I’ve played Kirby Air Riders and, don’t tell anyone, I think I like it more than Mario Kart World

Admittedly, I’m still reeling from the initial announcement of Kirby Air Riders way back in April.

A sort of racing and action game hybrid, the original Kirby Air Ride is a GameCube classic that I’m quite fond of, so seeing it return finally on Nintendo Switch 2 was quite the surprise. Even more so when director Masahiro Sakurai stated in his Kirby Air Riders Direct presentation that the presidents of both Nintendo and mainstay Kirby game developer HAL Laboratory put in a “strong request” for a follow-up.

Now, after sampling Kirby Air Riders at Gamescom 2025, I couldn’t be happier that it exists. The game feels like it’s going to be a strong, casual-friendly alternative to both Mario Kart World and the upcoming Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds.

With its devilishly simple control scheme and chaotic City Trial mode, Kirby Air Riders feels like a refreshing take on the racing game genre as a whole, and I’m happy that developers Bandai Namco and Sora Ltd have another chance to bring its unique gameplay to the masses.

And I even think I can see myself preferring Kirby Air Riders over Mario Kart World. That’s not to say the latter is a poor experience, far from it. It just didn’t stick with me the same way its excellent predecessor, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe did.

In comparison, Kirby Air Riders seems to be offering a refreshing, action-focused take on racing games that feels blazingly fast, and has plenty of hidden depth to boot.

Race to the finish

So what sets Kirby Air Riders apart from the surprisingly busy competition this year? It’s in a few things, really: control scheme, general game feel, and the kinds of modes that are on offer.

If you’ve watched the Kirby Air Riders Direct, you’ll have seen that the game relies on just two buttons during play: the B and Y inputs. Your vehicle, known simply as a machine, accelerates all by itself; no need to hold a button or tilt the thumbstick forwards. The Nintendo Switch 2’s B button is used to brake, but also drift around tight corners. This also grants you a burst of speed.

In Kirby Air Riders, the Y button also has some context-sensitive usages. It’s mainly used to activate your character’s specific ability when its gauge is maxed out, but can also be used to hop on different machines in City Trial mode. More on that madness later, though.

Sounds like there’s not much to it, right? Where’s all the depth, I mentioned? Well, that comes in with your choice of both rider and machine. Unlike the original, Kirby Air Riders features characters from across the franchise that you can select as your rider.

Besides Kirby, Meta Knight, and King Dedede, familiar adorable faces from the series like Chef Kawasaki, Gooey, and Waddle Doo make their riding debut. All have their own unique ability, too. Chef Kawasaki, for example, throws out spicy curry dishes at rival racers, while Meta Knight gains a massive burst of speed.

Choice of machine rather than character is arguably more impactful, though, as they’re all wildly different from one another in terms of how they control. The Warp Star offers a pretty beginner-friendly experience, and then you have the Winged Star, which has improved flight capabilities. I’m a big fan of the new Tank Star, though, which is unable to turn without the use of a boost charge. However, this means it can turn on a dime, completely ignoring traditional racing lines.

Much like the Super Smash Bros. games, then, there’s a sense of gameplay depth that goes beyond its relatively simple controls. It actually reminds me a lot of Iron Galaxy’s Divekick, a simple two-button fighting game that sourced its depth from the ways its different characters could perform their own, well, dive kick.

Escape from the city

Now we get into what I think will be the real meat of Kirby Air Riders’ offerings. City Trial does indeed return from the original game, and it was what the bulk of my Gamescom playtime was focused on.

If you’re unfamiliar, City Trial doesn’t really take place in a city at all. There’s the odd skyscraper, but it’s located on an island in the sky, appropriately named Skyah. It’s an utterly massive play space that has a few battle royale-tinged ingredients, funnily enough.

The first phase is five minutes of collecting power-ups across the gigantic map. These will influence your rider’s overall stats, including speed, flight, weight, offensive, and defensive power. Random events can take place to spice things up, too, such as the reveal of secret areas, a meteor shower, or a colossal avian Dyna Blade crashing down to wreak havoc.

When your five minutes are up, all players (up to 16 online, by the way) choose a minigame to take part in. You’ll have a choice of four, and you’ll ideally want to pick a game that suits your machine’s stats. These range from a simple, speedy drag race to a flight game where you’re tasked with hitting targets for points. Interestingly, though, this isn’t a vote-based system; during my demo, I was only matched against players who selected the same minigame as me, with other slots being filled up by CPU opponents.

City Trial, as it was back in the day, remains great fun, and its sheer chaos feels like a real equalizer. Not in the sense that its mechanics feel dumbed down compared to regular race events, mind you, but rather in that it feels like truly anything goes in this mode.

It helps, too, that the overall feel of Kirby Air Riders is immensely satisfying. Unsurprisingly, it has that Sora Ltd game feel to it, with ultra-responsive controls, incredible visual feedback, and a super slick user interface that’s as much style as it is substance.

In summary, I loved my brief time with Kirby Air Riders, and I’m incredibly excited to play more of it when it launches on November 20, 2025, exclusively on Nintendo Switch 2.

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