During a recent Nintendo Direct, Masahiro Sakurai pulled back the curtain on Kirby Air Riders, an exclusive new game coming to Nintendo Switch 2 on November 20th. Throughout the livestream, the director joked about the similarities between his new game and Mario Kart World, another exclusive racing game that launched in 2025. The proximity of these releases is a curious move on Nintendo’s part, but Switch 2 owners interested in Kirby Air Riders needn’t worry; after getting some hands-on time with the game, I can safely say that Sakurai and the developers at Bandai Namco have created something that feels much different.
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For those unfamiliar, Kirby Air Riders is a sequel to a game originally released on Nintendo GameCube back in 2003. Like the original, Kirby Air Riders features a simplified control scheme that sets it apart from other racers. Rather than pressing a single button and pushing on the control stick the whole time, the vehicles move forward on their own. Button prompts are instead used for boosting, drifting, and using special attacks, while the player turns and executes a Quick Spin attack using the stick. As someone who skipped the original Kirby Air Ride, I’ll admit that the control scheme takes some getting used to. The reality is, most racing games have a pretty standard scheme, and after playing a lot of Mario Kart World, it requires a slight brain rewiring to make the switch.
Getting Players Acclimated
The controls might be a little hard to adjust to, but thankfully, Kirby Air Riders offers some neat features to help players out. For example, before competing in a race, Nintendo had us try out some of the in-game lessons. As the name suggests, these lessons give players a chance to focus solely on specific moves, like the boost or Quick Spin. The lessons don’t stop there, though. In the heat of a race, I forgot which control stick allowed the player to use the Quick Spin. After incorrectly trying to pull off the move with the right stick multiple times during the heat of a race, the game actually gave me an unobtrusive notification correcting me, which was a helpful touch.
The controls aren’t the only way that Kirby Air Riders feels a lot different from Nintendo’s other big racing game. With Mario Kart, fans tend to decide on a favorite racer and settle in quickly, since most characters fall under different categories. However, the cast of Kirby Air Riders have different skills, making it more enjoyable to test out each one and swap during different situations. For example, one of my early favorites is Knuckle Joe, who can deliver a volley of punches at opposing players, calling back to the character’s abilities in the main Kirby series. While this is certainly helpful in the actual Air Ride mode, it becomes an even bigger deal once players check out the revisited City Trial.
City Trial: The Game’s Big Draw?
During the preview, Nintendo allowed us to check out two of the Air Ride courses in the game. Both seemed to take nice advantage of the Switch 2 hardware. Everything ran smoothly during the preview, and there were some impressive water effects showcased in one particular course. The developers have really captured that classic Kirby feel, with bright colors and vibrant locations. At this time, it’s hard to say just how deep the game might be from a single-player perspective, but it’s hard to imagine fans of the original being disappointed with what’s been shown so far. While the races are positioned as the main draw for Kirby Air Riders, City Trial feels like the mode that’s going to appeal most to fans of the original game and newcomers alike.
Like the first Kirby Air Ride, City Trial is a mode that has players racing around a map to collect upgrades for their vehicle (or swapping out for a different one). Players have a time limit to grab as many of these upgrades as possible, which can bump up things like HP, steering, and more. After the time limit expires, players then head to the stadium, where they participate in a challenge that takes advantage of those upgrades. The game will actually recommend the challenges that are the best fit based on the build the player ended up with, and there’s a diverse amount available. During my preview, I got to try a challenge centered around eating called Gourmet Race, a battle with lots of different enemies called Kirby Melee, and Dustup Derby, which focuses on battling other players.
Masahiro Sakurai at His Best
The variety of options available in City Trial seems impressive, and it feels like Kirby Air Riders should have a lot of appeal as a party game. Despite my initial struggles with the controls, I get the sense that the game will be easy for people to pick up and play, but difficult to master. That’s long been the appeal of Super Smash Bros., and that DNA feels prominent in Sakurai’s latest. Speaking of Smash, fans of Nintendo’s fighting game series will find a lot to love about the presentation in Kirby Air Riders. Everything about the menus and even the fonts evokes the series; I’m not sure if Nintendo and Bandai Namco hired Xander Mobus for this game, but there’s an announcer that sounds very similar to the one from Super Smash Bros., and it might be an intentional touch.
In my short time with Kirby Air Riders, I’ve come away pretty impressed. It already has that classic Kirby charm, and the gameplay is a lot of fun, especially when playing against a group. The developers have found plenty of ways to draw from Kirby’s more than three-decade-long history, rather than simply leaning on what was there in the original GameCube game. All of this makes Kirby Air Riders feel like a distinctive racer that can stand proudly alongside Nintendo’s Mario Kart series. Switch 2 might not have a dedicated Smash Bros. game yet, but a new Masahiro Sakurai game is a very good thing, regardless.
Are you looking forward to Kirby Air Riders? What did you think of the game’s Nintendo Direct presentation? Share your thoughts with me down in the comments section!
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