Back in 2003, the world was first introduced to Kirby Air Ride, a spin-off born from the success of the Kirby series so far (back then). That was quite a while ago now, and it felt inevitable that Nintendo would eventually drop a sequel — Kirby Air Riders.
I was fortunate enough to play Kirby Air Riders for about 40–50 minutes during a preview event earlier this month, and now, with a full review code courtesy of Nintendo, I’ve finally had the chance to dive in properly.
Getting to explore every mode and all the delightful chaos has given me a much clearer picture of what this game is really about. And one thing became immediately obvious: Masahiro Sakurai’s fingerprints are absolutely everywhere. The emphasis on simplicity, explosive bursts of action, and that unmistakable mayhem will feel instantly familiar to anyone who knows Super Smash Bros., Sakurai’s other iconic creation.
In short, Kirby Air Riders is far more than just another kart racer, and I break down exactly why over the course of this review.
Initial Load and First Impressions
Booting up Kirby Air Riders, the first thing you’ll notice is just how simple the controls are. You could practically map the core gameplay to one button, with the "B" button doing almost everything important. My guess is that it has been designed with younger or newer players in mind, but that doesn’t make the game shallow or uninteresting, because the truth is, Air Riders is nothing short of absolute chaos.
My early races were wild, borderline incomprehensible at times, filled with flashing abilities, explosions, enemies, and special abilities. The Waveflow Waters course deserves special mention here, as it quickly became the main culprit of sensory overload in the early stages of testing. At times, I genuinely couldn’t tell what was happening and had to guess when to turn. Yes, this was fun, but it was also a little daunting and stressful, especially when I played it at the hands-on preview early in the morning.
Anyway, when you first load in, you're prompted to take lessons, but the menus also quickly introduce the core modes: Air Ride, Top Ride, City Trial, and Road Trip. This selection of modes is way more substantial than what I saw in the preview session.
One of the immediate positives I took from my early experiences with the game is that it looks fantastic. Clean, bold visuals, precise colors, beautifully animated machines, all running smoothly on the Switch 2. I have actually become quite a fan of playing it in handheld mode, as all the chaos takes place right under your nose, and I can't fault the designs of any of the characters. It really does look amazing, even at times when you don't really know what's going on.
If you’re used to Mario Kart, you’ll adapt quickly to this game, but Kirby Air Riders leans more toward combat racing than pure speed. There’s constant battling, inhaling, outmaneuvering, and taking down machine enemies, all of which feel more Smash Bros. than Mario Kart.
Customization and Progress
Before I dive into each game mode, I'll quickly touch on the customization options and progress. By navigating to Extras from the main menu, you get the option to tweak machines and unlock new parts, headwear, and rider options using the in-game shop, known as the Miles Shop. Machines and items span all game modes, with progress in one often unlocking new items across the whole game.
As far as I'm aware, every machine can be customized, as per the image above, allowing you to add unique patterns, stickers, and even hanging accessories to your vehicle. And you're not limited to just one, as you can create multiple different styles and, let's just say, loadouts, for different riders, perhaps, which makes a huge difference to maintaining freshness each race/battle, even if it's only a cosmetic change.
One of the most customizable elements to the game, though, is your online license, which you can unlock more designs for the more you play the game. I'll discuss this more in the multiplayer section. For now, let's look at the different game modes...
Game Modes
Below are some in-depth impressions from each of the main modes, based on my experiences so far.
Air Ride
This is the bread-and-butter mode: up to six riders racing locally or online (four on one system plus two CPU). It looks familiar on the surface, akin to Mario Kart World in many respects, but descends into chaos quickly as well as evolves thanks to the unlock system — new characters, machines, and courses unlock rapidly across all modes.
For racing, I've found myself drifting towards Meta Knight more often than not, who felt the most consistently strong character. Paired with the Wheelie Bike, which boasts excellent turning and grip with a decent top speed, I felt totally in control.
Now, races are quite short, usually just 1–2 minutes, though you can slow down the game speed or extend up to a ridiculous 99 laps if you’re unhinged enough, though I typically stuck to the default lap recommendation for each course. However, one rule change I particularly liked was Swap Relay, where you’re forced to change machines each lap. It’s chaotic in a different way and adds a fun City Trial-like (more on this later) twist.
