The Nintendo GameCube played host to a number of classic games, many of which have never been released on any other platform. One example is Kirby Air Ride, a 2003 racing game featuring the denizen of Dream Land. The game was directed by Super Smash Bros. Ultimate‘s Masahiro Sakurai, and the famed director recently shared a video in which he discussed the game’s development. According to Sakurai, he was the one that originally came up with the game’s concept, and the decision to make a racing game came about because it would require a much shorter development time as opposed to an action game.
Videos by ComicBook.com
At the time, Sakurai was serving as chief director of Kirby, which meant he was in charge of overseeing the Kirby anime at the same time he was wrapping up work on Super Smash Bros. Melee. Sakurai also oversaw work on all of the Kirby titles, but “tried to leave that work to the people responsible for it.” In the case of Kirby Air Ride, however, Sakurai was unable to do just that. After development hit a rough patch, the game’s lead programmer personally requested Sakurai return to direct, and the gameplay was started over from scratch. In just three and a half months, the game was finished! The full video can be found below.
Sakurai has always had a knack for telling stories about the video game industry, and it’s interesting to see everything that went into making Kirby Air Ride. Two decades after the game’s release, Kirby Air Ride is still fondly remembered by a lot of GameCube fans, and that wouldn’t be the case had Sakurai not gotten involved. Developer HAL Laboratory has a penchant for remaking and re-releasing older Kirby games, and will be doing just that with Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe on Nintendo Switch next month. Hopefully Kirby Air Ride will receive a similar treatment sometime in the future!
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