admin Verdict
Kirby Air Riders is a visually stunning whirlwind of a game, filled with tons to do – if you like meticulously crafting vehicle builds and racing at breakneck speeds. It’s confusing for newcomers and difficult to look at, at times, but it’s sure to bring some people a ton of joy.
I’m not entirely sure what I was expecting from Kirby Air Riders when Nintendo announced the sequel out of the blue during a Direct, especially as someone who has never touched a GameCube. Some fusion of Masahiro Sakurai’s iconic pink puffball with Mario Kart, perhaps? Regardless of my preconceptions, there was no way I was going to be ready for what this game had in store for me.
Kirby Air Riders takes you on a tour of races, challenges, and battles, all at breakneck speed, leaving very little time to stop and smell the roses. Every inch of this game is beautifully crafted, from the race courses and machines to the various menus. Gameplay looks stunningly vibrant on my TV, catching every second of the action with clean animations that bring the characters to life.
Much like other racing games in Nintendo’s history, your choice of rider and machine before each event is crucial, as both have their own stats that you need to consider. While every rider can use Kirby’s inhale and copy ability, they each have their own special move to break through the pack, from Chef Kawasaki’s barrage of spicy curries to Meta Knight’s drill rush. Different machines have pros and cons, too. Some are slow on the ground but speed up in the air, some are tanky but difficult to steer, and the Wagon Star machine completely ignores the boost charge mechanic.
I tried my best to play around with a range of different riders and machines, but I honestly had the best luck with Blue Kirby on the standard Warp Star machine. I like Blue Kirby’s snowball special, and the Warp Star has an even balance of all stats, making it great for beginners. I need as much help as I can get, because Kirby Air Riders is deceptively confusing and difficult, despite its simple control scheme.
The game has three main multiplayer modes: Air Ride, City Trial, and Top Ride. Air Rides are your standard lap races, but they are nothing like the kart racing games that I’m used to. If I had to summarize this game in one word, it would be fast. Arguably too fast. Air Rides are stressful and chaotic, with most only lasting just over a minute, giving you very little time to get used to the track’s terrain and enemies. Machines continue accelerating, sometimes reaching speeds of over 200km/h, and I just can’t keep up. I can barely see what I’m doing, even with all of the effects turned down, and I can’t play local multiplayer with my partner because just watching me race makes them feel travel sick.
Top Ride is a little easier to get to grips with, but it’s a bizarre inclusion in my opinion. You’re racing machines from a top-down view, like you’re controlling a Scalextric on your living room floor. It’s cute, and I definitely had more success with it, but it feels like a separate game to Kirby Air Riders. Then there’s City Trial, the game mode that gave me the most grief. You pick your rider and then have five minutes to battle other players in an arena to collect different stats and build the perfect machine.
This is the game mode that I know some people will love, especially if you enjoy getting really good at specific fighters in Smash or certain builds in other games. For me, it’s absolute chaos. I struggle enough to steer the machines in the direction that I want in the first place, and then you add constructing a build on the fly to the mix, while fighting off a dozen other racers? Practically impossible.
I know that, for some of you, all of this sounds like a dream, and I can’t deny that it’s all executed with polish and flair. This sort of gameplay just isn’t for me, and I think a lot of other newcomers will feel the same if they dive in blind. The solo campaign, Road Trip, is an interesting addition, introducing you to the various game modes, riders, and machines through the lens of a roguelike jaunt along a mysterious story, but even this fails to grip me for long.
I honestly think my main issue with Kirby Air Riders is that it doesn’t feel like a Kirby game. It’s something entirely different, filled with Sakurai’s creative vision, and attributed to Kirby for the sake of it. That being said, as well as the other positives that I’ve already mentioned, there’s a lot to praise here. The soundtrack is phenomenal, as one would expect, there are tons of accessibility options that I don’t usually see in Nintendo first-party titles, and the machine customization is an absolute blast. Honestly, I might become a custom machine designer for the in-game marketplace instead of taking part in races.
Overall, Kirby Air Riders is a fantastically well-made, bizarre, chaotic stampede of a game. I reckon it’ll face the Marmite treatment, with long-time fans and detail-oriented gamers loving it to pieces, and families and casuals like myself being a little confused. Not every game is made for everyone, and that’s okay. There’s plenty of content to explore, so the game definitely earns its price tag, but don’t expect to swap Mario Kart World for Kirby Air Riders as your family game of choice over the holidays.
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