On the other end of the spectrum, when it comes to machines and character choices, is the Tank Star. This really wasn't for me, as the turning, though unique in how tightly it handles, just felt wrong. In one Swap Relay race, it quite literally tanked my lead, dropping me to 6th place in seconds because I couldn’t steer properly. Be warned...
During each race, you can inhale the powers of the on-course enemies you face, which is part of the reason Air Riders is so chaotic to play. Put simply, you're never really just racing.
Out of the inhale abilities, becoming the Wheel felt like a bit of a cheat code. Becoming just a single wheel, your turning becomes instantly razor sharp, and your speed ridiculously quick compared to being a simple machine, making it nearly impossible not to immediately battle for first place if you're not there already.
Favorite course? Tough choice between Waveflow Waters (chaotic but fun, as mentioned earlier) and Mount Amberfalls, which might edge out as my personal pick. And I haven't really touched on the special abilities yet, which you activate by building up your power bar, then activating with "Y".
Each machine has its own unique special ability, but I won't spoil what they are here. You'll have to play the game and uncover them for yourself.
Top Ride
Top Ride is a simple gamemode that brings back the original Air Ride’s top-down minigame as a full mode, allowing up to eight players online or local wireless. It’s fast-paced, a bit of fun, and quite old-school in its formula. But there's a reason top-down racing games aren't as much of a thing; these days, because this mode is not nearly as engaging as Air Ride proper.
The turning takes some getting used to, and there are different variations. You can select:
- Free Control – tilt the stick in the direction you want to go
- Steer Control – old-school left/right steering that changes depending on Kirby’s orientation
I ended up preferring Steer Control because it matched the arcade-like nature of the mode, even though sometimes left is right and right is left depending on where your machine is facing.
Stats (turning, grip) felt less important here than in Air Ride as well. I found myself winning most races comfortably, regardless of what I used, which made it less engaging to play. It’s definitely the least exciting mode to me, though it's by no means bad, just clearly intended as a side distraction rather than a core gamemode most will play regularly.
City Trial
This is where Kirby Air Riders fully embraces its fighting game energy. Here, 16 players roam a large city collecting power-ups, stealing machines, attacking each other, and ultimately preparing for a Stadium challenge. You can even fight in Team Battles that allow two teams of eight to scrap it out, adding to the mayhem and giving an alternative way to play.
There are three options to pick from in the City Trial menu:
- Trial – normal “collect then compete” gameplay
- Stadium – jump straight into challenges
- Free Run – practice / explore
By selecting Stadium mode, I uncovered that there are 14 minigames to play. That's an okay number, but I expected more given how many minigames the likes of Mario Party offer. Having played Kirby Air Riders for some time now, it doesn't appear that you unlock more minigames either, unlike how you do unlock more courses for Air Ride. Because of this, the minigame aspect does get a little repetitive. However, you do unlock Stadium variations, which alter the maps you can play each minigame in, though not the minigame itself. Thankfully, this does somewhat redeem the minigame aspect of City Trial.
Now, the thing I struggled with when loading up City Trial is its pacing. The default 5-minute collection phase is long, and it feels disproportionate when followed by a single minigame that’s over in 30 seconds to a minute tops. You can reduce the prep time, which I often did to its minimum of 3 minutes, but it still feels like a lot of buildup for too small a payoff. I wish you could increase the number of minigames you can play after building your machine, but having gone over and over the rule options, this option doesn't appear to be there.
To its credit, the collection phase in the city changes thanks to various Field Changes, with hazards and events getting more dramatic as the timer winds down. Field Events, bosses, and challenges spice things up, but still, it’s always the same city layout, based on what I have experienced so far.
Still, the City Trial is exciting and very different from Air Ride and Top Ride in concept. My favorite Stadium event ended up being Kirby Melee, which is exactly what it sounds like: take out as many enemies as possible in a fixed time limit. That's exactly the kind of thing I'm looking to play more of in what is, ultimately, Kirby Air Riders' main combat game mode.
Road Trip
Road Trip is effectively the game’s story mode, which does offer a lot to unlock and uncover, especially towards the latter stages. However, I won't give away any major spoilers here. Instead, I'm going to stick to my general thoughts and feelings about this mode that, essentially, merges all the aforementioned game modes into one.
