a less-than-ideal “solution” in the grand scheme of things.

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