Kirby Air Riders’ Exciting New Information in Today’s Direct

As shown off in today’s specialized direct, Kirby Air Riders comes at you with a showcase of what to expect in the new title. With 45 minutes of content brought directly by the narrator and director of the title, Masahiro Sakurai, of Super Smash Bros. fame. Taking on the Kirby franchise for the first time in over 20 years, with the last Kirby title he assisted with being the previous Kirby racer, Kirby Air Ride on the Nintendo GameCube. Continuing off from yesterday’s announcement of the Direct, here are some details from the stream!

What is Kirby Air Riders?

A racing spinoff of the Kirby franchise where you pick between a selection of racers, pick your machine, and race to the finish! Along the way, you can drift, glide, and steal abilities from enemies you can find along the track. All with the press of a single button! …Although the game now features a brand new second button: the Special button! Allowing the game to feature expanded gameplay by granting players more options to make use of.

Who can I play as in Kirby Air Riders?

With tradition, you can always rely on the pink puff Kirby himself to be playable. Along with a few color variants, if multiple players use him. As well, King Dedede and Meta Knight are returning from the previous Air Ride title. Though with a new game comes new characters. All new to the racing formula are fan favorites such as Bandana Waddle Dee, Gooey, Magalor, and Susie to name a lot of the big hitters.

And while he wasn’t able to receive his epic cooking title, Chef Kawasaki also joins the roster. On top of them, a few of the iconic enemies from Kirby also enter the fray, seemingly taking a cue from Mario Kart World: Waddle Doo, Cappy, Starman, and Knuckle Joe!

Along with the racers, you can also pilot several flying machines to race with. While I can’t cover them all, the iconic Warp Star and Wheelie return. You are able to play a race with up to 6 players, a seemingly small count considering the staggering amount in Mario Kart World, though it’s stated that any more players would make the game way more chaotic, and winning would be harder to achieve.

Throughout the race, you’ll find enemies that you can grab abilities from to use on the track. However, while it has been a series staple that only Kirby has been able to copy abilities (along with a few stragglers), this has been omitted in favor of letting every character copy abilities anyhow. After all, it is an important component of the Kirby franchise; leaving it out or giving Kirby a serious advantage does not sit right.

The Return of… City Trial!

The game mode fans have been craving for its return, City Trial returns with a bang. Coming with new upgrades that hope to improve the experience from the GameCube original. Such as a voting system, allowing players to vote for the stadium that is picked at the end of the race. As well as events that can happen mid-match, in the form of a portal that takes players who wish to partake in a small race.

For those wanting to know about the side mode, it is essentially a group of players that explores a map for around 5 minutes, collecting stat boosts. As well as finding the best machine to pilot, without damaging it along the way. It can be played by up to 16 players, over double the amount of a normal race.

As mentioned previously, a new button was added to the control scheme, with one of the features it grants the player being that you can use it to quickly hop from machine to machine if you are close to one, allowing for faster-paced gameplay than before!

While not made playable, Dyna Blade, a boss who originated from Kirby Super Star, will occasionally show up on the map like in the original. Allowing players to damage them who will drop items for you to collect.

One brand new thing added to this mode comes in the form of an all-new map to the game: Skyah! A map that takes place in a sky island, allowing for more variety than the previous titles’ singular map.

When to expect the game to release?

At the end of the direct, a mysterious trailer of a shadowy figure was racing along the track, followed by the announced release date of November 20th, 2025, exclusively for the Nintendo Switch 2. Along with that, the soundtrack for the game will be added to the Nintendo Music app library. With its main tune, “Starlit Journey,” is coming to the platform later today for those itching to get their first taste of the game’s music.

Here’s to hoping for a fun and exciting new entry to this beloved spinoff series!