[REVIEW] Kirby Air Riders | NINTENDO SWITCH 2

Welcome to EXPlay, (Explain & Play) the review series where we care not for scores, but tell it how it is when it comes to every game we get our hands on, all whilst including some lengthy gameplay, to give you, the reader, the chance to form your own impressions and views while reading and watching.

In this explanatory review, we’re covering Kirby Air Riders by developers, Sora Ltd. and Bandai Namco Studios:

Kirby Air Riders (Nintendo Switch 2)

Kirby Air Riders is a sequel to the Nintendo GameCube game Kirby Air Ride, which was released back in 2003. It was teased to have been in development by Masahiro Sakurai during one of his videos on the Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games YouTube Channel. The original game was one of Sakurai’s last projects before leaving HAL Laboratory, and it seems rather fitting that his latest title, since semi-retiring from the video game development world, would be a sequel to one of the last Kirby games he worked on.

Now, before we get down to brass tacks, I want to say on record that I have never played the original GameCube Game Kirby Air Ride. I know that it exists, and from what I have researched online, there are plenty of similarities and features shared between both games. However, it does share several similarities with another game series that I have played, and that is the Super Smash Bros. (more on that in a bit). So, with that little disclaimer out of the way, let’s dive straight in!

For anyone unfamiliar with this Kirby Spin-off series, it is a racing adventure game that features the loveable cast of characters from the Kirby series and has several racing circuits situated on and around Kirby’s Home, Planet Popstar. Players can choose a rider and a machine to ride on and take part in all sorts of different vehicular activities. In Kirby Air Ride, players were limited to playing only as Kirby at the start, and could unlock Meta Knight and King Dedede at some point later in the game. As for Kirby Air Riders, you have them already available at the start and can unlock many other characters like Bandana Waddle Dee, Waddle Doo, Rocky, Knuckle Joe, Chef Kawasaki, Suzie, Rick, Gooey, and more. You also have more of a selection of machines that you can ride, but you do need to unlock them first by completing challenges.

The controls of Kirby Air Riders are pretty straightforward, but they can take some getting used to. The machine will accelerate and move on its own in a forward motion, and the left joystick is used to turn left and right while riding on the ground. When your machine is airborne, you can use the joystick to turn left and right as usual, but also point your machine upwards and downwards by tilting the joystick forward or backward. The A, B, X, and Y buttons all have the same function when racing. By pushing down either one of the four buttons, you can boost, brake, drift, inhale enemies, and use power-ups. It seems confusing at first, but once you get to grips with how each mechanic is utilised, it will eventually become second nature to you. To help get to grips with the controls and how to best use each technique, there is a dedicated Lessons mode that will take you through the basics of how everything works.

Kirby Air Riders features several game modes that each bring something unique to the table. Air Ride is the typical racing mode, where you can choose a circuit, rider, and machine, and get straight to racing. You can adjust the rules to add more or fewer riders and laps, and alter how many enemies appear throughout each circuit, among other things. In Top Ride, you race against opponents from a top-down perspective, which reminds me of the old Micro Machines racing games. These circuits are shorter than those in Air Ride, but the whole circuit can be seen from this angle, giving you more time to anticipate upcoming corners.

City Trial is probably the game mode that most players might be interested in. Apparently, it was the most well-received mode from the original game, and Sakurai-San himself was eager to show off the revised game mode in a dedicated Nintendo Direct for Kirby Air Riders. It has players scramble across a map looking for upgrades to power up their machines while a timer counts down to zero. They can smash into boxes to pick up their contents, swap out, and jump onto unclaimed machines, and use power-ups to hit their opponents to steal their upgrades.

Sometimes, events can occur during the City Trial that can cause adverse effects to the environment or to the racers themselves as a means to shake things up a bit. A secret area can open up, hazards may fall upon the land, the machines may spin around automatically, etc. When the timer has reached zero, the participants are given a choice of four stadiums where they must put their upgraded machines to the test in the hopes of coming out on top. The Stadiums consist of four different challenges that may task you with defeating as many enemies as possible, defeating a boss, collecting the highest number of points, or gliding the furthest distance. If you are not sure of which Stadium you should choose, you needn’t worry, as you will see a Recommended tag on the stages your machine build is best suited for. 

The last game mode in Kirby Air Riders is Road Trip. All of the previously mentioned game modes can be played singularly or in multiplayer. Road Trip, on the other hand, is purely a single-player experience. It is essentially a story mode that explains why Kirby and friends are riding around on machines in the first place. It takes place throughout eleven different stages, with most of them having branching paths to different areas within each stage. Your rider races along a single road and is met with a choice of three challenges that can reward them with specific power-ups. The challenges themselves are made up of different game modes that you will have already come across in the other game modes, like Air Ride races, Top Ride races, and Stadium Challenges. Upon beating the challenge, you will be able to progress to the next one and so on. 

It isn’t all challenge after challenge, though. You can sometimes find useful items on the road to help assist in an upcoming challenge, a mini boss battle, or a shop where you can purchase upgrades and even new vehicles to use in Road Trip. Once you have reached the last stage, you will have to fight the final boss with all your acquired upgrades. However, in True Kirby fashion, there is also a True Final Boss to fight, but whether you will face it or not depends on the level of difficulty you have chosen.

I find the Road Trip mode quite reminiscent of the Subspace Missionary game mode from Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Perhaps not in terms of gameplay, but the story cutscenes are extremely well animated, and the visual effects are amazing. The parallels don’t stop there, though, as a lot of Kirby Air Riders‘ menus, submenus, text font, OST, and the way the checklist challenges are presented look like they have come straight out of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. In fact, the main title menu is almost a perfect mirror of SSBU, with the exception that it reads Kirby Air Riders instead. Although it may feel like a carbon copy of SSBU’s homework on the surface, the original game on the Gamecube actually has the same UI and features, and its not surprising really when Sakurai worked on all three of these games and even used a lot of the stylization and fonts in his own videos for his YouTube channel, but hey, if its not broke, why fix it? It’s always best to stick with what works and what people are familiar with, and this is something Sakurai knows particularly well.

Kirby Air Riders is a game that feels strangely familiar and completely new at the same time. The racing style is unique to say the least and while I don’t dislike it, I do find it takes a while to get used to. A lot of party racing games like Mario Kart World and Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds share virtually the same or very similar controls; meanwhile, Kirby Air Riders combines a lot of those button functions to just two buttons and the joystick for steering. The idea of hijacking another player’s machine just as it is about to be destroyed is also an interesting twist. There are a lot of fun and interesting things Kirby Air Riders does and I will admit that I do find it to be very fun and will certainly replay it from time to time, but I don’t think it is going to dethrone Mario Kart World as the Nintendo Switch 2’s best racing game for 2025. Still, if you are a big Kirby fan, then you are probably going to enjoy Kirby Air Riders a hell of a lot more.

Game Specifications:

Developer: Sora Ltd., Bandai Namco Studios
Publisher: Nintendo
Platform: Nintendo Switch 2 (Physical)
Genre: Action, Party, Racing
No. of Players: 1 – 4 (Single System), 2-16/32 (Online)
Release Date: November 20, 2025
Price: $69.99
File Size: 21.7 GB
Nintendo.com Listing