The premise is this: you pick from three difficulties, then progress through a branching “road” where each stop presents three challenge choices. Completing challenges earns upgrades, unlocks items, and awards Road Mile, the mode’s exclusive currency. Road Mile is useful for machine upgrades, retries, and in-run purchases, though I highly recommend saving your money early and using it only when necessary later on in your Road Trip journey.
At the end of each stage, or sometimes midway through a stage, you come to a rest stop where you typically receive permanent upgrades (health, turning, weight, etc.). Boss battles appear at the end, or sometimes in the middle, of chapters too, and they ramp up nicely as you progress through the story. All good so far, but Road Trip isn't as fun in practice as it appears on paper...
Let me put it this way: Road Trip didn't click with me immediately. This is mostly down to the pacing, yet again. Any races you decide to play out of your three choices are usually just one lap; challenges are typically over in 30 seconds, and early on, it feels repetitive. But the further I got, the more interesting the environments and enemy types became. Around halfway through (based on the collectibles I've unlocked so far), it starts to feel more substantial, but that's a long way to go to find this mode more engaging.
It’s also worth noting that, despite being the “story mode", Road Trip contains very few story elements, as these are mostly short cutscenes progressing the Air Riders mythos. They’re enjoyable, but sparse. In fairness, though, I don't think a game like Air Riders really needs a dedicated story mode, as I have been quite happy just racing and battling in Air Ride and City Trial so far, which only gets more enjoyable once you play these modes in multiplayer (more on this shortly).
Regardless of all of that, it's still exciting to play, especially in the latter stages, and it certainly adds a bit more longevity and a sense of progression for single-player action, even if it’s not the mode that hooked me the most. And because each challenge you face on your journey is over quickly, you can progress quite fast. Whether that's a good thing or not, I'll leave for you to decide.
Paddock and Multiplayer
The Paddock acts as a lobby where riders can freely move, set up matches, chat, and choose modes. It's basically Kirby's green room, acting as a social hub for up to 32 players, giving Air Riders a more connected feel than most Nintendo multiplayer titles.
Then there's your License. Before going online, you can set up your own unique identity, which is surprisingly customizable with a wide array of stickers, frames, themes, text combos for your title (“Munchy Chonker” is one quite hilarious name you can give yourself), and more as you unlock content.
I will preface this by saying that most of my multiplayer time came from the Nintendo UK preview as part of their LAN setup, but even that was enough to confirm one thing: real players are a whole different beast. The chaos ramps up significantly when everyone has good aim, timing, and aggressive instincts as opposed to the CPU, even when set to their hardest difficulty. Seeing as I have been playing Air Riders early, my multiplayer experience is limited, but I definitely think playing with friends is where this game has the most potential.
The Switch 2’s new GameChat feature enhances the experience, especially when coordinating with friends for Air Ride or City Trial sessions. Much like Mario Kart World, Kirby Air Riders takes advantage of the new tech nicely and helps to make multiplayer the reason to keep coming back to Air Riders.
Verdict
I have been struggling to find the right way to sum up Kirby Air Riders, as parts of it I have very much enjoyed, but other aspects of it have been a bit of a letdown.
It's certainly chaotic but charming, simple to play but not boring, and bursting with energy thanks to some outstanding visuals. Also, the sheer number of unlockables/collectibles will make it a game that some of the more obsessive gamers out there will keep coming back to reveal.
Unfortunately, not every game mode hits what I would say is its potential. Top Ride is a fun, albeit limited, sidepiece, while Road Trip starts quite slow and is a bit repetitive, and City Trial needs less of the collecting and more of the minigames to make it more rewarding to play after building up your machine for 5 or so minutes.
In fairness, it's a game that fully embraces its mayhem, with it rather unapologetically overloading your senses. Sometimes that’s overwhelming, sometimes it’s confusing, but more often than not, it makes Kirby Air Riders uniquely entertaining.
If you like racing games with a combat twist, or you’re a longtime Kirby or Sakurai fan, this one’s definitely worth taking for a spin. But I also think it's going to be like Marmite to some, with the chaos and sheer pace of the action being way, way too overbearing to handle.
