Kirby is a uniquely healthy Nintendo personality, but his video games frequently have a unusual imply streak to them. They are all about letting gamers take in enemies and tackle some wild powers to rip thru colourful levels with reckless abandon. That is very true with Kirby Air Riders, the long-awaited sequel to the GameCube vintage racing sport, Kirby Air Journey. Just like the unique, it is a fast paced racing sport starring Kirby and buddies as they race thru visually putting locales – it additionally occurs to be one of the vital chaotic racing video games I have performed in somewhat some time.
At PAX West 2025 in Seattle, I spent an hour enjoying Kirby Air Riders, reacquainting myself with the approachable but strangely deep mechanics from the cult-favorite 2003 racing sport. It is no doubt attention-grabbing to look sport director Masuhiro Sakurai observe up Tremendous Ruin Bros. Final with a Kirby racing sport. Nonetheless, after enjoying Air Riders, this racer carries that equivalent ‘go-for-broke’ power that runs deep in his earlier video games.
Like the unique sport, you race thru numerous levels impressed by means of the Kirby collection. The sequel takes issues additional with an expanded roster of Kirby characters, corresponding to Meta Knight and King Dedede, every with their very own distinctive talents and stats as racers. Whilst you race thru conventional tracks, Air Riders – just like the unique – additionally opens up free-for-all motion levels and mini-games that take a look at your talents in drifting, gliding, and the vintage skill of sucking as much as achieve new powers.
Kirby Air Riders completely doubles down on what made the unique so distinctive, and that is the reason what makes it such a shockingly abnormal tackle a racing sport. In some ways, Air Riders does to racing video games what Ruin Bros did for the combating style – injecting non-genre-conforming techniques and ideas that can appear misplaced for the kind of sport it desires to be.
Alternatively, enjoying Kirby Air Riders can take some being used to, particularly taking into consideration its moderately restricted regulate scheme. Just like the unique, acceleration occurs robotically, and the sport as a substitute has you center of attention on managing motion and momentum with the regulate stick and a unmarried button to have interaction boosts – and that is the reason all you wish to have for controlling your preferred racer’s car. However therein lies the nuance of enjoying; by means of managing momentum and pace, you’ll interact drifts and gear spin assaults to conquer opponents at the observe.
It will pay to be competitive in Kirby Air Riders, as you’ll be able to achieve pace by means of effectively touchdown assaults on enemies. A selected racer I used frequently was once Go back to Dream Land’s Magolor, who may just sprout floor spikes after touchdown from jumps. The sequel even expands upon the offensive nature of Air Riders with a brand new particular skill button, which turns on character-specific assaults after filling a meter.
I used to be in reality bowled over by means of how briskly and chaotic races can get, and I discovered myself getting stuck off guard by means of how diabolical the opposite opponents can get, unleashing assaults and snatching victory in a pinch. If truth be told, I closed two races in 2d position back-to-back within the ultimate 2d because of King Dedede attractive their car’s boosts on the proper time. In that sense, it took me a while to return to grips with the sport’s fast tempo and the way temporarily issues can flip towards you.
This was once very true with the returning Town Trial mode, which is basically Kirby Air Riders‘ take at the vintage kart-racer combat mode within the vein of Mario Kart 64 or Twisted Steel. In Town Trial, gamers and CPU characters input a mad sprint to gather power-ups and improve their cars in a big open space, which culminates in themed mini-games to make a decision the general winner.
It took me a while to know the bigger objective of Town Trial, because it felt like getting swept up in a colourful mosh pit – one the place different gamers can grab your cars. This combat mode temporarily turns into extraordinarily irritating and the dynamic occasions lead to a couple in point of fact abnormal situations, corresponding to bombs dropping rain at the area, which is able to ship gamers scrambling. Town Trial is a amusing, mini-open-world to discover that includes a set of secrets and techniques to seek out, and I in reality took a liking to simply how a lot is packed into those occasions.
It took me a while to in reality get into the groove of Kirby Air Riders and its beautiful ruthless solution to action-racing – and this was once after spending 20 mins operating the beneficiant tutorials that defined the techniques at paintings. I nonetheless favored the sheer spectacle of all of it.
As soon as I discovered my drift inside the chaos, it in reality helped to carry Kirby Air Riders into center of attention for me, and I in reality favored the over-the-top spectacle that it’s as a racing sport. It is a very other form of racing that units itself aside from Mario Kart International and different video games of its type. If truth be told, there are facets of Kirby Air Riders that I nonetheless do not somewhat perceive. OK with that as a result of I simply had such a lot amusing looking to drift.
Kirby Air Riders will likely be launched on November 20, 2025 at the Nintendo Transfer 2.
