20+ years ago, Masahiro Sakurai was brought in to help revive a game that was in development that just…wasn’t getting done properly. He helped fix everything and rebuild the game in 3.5 months, and it became a huge hit on the Nintendo GameCube. Today, decades later, Sakurai was back to reveal the first full set of details for Kirby Air Riders for the Nintendo Switch 2, and he had quite a lot to reveal. First and foremost, the game is vastly bigger than before, especially when it comes to its roster. In the original game, you could only play as variations of Kirby, and then also choose Meta Knight or King Dedede.
However, in the new game, there are plenty of new options, including all-time classic characters like Bandana Waddle Dee, Magalor, Knuckle Joe, and Waddle Doo, or you can be lesser-known characters like Susie, Gooey, or even Starman! Yes really. Sakurai seemed really happy about Starman being back.
Just as important is that there are now many more types of rides to be on, each with its own special stats, perks, and weaknesses. There are even some that race entirely differently from the other styles via the returning boost mechanic. Thus, as Sakurai notes, you’ll want to carefully choose who you want to be and what ride you want, as having a bad combo can hurt your racing efforts.
Speaking of which, the two main modes shown in the Direct were Air Ride and City Trial. Air Ride is the main race mode, where you’ll pick a course and race to see who wins. You can adjust the state of the race so the overall race can be longer, shorter, more impactful, and so on. There are plenty of details to work with here.
The returning City Trial is an upgraded version of what happened before. You’ll start off on a weaker ride and have five minutes to race around the area known as Skyah, picking up items and occasionally doing damage to foes so that by the end of the time limit, you’ll have a potentially maxed-out ride to take on the challenges to come!
A key thing to note here is the online play, as you can play with up to 15 other players in full online mode, or you can bring in seven of your friends together to play the game locally!
This only scratches the surface of what Kirby Air Riders offers, and Sakurai promised that there would be more to talk about in the future…before the game arrives on November 20th! To see the full Direct, watch the full Direct below:
