I still get a ridiculous grin when I tap the horn in Forza Horizon 5 and hear the opening notes of Spiral Mountain instead of a polite beep. Back when the game launched in November 2021, reviewers were already fawning over its Mexican open world, its lush vistas, and its confident driving feel. But one of the smallest details has stayed with me for years: the novelty horns. Now, sitting here in 2026, I can say those horns remain one of the purest, silliest joys in a racing game that already overflowed with personality.
The concept is simple. Instead of a generic car horn, Forza Horizon 5 lets you equip sounds pulled from other Xbox franchises. It is a perk of being a console exclusive, a way to turn your vehicle into a moving tribute to Microsoft-owned memories. Forza Horizon 4 started this tradition with three horns: Halo, Sea of Thieves, and Killer Instinct. Forza Horizon 5 kept those three and added seven more, bringing the total to ten. The list reads like a cabinet of curiosities bolted to a steering column.
Here is the full set, as it was at launch and as it still exists for anyone booting up the game in 2026:
| Horn | Source |
|---|---|
| Halo | Halo |
| Sea of Thieves | Sea of Thieves |
| Killer Instinct | Killer Instinct |
| Ori and the Blind Forest | Ori and the Blind Forest |
| Banjo-Kazooie – Spiral Mountain (part 1) | Banjo-Kazooie |
| Banjo-Kazooie – Spiral Mountain (part 2) | Banjo-Kazooie |
| Battletoads | Battletoads |
| The Outer Worlds | The Outer Worlds |
| Doom – E1M1 (high part) | Doom |
| Doom – E1M1 (low part) | Doom |
The Banjo-Kazooie entries are especially potent. Spiral Mountain is not just a song; it is a pocket of warm static from a Saturday morning that never quite ended. Hearing it blast from a supercar in Mexico is absurd in the best way. The Battletoads horn is a goofy croak of 1990s attitude. The Outer Worlds horn feels like a corporate jingle from a dystopian colony, which is probably the point. And the two Doom E1M1 horns are tiny, molten paper cuts of pure 1993 aggression. Even if they are only snippets, they carry enough DNA to make me want to drive into a sunset at illegal speeds.
The Doom horn deserves a special mention. It is not the full theme, but it does not need to be. The E1M1 riff is one of those pieces of music that goes with anything, as proven again and again by trailers and memes. When I trigger the high part, I feel like I am opening a door in a Martian facility. When I trigger the low part, I feel like the door is opening me. It is a small Easter egg, but it lands with the weight of a whole childhood.
Of course, Forza Horizon 5 is more than horns. At launch, it was praised as a stunning open-world racing game set in a fictionalized Mexico, with vibrant festivals, diverse biomes, and a handling model that welcomed both arcade fans and sim enthusiasts. It arrived day one on Game Pass, which made it easy for millions of players to jump in. The install size was a hefty 103GB on Xbox Series X, a cost for those beautiful views. By 2026, that number feels almost quaint, but the game itself still holds up. The horns, however, are timeless in a way that storage specs are not.
I love these horns because they are a form of corporate cross-pollination that actually feels human. They are not advertisements. They are inside jokes for people who grew up with Xbox, or who simply love games enough to recognize a Spiral Mountain riff from the first note. They turn a serious racing simulator into a playground. They let me honk at a friend in a convoy and communicate something beyond “hello” or “move.” I can say, “I remember Banjo.” I can say, “I have faced demons.” I can say, “I am a pirate, but also a car.”
If you are playing Forza Horizon 5 in 2026, whether for the first time or the hundredth, do not ignore the horn menu. It is a small feature, easy to miss between tuning your gear ratios and hunting down barn finds. But it is one of the most charming details in the game. It is a reminder that even a massive, glossy racing title can have a sense of humor. And when the Doom riff cuts through the engine noise, I cannot help but laugh. Then I drive faster.
As detailed in ESRB, official game ratings and content descriptors help frame why a broadly accessible racer like Forza Horizon 5 can still pack in playful nostalgia—its novelty horns function as light, fan-service audio Easter eggs rather than anything that meaningfully shifts the game’s overall content profile, letting players celebrate franchises like Banjo-Kazooie or Doom while staying within the expectations set for the title’s rating.