Kirby Air Ride, I think it’s fair to say, didn’t receive all that warm a welcome when it launched back in 2003.
With lucky GameCubers already marinating in the delicious driving juices of Mario Kart: Double Dash and F-Zero GX, Kirby’s cute and chaotic style of racing just didn’t seem to stick with the mainstream, and, as a result, it’s become known as one of those Marmite efforts. You either gelled with its new approach to slinging yourself around tracks or you didn’t.
For me personally, I’ve always enjoyed Air Ride’s novel take on track racing. I also think it’s a game that sings especially strongly in multiplayer, once everyone who’s racing fully knows what they’re doing. Indeed, this was the first GameCube title that allowed for LAN setups via broadband adapters, so the multiplayer was 100% where the gravy was at.
Taking everything into account, though, and despite my love for the OG, a sequel in the form of Kirby Air Riders was an unexpected announcement during the run-up to Switch 2. I certainly didn’t have it on my Switch 2 bingo card. So it’s lucky, then, given that it’s a bit of curveball, that it’s actually very good.
If I had to guess the two main issues people had with Kirby Air Ride back in the day, it’s a fairly even split between a lack of meaningful single-player content and how messy the game can seem to the uninitiated as races (and minigames) play out. Nintendo has obviously taken note of the first issue here, and as a result, we’ve got a sprawling story mode with multiple paths and endings and a metric ton of collectible content to keep you busy. It’s also got a very gritty and serious sci-fi tone, which is so at odds with the style of the actual racing that you can’t help but love it.
However, on the second problem, well, you’ll have to suck eggs and learn to play the game, I’m afraid. It all makes sense when you get into the sweet Air Ridin’ groove. It also wasn’t broken in the first place, so bravo to Masahiro Sakurai for sticking to his guns and keeping the soul of it all intact.
On that note: Air Riding. It’s not karting. This style of racing is a different beast entirely, and there’s a learning curve in getting a hang of the basics. In Air Riders, you take control of a rider from an ever-growing roster of Kirby and his pals, each of whom has an impressive variety of stats relating to their driving abilities, along with their own specials and tricks to pull off mid-race. Stuff like turbo boosts, area of effect attacks, and lots of other stuff I won’t spoil the fun of unlocking.
Once you’ve chosen Waddle De— I mean…whoever your favourite is, you then pick a machine. These aren’t just different for the sake of being different, nor do they simply have varying degrees of speed, boost, handling, and so on. No, in Air Riders, there’s depth. Proper depth. And it comes in the form of an impressive menagerie of unique machines that work in fundamentally different ways.
We’ve all seen the default Warp Star that gives you a nice balance of ground and air speed, but then you’ve got other options like the incredibly fast but terribly fragile Paper Star, the charging Tank Star, the slippery Slick Star, and even a few that transform or straight-up blink like electricity from point to point on a track as they slow then boost.
There’s a lot more to take in than you may expect at first blush, and especially if you’ve listened to naysayers over the years who say it’s shallow. Get a few seasoned riders into a race and things can get hugely intense.
With rider and machine chosen and on the track, you then get down to slinging yourself around. Movement forwards is automatic, the number one mental hurdle for newcomers. Your job as pilot is to make sure you utilise every opportunity on the track as it presents itself; to gain maximum forward momentum, by spinning, shifting around the course to hit boosts and jumps, and hammering enemies for mini-boosts or copy abilities to whale on your opponents with.
Once you ‘get’ it, it’s incredibly moreish, and almost zen-like in the focus that’s required to take down another rider who knows what they are doing. Feels too automated? You’re not trying hard enough.
Also at the core of the racing, beyond the automatic nature of travelling forward, you have the all-important boost/brake button. Holding down ‘B’ will slow your machine right down until it eventually stops. It also, at the same time, charges up your turbo boost. So there’s a strategy at the heart of everything here, and it’s a pleasing one in how it relates to some very nicely designed tracks.
