Kirby Air Riders Review – Pure Racing Bliss – TopLineDaily.Com

22 years is a long time to wait for a follow-up, but that’s just what Nintendo did with Kirby Air Riders. The GameCube original was released in 2003, and over two decades later, it’s racing back to the forefront of the zeitgeist thanks to a team-up between Bandai Namco Studios and Sora Ltd.

Initially, I was expecting a direct competitor to Mario Kart World, but I ended up discovering something so much more than that. There’s so much to dig into and unlock with Kirby Air Riders that I’ll be playing this game for months on end and beyond.

Variety Is Key To Kirby Air Riders

There’s A Lot Of Modes And Variations

Kirby Air Riders Bandana Waddle Dee spinning spear for Spear Cyclone Special ability.

Kirby Air Riders has two huge strengths that I immediately noticed out of the gate. It’s very easy to pick up (but challenging to master), and there’s a ton of stuff to do in it. On any given day, either one of those virtues can go a long way, but Kirby Air Riders manages to nail both with aplomb.

Unlike many other kart racers or similar arcade-type games, Kirby Air Riders thrives in simplicity. Your vehicle will automatically propel itself, but there’s also a one-button system that controls drifting, boosting, and inhaling (which allows any driver, not just Kirby, to inherit abilities, just like the core series). A second button is added with sparing use cases, like triggering a special ability (typically once per match), or hopping into a new vehicle in the party-oriented City Trial mode.

Of course, there are plenty of nuances involved, like flight (which some vehicles aren’t capable of), discerning shortcuts in each map, taking out enemies with copy abilities, and the vast combinations of riders and vehicles; but for the most part, you can pick up and play the game and learn the basics without having to turn on auto-steering or auto-acceleration for newcomers, like you would in Mario Kart or Sonic Racing: Crossworlds.

In that sense, it’s a joy to boot up and play from the first minute, as you can even skip the relatively short and comprehensive tutorial if you want. From there, you’ll have the option to play one of the game’s core modes: Air Ride (core racing), Top Ride (an isometric top-down mode with different courses), City Trial (a battle royale type game set in a big city hub), and a fully-fledged single-player campaign. Including every track from the original game is a thoughtful move, as it allows for a degree of preservation of the GameCube classic, while also allowing players to mix and match all the nuances and benefits from 22 years of developer hindsight.

“Discovery” really is the keyword of Kirby Air Riders. Rarely have I felt so compelled to try out every vehicle in a racer like this, just to see what they’re capable of. Some vehicles are fundamentally in a different class compared to others, like one kart that’s essentially a giant engine, which needs to be “revved” occasionally to continue riding.

The vehicles that are capable of flight are among my favorites, as they add an entirely new dimension to some of the game’s tracks. Being able to find new shortcuts I’ve never seen before is a blast, and miraculously, many of the vehicles actually do feel balanced, despite operating at wildly different wavelengths.

City Trial Is Back And Will Be A Local Party Hit

It’s Worth Mentioning Specifically

Kirby Air Riders Cappy character using Booster Cap Special abiliity

While racing on the core 18 tracks feels like a complete game on its own, City Trial is probably where most people are going to be spending their time with Kirby Air Riders. Put simply, it’s a battle royale that tasks up to 16 players with upgrading their vehicles on a giant map: the titular “city,” and its surrounding biomes.

After the allotted time comes to a close (by default, it’s five minutes), every player is plopped into a “winner takes all” minigame that’s either chosen by the CPU or voted on by everyone in the session. Like Super Smash Bros., multiple elements of City Trial can be customized, including the length of time you spend in the city itself (down to a three-minute minimum).

As it was in the original game, City Trial is a hit in my household. The party-style randomization of each session is a blast, as the city sandbox evolves throughout the match, hosting wacky events like UFO landings or micro boss battles. I’ve played City Trial for hours on end without witnessing the exact same event repeat, which goes to show you how deep the mode really is.

It’s also a fantastic opportunity to let loose and enjoy everything the game has to offer in a lower-stakes setting. Since you can change vehicles on the fly in City Trial, you can get a quick feel of how everything works mechanically, without laboriously choosing each one individually in a traditional racing mode.

Kirby Air Riders Is A Game Everyone Can Enjoy

Whether You’re Serious About The Genre Or Not

Kirby Air Riders Chef Kawasaki using Superspicy Cooking Special ability to cause opponent to spew flames

For testing, I played a Kirby Air Riders session with people who were separated by entire generations, and everyone latched onto something. It has an old-school feel to it in the sense that it’s a “complete” game out of the box, with seemingly limitless amounts of content to unlock. Funneling players into each mode to earn corresponding unlocks is also a genius idea, preventing people from just playing one gametype and getting bored.

With all the different meaningful combinations of vehicles and racers, I’m going to experiment with Kirby Air Riders for weeks, if not months, to come. For me, it manages to stand head and shoulders above Mario Kart World as one of the definitive racing games on the Switch platform.