Kirby Air Riders: An Awesome, Complex (but Overpriced) Racer

Kirby Air Riders is, like all good Kirby games, colorful, happy, and endlessly charming. It also contains a surprising amount of depth that you wouldn’t expect from its cute exterior. If you’re thinking of passing this game by because it looks like it mainly appeals to younger gamers, think again. Kirby’s appeal knows no age barrier. 

Kirby Air Riders is Simple, but Complex

Kirby Air Riders for the Nintendo Switch 2 is a reimagining of the GameCube’s Kirby Air Ride. Like its predecessor, it strips racing controls down to the basics. There is no acceleration button – your racer moves forward automatically. You press B to brake and drift around turns, and you press Y to activate your special moves. Those two buttons and the left analog stick are all you need to get yourself through the game. 

Still, the simple controls hide a complex array of strategies. Since you can’t accelerate, you have to think about how to apply other ways to speed up, such as boosting your vehicle with the B button, defeating enemies, or riding the star trails your opponents leave behind. Since this is a Kirby game, certain enemies will also give you copy abilities, which let you go rushing through the track, applying destruction in your wake. However, make sure you use those abilities at the right times. 

There are also lots of different machines, each of which handles differently and thus comes with its own pros and cons. Some machines are fragile. Some machines have unique ways of boosting. Some machines are good at gliding, while others might be better at turning. As such, you have to learn every machine’s unique capabilities. 

You’ll Spend Hours in City Trial Mode

You can race in two modes: a regular racing mode and a top-down racing mode. Regular Air Ride racing involves high-speed treks through gorgeous tracks, including a track that goes through the ocean and a track that goes through a crystal cave. Top-down races are quicker, and they resemble old-school isometric racers. Both modes are super fun, and they can be played in single-player or online.

However, the meat of the game is the City Trial mode. In this mode, you and the other players go exploring a city environment, looking for different power-ups to build up your machine, along with weapons that you can use against your opponents to steal their machines. After five minutes in the city, you and your powered-up machine compete in a random event. Events might include gliding towards targets, short races, or ducking laser gates, just to name a few.

In addition, there might be random events in the city that help or hinder your quest for power-ups. There might be a random short race that gives you a chance to win power-ups, random boxes of power-ups might fall from the sky, or a monster might even attack. You never know what will happen in City Trial mode.

A Bunch of Unlockables

The game instantly encourages you to keep playing by giving you a ton of unlockables. For starters, you get a license, which you can customize with different unlockable backgrounds and decals. Is it necessary? No, but it’s fun to play with. In addition, you can unlock characters, machines, and tracks. You can even customize machines with unlockable parts and dress the characters in unlockable hats. You will be wanting to play just one more race or City Trial to see what you can unlock next.

There is also an adventure mode of sorts called Road Trip, where you go driving on the open road, completing different mini challenges in order to power up your machine for the boss battles. The story mode might not be as rich some other story modes (like the story mode in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, for example), but it’s still a fun time.

The Elephant in the Room 

Kirby Air Riders is an amazing game, but there’s one element that hinders the experience: the price. It costs $70, which is a rather steep price for a lighthearted racing game. Though the game has a lot of content that would certainly justify a $60 price tag, $70 is really pushing it. Nintendo really might want to reconsider how they price games on the Switch 2, especially after Mario Kart World became infamous for its $80 price. 

Speaking of which, is Kirby Air Riders better than Mario Kart World? No. Kirby Air Riders has plenty of charm and fast-paced excitement, but it lacks the adrenaline rush and the open world of Mario Kart World. Still, Kirby Air Riders is an excellent game in its own right. If you’re a fan of Kirby or you just want a charming racing experience, don’t miss this game.