You want to know these tracks well to target the best jumps, to know the best opportunities to slow right down for a full boost (tight corners are the most obvious example) or overtake, and to find these opportunities on any given course, whilst also battling a constant stream of other riders and NPC enemies, makes for an addictive and satisfying thing to settle into. It’s manic in all the right ways.
This sequel, too, is made all the more satisfying by some visually spectacular race sequences spliced throughout tracks. There’s a mix of sections composed of proper, tight-corner racing alongside flashy on-rails sequences where you whip between rails to collect/dodge and set yourself up to boost into whatever comes next.
Nintendo has gone to town on these rail sequences, with some elaborately cool parts where riders tumble and spin through all sorts of wild scenarios, and the game does well to give you just enough control at all times, and enough ways to steal a lead or damage your opponents, that even when you’re not fully in control of your machine, and even when weapons are auto-fire on proximity for a lot of the time, it still feels like you’re needing to think quickly and know the rules, tracks and machines inside out to make an impact, especially in the online mode.
The story mode is the real big addition, and it makes a good impression. I won’t ruin the narrative (and it’s not much to write home about), but the setup, where you race through 11 chapters composed of levels full of races and minigames, works well.
Between each race and challenge, you’re returned to your vehicle as it blasts along a road through each stage, and this gives you three options at all times on how to proceed, so there’s variety along the way, until you hit a mini-boss or boss race battle. It also gives solo players lots to unlock, there’s replayability in returning for alternate endings, and it acts as a fantastic training mode for the delights of online.
Before I touch on the online, though, you’ve also got the returning City Trial, Air Ride, and Top Down racing modes. These generally remain largely unchanged from what was offered up in the original game. City Trial gives you five minutes to gather as many collectibles as you can whilst blasting other racers before being dropped into a minigame for a grand finale, and it’s as chaotically frenzied as ever. Top Down mode is honestly addictive as all hell when you get into it (think Codemasters’ Grand Prix Sim on the Commodore 64 but with crazy courses and you’re 90% of the way there).
It’s the online, though, that’s the real king. I had limited time with it for this review, but I luckily found matches in Air Ride and City Trial modes against a few ferocious competitors and I couldn’t be happier with the performance. No input lag, no issues connecting, and in races it was buttery smooth, as it is across all modes.
The City Trial and Air Ride races really do come alive here, and I implore you to dig in, learn how to drive the machine of your choice well and reap the benefits of some surprisingly fierce competition – alongside all the jumping into targets, gliding competitions, and events where you try to eat more than everyone else. I mean, Kirby gonna Kirby.
As a solo game, Kirby Air Riders is a step up, then. Each of its modes brings over 100 collectible bits and bobs to unlock and create a picture scene from the story, so there’s plenty to work towards. The campaign itself also does a suitably Kirby-esque job in starting out relatively normal on the narrative front before ending up in some far-out sci-fi states. The whole thing also looks and plays as good as anything I’ve played on Switch 2 thus far, so you’re in for a treat on that front, my friends.
I’ve also got to make a special point here to mention the surprisingly deep machine customisation on offer. I was actually a little shocked! There are loads of textures, icons, unlockable pixel art, and all manner of ways to truly make all of your machines your own. It’s a lot, and it’s very, very welcome for solo fans.
Onto niggles, and I will say that the chaos — all of the huge icons and speeding around amidst groups of riders, especially in City Trials — can feel aimless at times. And it’s still every bit the Marmite experience. The story is silly, and most of the side games, which see you hit air targets, make long jumps, and so on, well, they’re not exactly riveting.
And in local multiplayer, whilst playing on the same system, we spotted that you lose the ability to see the stats for your chosen rider and machines, which sort of takes away the ability to inspect and learn on the fly. Let’s hope a little tweak can be patched in on that one.
Overall, then, I know it can be hard to make Kirby converts, but I genuinely believe Kirby Air Riders deserves them. This is a huge big colourful beast of a sequel. It’s jam-packed to the rafters with stuff to find, to unlock, and collect, and it has proper depth. There’s a ton of machines, loads of riders and courses, and — should you get stuck in and learn and “git gud” — you’ll find an alternative to the usual kart-racer style of business that absolutely deserves its place on any podium.
