Despite my adoration for the Nintendo GameCube, Kirby Air Ride was one of a few Nintendo-published titles able to skirt by my radar, whether that be down to a case of release timing, lack of funds, the Kirby games being relatively low on my priority list or a combination of all the above. It’s a weird one on reflection, as cartoony-style racers are totally my jam. Thus, Kirby Air Ride remained an experience lost to time, a racer I’d missed out on and looked like I would never to get to witness first-hand again. Then April’s Nintendo Direct: Nintendo Switch 2 presentation happened…
Initially, I questioned Nintendo’s decision to release another racer so close to a new entry in arguably the biggest racing series out there – Mario Kart World – but just a few rounds with any of Kirby Air Rider’s action-packed modes was enough to convince me that Masahiro Sakurai’s creation may look like a racer but is a very different beast indeed.
So, what exactly is Kirby Air Riders then? Well, it’s… tough to explain. It feels like it’s part racer, part battler and part party game with an unusual control scheme and wrapped in a very Super Smash Bros. presentation. In fact, one might even make a case for calling it the Super Smash Bros. of racing games. And much like Sakurai’s take on the fighting genre, Kirby Air Riders carves its very own path.
Air Ride is perhaps the mode that resembles a typical kart racer most of the bunch – although still a way off from the norm – players speeding round a track filled with plenty of obstacles and power-ups. Racing handles very differently here, your vehicle (or machine, as they are referred to in the game) always hurtling forward. Unlike Mario Kart, Sonic Racing and other kart racers, you won’t be performing long drifts for boosts but instead pressing down on a button to slow your ride down on turns, reangle them and blast off with a blast of speed.
It’s a simple-sounding racing system, but one packed with layers to learn and practice. For example, your choice of racer impacts your racing stats, everything from turning ability, speed and offensive power to boosting flight ability and weight fluctuating between choices, not to mention a unique special ability. Next choice will then be your machine, over two dozen available to choose from and each offering wildly differing stats and playstyles. The Wing Star, for example, may be slow on the ground but excels when soaring through the air. The unicycle-looking Rex Wheelie, meanwhile, gathers speed so long as you can avoid crashing into walls. The heftier Bull Tank and Battle Chariot can charge through opponents like nobodies’ business. The Vampire Star interestingly powers up when taking down rivals, even going to snatch up their abilities. The fact is, there are so many machines to test out, and unlike many racers, the differences here feel substantial rather than modest.
It wouldn’t be a kart racer without items, and Kirby Air Riders doesn’t disappoint there. Players will pass computer enemies on tracks, sucking these up granting you with a temporary ability. All the familiar and favourites are here too, like Fire, Wheel, Sword and more. As for the tracks themselves, each is a kaleidoscopic treat, taking players through gorgeous fields, shimmering oceans, mountainous regions and more. While the track count is a little on the lower side, it’s worth bearing in mind Air Ride is only one third of the multiplayer pie.
Top Ride takes your view of the race to the skies, looking down on the track from above, akin to classic racers like Ivan ‘Ironman’ Stewart’s Super Off Road (if you’re old enough to remember). Races are short and sweet, using the same lineup of machines and power-ups seen in Air Ride mode. While easily the more straightforward of the three main modes, it still offers a good time and a perfect little palette cleanser between the more meatier Air Ride and City Trial.
City Trial is something I’d heard a lot about, particularly around the original GameCube release, friends falling in love with its unique blend of arena-based battling, searching and heated competition. It’s no surprise that it proves to be Kirby Air Riders’ main attraction, especially online.
How it works is two-fold. First up to sixteen players dart about a large island called Skyah, collecting stat-boosting collectables, using items, hopping onto different machines and even competing in random and on-the-spot mini contests. With the five minutes up, your stats are tallied, and you’ll be given an option of four different stadium events, these short contests focused on different areas of a machine’s ability, from gliding through the air into a giant dart board for points to speeding around an oval track. Do the best and you win.
