Kirby Air Riders is a cute, chaotic racing sport

Kirby is a uniquely healthful Nintendo character, but his video games usually have a unusual imply streak to them. They’re all about letting gamers take in enemies and tackle some wild powers to tear by way of vibrant levels with reckless abandon. That is very true with Kirby Air Riders, the long-awaited sequel to the GameCube basic racing sport, Kirby Air Experience. Very similar to the unique, it is a fast-paced racing sport starring Kirby and associates as they race by way of visually placing locales – it additionally occurs to be one of the chaotic racing video games I’ve performed in fairly some time.

At PAX West 2025 in Seattle, I spent an hour taking part in Kirby Air Riders, reacquainting myself with the approachable but surprisingly deep mechanics from the cult-favorite 2003 racing sport. It is definitely attention-grabbing to see sport director Masuhiro Sakurai observe up Tremendous Smash Bros. Final with a Kirby racing sport. Nonetheless, after taking part in Air Riders, this racer carries that comparable ‘go-for-broke’ power that runs deep in his earlier video games.

Like the unique sport, you race by way of quite a lot of levels impressed by 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 abilities and stats as racers. When you race by way of conventional tracks, Air Riders – very like the unique – additionally opens up free-for-all motion levels and mini-games that check your abilities in drifting, gliding, and the basic potential of sucking as much as acquire new powers.

Kirby Air Riders completely doubles down on what made the unique so distinctive, and that is what makes it such an extremely weird tackle a racing sport. In some ways, Air Riders does to racing video games what Smash Bros did for the combating style – injecting non-genre-conforming methods and ideas that will appear misplaced for the kind of sport it desires to be.

Nevertheless, taking part in Kirby Air Riders can take some getting used to, particularly contemplating its pretty restricted management scheme. Very similar to the unique, acceleration occurs mechanically, and the sport as a substitute has you give attention to managing motion and momentum with the management stick and a single button to have interaction boosts – and that is all you want for controlling your chosen racer’s car. However therein lies the nuance of taking part in; by managing momentum and velocity, you possibly can interact drifts and energy spin assaults to beat rivals on the monitor.

It pays to be aggressive in Kirby Air Riders, as you will acquire velocity by efficiently touchdown assaults on enemies. A selected racer I used usually was Return to Dream Land’s Magolor, who might sprout floor spikes after touchdown from jumps. The sequel even expands upon the offensive nature of Air Riders with a brand new particular potential button, which prompts character-specific assaults after filling a meter.

I used to be actually greatly surprised by how briskly and chaotic races can get, and I discovered myself getting caught off guard by how diabolical the opposite rivals can get, unleashing assaults and snatching victory in a pinch. The truth is, I closed two races in 2nd place back-to-back within the remaining second as a result of King Dedede partaking their car’s boosts on the proper time. In that sense, it took me a while to come back to grips with the sport’s fast tempo and the way shortly issues can flip towards you.

This was very true with the returning Metropolis Trial mode, which is basically Kirby Air Riders‘ tackle the basic kart-racer battle mode within the vein of Mario Kart 64 or Twisted Metallic. In Metropolis Trial, gamers and CPU characters enter a mad sprint to gather power-ups and improve their autos in a big open space, which culminates in themed mini-games to determine the ultimate winner.

It took me a while to know the bigger purpose of Metropolis Trial, because it felt like getting swept up in a colourful mosh pit – one the place different gamers can snatch your autos. This battle mode shortly turns into extraordinarily hectic and the dynamic occasions result in some actually weird eventualities, corresponding to bombs raining down on the world, which may ship gamers scrambling. Metropolis Trial is a enjoyable, mini-open-world to discover that includes a set of secrets and techniques to search out, and I actually took a liking to only how a lot is packed into these occasions.

It took me a while to essentially get into the groove of Kirby Air Riders and its fairly ruthless strategy to action-racing – and this was after spending 20 minutes working the beneficiant tutorials that defined the methods at work. I nonetheless appreciated the sheer spectacle of all of it.

As soon as I discovered my stream throughout the chaos, it actually helped to deliver Kirby Air Riders into focus for me, and I actually appreciated the over-the-top spectacle that it’s as a racing sport. It is a very totally different kind of racing that units itself other than Mario Kart World and different video games of its sort. The truth is, there are facets of Kirby Air Riders that I nonetheless do not fairly perceive. OK with that as a result of I simply had a lot enjoyable making an attempt to drift.

Kirby Air Riders shall be launched on November 20, 2025 on the Nintendo Swap 2.