Kirby Air Riders Gives A Forgotten GameCube Racing Game A Second Chance To Prove Itself
Kirby is already perfect.
With Gamescom about to kick off, and plenty of game announcements sure to follow, Nintendo held a 45-minute showcase of its own. And instead of focusing on one of the company’s biggest series, it was instead all about the sequel to a game that most people didn’t even like. Despite that, it was a surprisingly packed presentation for a unique racer coming to Switch 2.
Kirby Air Ride is a strange, simple racing game on GameCube. So simple in fact that racers accelerate automatically without any player input, and the game uses a single button for its controls. While the offbeat racing game has its fans, it reviewed poorly and was mostly seen as an overly simplistic, albeit original, riff on Mario Kart.
Kirby Air Riders was introduced in a 45-minute showcase by the charismatic-as-usual Masahiro Sakurai.
And the sequel looks like more of the same. Hosted by Kirby creator Masahiro Sakurai, the new presentation on Kirby Air Riders shows that the developer isn’t reinventing the racer the second time around. Instead, the game seems to be doubling down on everything that made the original so unique — including the parts that no one really liked at the time — which already makes it one of the most interesting games coming to Switch 2 this year.
That’s not to say that Kirby Air Riders is just a copy of Kirby Air Ride. It’s extremely similar, which makes it all the more interesting to see what aspects its developer did decide to change. At one point in the showcase, Sakurai says that the original game was “basically Mario Kart,” which is definitely an overstatement, but Kirby Air Riders seems to be taking pains to emphasize everything that sets it apart from Nintendo’s more popular racing series.
Kirby Air Riders is a simple but beautiful racer heading to Switch 2.
One of the biggest changes between Kirby Air Ride and its sequel is that it’s no longer a one-button game. No, Kirby Air Riders now requires a whopping two buttons to control, a fact that Sakurai seems genuinely sad about. A much larger cast of characters is available this time around, and each has a special ability activated by that unfortunate second button. That makes the game quite different from Mario Kart, where characters function largely the same other than having different stats that affect their racing performance. Similarly, there are huge differences between vehicles, not just in their attributes, but also in how abilities like the boost even work.
Tracks in the game are also littered with enemies from the Kirby series. In Kirby Air Ride, Kirby could inhale them to copy their abilities, but this time around, every character has the power to copy abilities.
City Trial mode is the unique crown jewel of Kirby Air Riders.
But the biggest thing that separates Kirby Air Riders from Mario Kart — and all other racers — is City Trial mode. The main event of the game, City Trial puts up to 16 players in a large, open arena with a set amount of time to collect power-ups. As the timer counts down, events like bosses and enemies spawning will occur, and you can compete in courses including destruction derbies and short races to gain even more power-ups. At the end of the timer, players are sorted into Stadium modes, which can be races as well as minigames like collecting points by flying through colored panels or competing to collect food laid out on a track. For the fans that Kirby Air Ride does have, City Trial is the one thing that the game can offer that no other racers do, and it’s clear that Kirby Air Riders is putting its full attention on making City Trial stand out even more.
A sequel to Kirby Air Ride is a strange choice in the first place, and it would have made sense to try to bring the game more in line with players’ expectations if it was going to be made at all. But what developers Sora and Bandai Namco have settled on is much more interesting. Not unlike Dragon’s Dogma 2 did in 2024, Kirby Air Riders seems to be saying, “no, we actually got this right the first time” and hoping that players are ready for it the second time around. The Switch 2 could be a much better canvas for the unique aspects of Kirby Air Riders than the GameCube was, especially with how much City Trial could shine now with a bigger stage to take place on and more online players to take part.