That is City Trial described at its most basic, though, the actual practice of doing all this is a lot more chaotic and strategic that it can all feel rather intimidating at first. For instance, exploring Skyah, while a lot of fun, can be tough to decipher where you should be going or what to prioritise. It’s a question, you’ll come to learn doesn’t necessarily have a definitive answer, and that’s where the strategic layers of City Trial start to reveal themselves. Whether you’re hunting down stat boosts of a certain type, looking to take down rival opponents to steal their ride, or dashing over to participate in a spontaneous race, all will yield you with improvements to your machine in the final Stadium event. The aforementioned race, for example, may not appear during every City Trial, but when it does appear on the map, you have the choice of joining in with the added tease of statistic boosting rewards or simply going about your business elsewhere and hunting out some bonuses for yourself.
In true Nintendo fashion, local multiplayer is supported for all three of its main modes – a great way to play, especially since you can fill the remaining lineup of competitors out with bots. Players can also take the action online with individual rankings for each game mode and even the ability to create and join paddocks, allowing big groups to mingle, interact and join games from a cute hub area.
Road Trip is the game’s single-player mode, an interesting concept that utilises all the modes of Kirby Air Riders. In it, you’ll choose a character before setting off on an OutRun-style road trip, each chapter/location littered with a range of events to compete in. Traversing through each stage will see the player more often than not choosing between one of three event types, these either taking on the form of a race, battle or any of the Stadium type competitions. Complete the stage and you’ll get to upgrade a stat, earn some coins for spending in stores and move onto the next trio of choices. These choices may throw the odd curveball, offering bonus items, coins and even additional machines to swap between to better suit a future event. Each stage will culminate in a tougher boss battle, which again could be a race or tussle, before then moving onto the next stage, which will be dictated based on decisions you’ve made prior. Road Trip is a surprisingly lengthy mode and one that reminded me of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s World of Light, in that it works best when returned to in short sessions. This comes down to its repetitive nature in taking on random mini-challenges one after the other. While there is plenty of variety on offer, these challenges do essentially boil down to racing fast, fighting hard or collecting quickly.
Much like his Super Smash Bros. games, Sakurai has crammed in a feast of extra modes and surprises. These include full customisation over your machines, giving them unique paint jobs and throwing on a mishmash of accessories for good measure. With an online store to show off your creations, I expect plenty of amazing concoctions come launch. A checklist board marking any accomplishments in each of the game’s four main modes and online will no doubt keep players busy for months to come. Challenging the player with everything from besting times to using a certain combination of rider or machine, your time will be rewarded with goodies aplenty, from machines and riders to cosmetics and even extra tracks. The game isn’t quite done yet there, though, with a garage to decorate with your best rides also available to show off like a celebrity on an episode of MTV Cribs. Then you have collectable gummies, these earned for beating racers and played with like a kid playing with their toybox.
Kirby Air Riders is a game that is so clear in its desire to be joyful and over-the-top, one that is unapologetically chaotic, that I can see why that might put some players off. While I love a good blend of chaos, my sessions on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate filled with matches where items are cranked up and stage hazards are kept on, there are some who opt for something a little more grounded. For those people, Kirby Air Riders may prove a little too much. Every mode is a blast to play but fills the screen with a flurry of… well… things happening all at once. The controls are simple but perhaps at times overly so, that it can be tough keeping up with what power-up you may have unleashed unknowingly or why you span when you didn’t want to. It’s a game that’s not as accessible as Mario Kart and certainly not as easy to explain, but I really enjoy it for all the above reasons. It’s just so different.
Kirby Air Riders is a racer unlike any other and another great addition to a quickly growing Nintendo Switch 2 library. Even with Mario Kart World and Sonic Racing CrossWorlds occupying a lot of my time in 2025, I’ll make sure to keep carving more aside for Kirby’s unique speedster.
Version Tested: Nintendo Switch 2
Review copy provided by Nintendo
