Forza Horizon 6’s Hidden Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 Easter Egg Revealed

Forza Horizon 6 doesn’t launch until May 19, and until then, only a handful of reviewers—including my colleague Adam—have had the chance to play it ahead of time. During a conversation about the game, Adam mentioned a mission that immediately sparked a wave of nostalgia. It was as if someone had taken my favorite side quests from Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 and swapped skateboards for cars.

Forza Horizon 6’s Mission Echoes Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4’s Iconic Side Quests

The mission in question is called “Shutter Speed.” In it, players must hit 90 mph in a Mugen-tuned Honda CRX while driving on a bridge near the Daikoku Parking Area. The goal? To help automotive photographer Larry Chen capture motion shots for a fictional car magazine. Dressed in his signature Canon shirt, ball cap, and gaiter, Chen serves as the quest-giving character, tasking players with driving missions to showcase stunning cars in iconic Japanese locations.

If you, like me, spent countless hours playing Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4, this setup will feel eerily familiar. In that game, players interacted with legendary skate photographer Atiba Jefferson, who shot for publications like Transworld and Thrasher. Jefferson assigned tricks to hit so he could capture dynamic shots of skaters performing flips and grinds in locations like Alcatraz.

Larry Chen Confirms Direct Connection to Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4

I couldn’t shake the feeling that this was a deliberate Easter egg. Someone at Forza Horizon 6 had to know about the parallel. So, I reached out to Larry Chen himself to ask. I acknowledged that my question was niche—even obscure—but his response was everything I’d hoped for.

“I absolutely love this question because I’m actually really good friends with Atiba Jefferson,” Chen wrote in an email. “We’re both Canon Explorers of Light. I’m the only automotive and motorsports photographer in the group, and he’s the skate photographer, so it was pretty natural for us to become close over the years through Canon events and camera launches. We even got inducted into this exclusive group on the same day.”

“I’m very aware of his role in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4, and when I told him I was going to be in Forza Horizon 6, he actually told me a bunch of stories about his experience working on Tony Hawk.”

Chen even shared a humorous behind-the-scenes detail:

“The funniest story was that he apparently recorded all of his voice lines for the game, but the studio ended up deciding his real voice did not fit the character, so they replaced all of his lines with a voice actor.”

This anecdote is well-documented, including in Vice’s documentary on Jefferson. Chen added, “Obviously that sucks,” highlighting the irony of Jefferson’s involvement in the game’s development only for his voice to be recast.

Why This Easter Egg Matters for Fans of Both Games

For players who grew up with Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4, Forza Horizon 6’s mission structure and photography-focused side quests offer a nostalgic callback. The connection between Larry Chen and Atiba Jefferson—two photographers bound by their craft and Canon’s Explorers of Light program—adds a layer of authenticity to the Easter egg. It’s a subtle but meaningful tribute to the shared creative spirit between skateboarding and automotive culture.