I was very excited to review Kirby Air Riders because it afforded me two particular opportunities. Firstly, I honestly don’t think I’ve reviewed a racing game since 2018, and I’ve since gained a lot of new perspective and appreciation for the genre. Second, and this might seriously damage my pretentious hipster creds, I never actually played Kirby Air Ride when it released in 2003.
You’ve gotta understand, I was a pretentious 14-year-old who really loved Kirby, and was kind of annoyed the Gamecube didn’t get a “traditional” Kirby game like what had just been released on the Nintendo 64—this was about the age I thought I was too good for Pokémon, too. But much like with Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar, I’m kind of glad I missed out on it because I don’t think I would’ve fully appreciated Kirby Air Ride’s brilliance, and similarly, its follow-up shines even brighter as a Warp Star in the sky.
It’s hard to know even where to begin reviewing Kirby Air Riders because of just how much information was shared about it during its two dedicated Directs—Sakurai has effectively made my job perfunctory. But seeing how much went into a game is one thing; actually playing it is another, and boy howdy, playability is off the charts with this one. And I know saying a game is “playable” might sound profoundly glib, but allow me to elaborate.
“Kirby Air Riders’ biggest strength is that it’s so tightly designed and feels so genuinely good to play.”
I mean this in both the micro and macro sense. As soon as you boot up the Kirby Air Riders, it immediately directs you to the Training mode, as if to say, “Look, we know most of you have probably only played Mario Kart, trust us that this is very different.” And the Training mode is REALLY good at onboarding players to the mechanics, understanding the weight and speed of the game through the basic Warp Star Machine. It doesn’t take long before you can earnestly start being good at it.
Once you’re ready to play, the challenge becomes familiarizing yourself with each track and understanding the unique quirks of the various Riders and Machines. And the game gives players enough room for experimentation that there’s really no one combination of Rider and Machine that is objectively the best. Players can easily find a favourite combination or one that works best for them, and because of how well the game is designed, they still have a competitive edge in races.
I think that’s honestly Kirby Air Riders’ biggest strength. It’s so tightly designed and feels so genuinely good to play that you feel both incentivized to get good at it and rewarded when you earn a hard-fought victory. This is due in large part to its one-button design, since both players and the game don’t need to burden themselves with managing a bunch of controls and mechanics.
Without needing to worry about having a button (and subsequently a mechanic) for accelerating, braking, drifting, item usage, etc., the game can focus primarily on providing players with tight controls. And by designing a system where boosting is also tied to braking, Kirby Air Riders creates a brilliant control scheme where stopping and drifting are directly connected to getting a big push forward. It’s both ingenious AND easy-to-understand.
Playing against both high-level computers or skilled humans, matches always felt tense and highly engaging. Even when I came in second or third, I never once got that deflating feeling I would get playing Mario Kart World online—like nothing I did mattered because a barrage of red and blue shells assaulted me when I got into first for half a second. It was always an “Aw, so close!” Followed by the excitement to get into another match and try again.
Although Kirby Air Riders definitely takes some time to get used to, or at least understand. While I think its simplicity and razor-sharp controls make it both easy to pick up and incredibly satisfying to master, if you’re playing with people who exclusively know Mario Kart, it’s going to feel a bit too different, and maybe even a bit too chaotic at first. Not only that, but if you don’t really have any knowledge of the Kirby series, jumping in blind is definitely going to feel confusing, as unfamiliar players won’t really know how any of the Copy abilities function.
Furthermore, Kirby Air Riders, as far as I can tell, doesn’t show players’ Rider and Machine stats when playing in local multiplayer, and it feels like something of a glaring oversight. Since Machines and Riders still operate the way they would normally, unless players are familiar with the game, they’re not going to know that the Wagon Star has no Boost, or what each character’s special is. Hopefully, this will be addressed in a patch, because it makes playing the game with friends unnecessarily obtuse.
Now, there was something that Stephanie Sterling brought up in her review of Mario Kart World that I think is worth considering—the idea that Nintendo Switch 2 games, which want to charge a higher price, should be held to a higher standard. A premium-priced game should have premium-priced content, right? And to that end, while I still don’t love the recent price hike of Nintendo games, I will say that Kirby Air Riders does feel like it justifies its price.
We already got a glimpse of it during the Kirby Air Riders October Direct, but it is genuinely astonishing just how much is packed into this Kirby-themed racing game. In a lot of ways, it feels like a monumental glow-up of its Gamecube predecessor—featuring the same three game modes: Air Ride, Top Ride and City Trail, as well as the new story-driven Road Trip. And it’s amazing to me how each mode has essentially the same foundation, but can feel so different and facilitate so much fun.
“Visually, Kirby Air Riders is a festival for the eyes.”
For those who might not be into the fast-paced and precision-driven Air Ride, they can go to the more Arcade-styled Top Race that offers a challenging experience while also feeling like a more fleshed-out Mario Party Minigame. City Trail might be the most enjoyable for some, as they have the freedom to drive around at their own pace, grabbing upgrades for their cart and duking it out in one distinct challenge.
And Road Trip acts as an extension of City Trail, giving players a sequence of small challenges, while providing them with opportunities to customize their Machine’s stats in a way that works best for them. Both modes have a really unique, almost RPG-style of gameplay that is incredibly compelling, but more so in Road Trip, which rewards players with unbelievably animated cutscenes and a genuinely captivating story at the end of each chapter—it’s almost like a less tedious Subspace Emissary.
And much like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, not only do all four modes offer a lot of playability, but players are given a ton of challenges across all modes (including online play) that each come with their own rewards. I’m not kidding when I say it’s a near constant barrage of reward unlocks that works to constantly keep you invested.
Visually, Kirby Air Riders is a festival for the eyes. The dynamic and colourful environments of the Kirby universe lend themselves perfectly to high-octane racetracks, and are brought to life even further by the advanced hardware behind the Nintendo Switch 2. Almost every stage has a “guided” moment that adds a lot of fun and dynamism to the race, and there’s just a vibrancy to all the colours and effects that really makes the entire aesthetic pop.
The visuals are backed by an incredible soundtrack that combines newly composed music with updated versions of classic tracks from across the entire Kirby series. There’s a really fun mix of both live-music and classic chiptune alongside modern and classic sound effects that make Kirby Air Riders feel new and bold, but also familiar.
This might sound unnecessarily snide, but I deleted Mario Kart World in order to make space for Kirby Air Riders, and honestly, I don’t see myself reinstalling it. How can I go from a racing game with such tight, deliberate design to one that sacrificed almost everything that made it good in service to an “open world?” Make no mistake, Kirby Air Riders is a MUST PLAY for fans of racing and Kirby games alike.
