It honestly feels like the universe rummaged around in my childhood, grabbed a handful of memories from the early-2000s, and said, “Yeah, let’s make that happen again.” Because I truly don’t know how, in any other timeline, we would get a sequel to Kirby Air Ride—a Kirby-themed pseudo-kart racer from the GameCube era that sold decently but faded into obscurity the moment it left store shelves. Nintendo never referenced it again. Kirby fans barely referenced it again. It lived on mostly as playground rumors and the occasional YouTube video essay. And yet somehow, nearly 20 years later, here we are with Kirby Air Riders, a spiritual (and literal) follow-up that exists in 2025. And even stranger—it was announced as Masahiro Sakurai’s first major post-Smash Bros project. Predictably, that announcement created three major reactions online. Camp One: people like me, basically early-Gen-Z GameCube kids who immediately lost our minds with excitement. Camp Two: a chorus of enraged Smash Bros fans who demanded to know why Sakurai “wasted his time” on anything that didn’t involve polygonal Nintendo characters beating each other senseless. And Camp Three: everyone else, collectively blinking in confusion, wondering how Kirby had a racing spin-off in the first place. But after spending my holiday break diving deep—and flying fast—into Air Riders, I can confidently say this: it’s a fantastic follow-up to a cult classic, a game laser-targeted at multiplayer chaos, nostalgia, and pure mechanical fun. It is also, in typical modern Nintendo fashion, wildly overpriced. But we’ll get to that.
The magic of the original Kirby Air Ride was its simplicity: one button for nearly everything, a weird assortment of vehicles, and a City Trial mode that felt like Nintendo accidentally invented the battle-royale format years before PUBG. Air Riders preserves that simplicity while layering on a surprising amount of modernization, but never so much that it interferes with the feel of the GameCube game. The controls are snappy and intuitive, with each vehicle feeling distinct. Some glide like soap across wet tile, others corner like bricks rolling downhill, and a few still feel like they were designed as a joke but kept in the final build because someone on the dev team had a personal vendetta against balancing. It’s perfectly in the spirit of the original. Tracks are vibrant, colorful, and unapologetically Kirby. The art direction hits that sweet spot of “Saturday morning cartoon meets premium HD polish,” with familiar biomes like Green Greens and Checker Knights returning in gorgeous detail. It’s a game that looks happy, and more importantly, plays happy. This, in turn, will make you play with a smile on your face as you try to figure out what is going on with the game’s insanely fast speed during gameplay.
Let’s just jump to it: people who still love Air Ride loved City Trial. The mode was the beating heart of the GameCube version, and I’m relieved to say it returns here in full force. Air Riders takes the original formula—roam a sprawling environment, collect power-ups, sabotage opponents, and prepare for a randomized final challenge—and expands it meaningfully. The city is larger, verticality plays a bigger role, and event randomness has been refined so it feels chaotic but not unfair. There’s a new weather system, more destructible objects, and even a few secrets tucked away for the obsessive explorers. Multiplayer absolutely shines here. Three family members and I spent entire nights yelling across the room as we scrambled for stat upgrades and shouted conspiracies about who stole whose Boost patches. It’s the kind of noise-pollution-heavy fun Nintendo used to specialize in, back when couches were required gaming hardware.
If there was ever any doubt that Sakurai’s fingerprints are all over this game, the menu design alone would’ve settled it. But beyond that, Air Riders has the same “polish-obsessed but secretly experimental” vibe that defines the best of his work. The tutorials are fast and creative, the challenges are addictive, and the game constantly rewards you for even the smallest interactions. And yet, despite the familiar design philosophy, it never tries to be Smash Bros. Sakurai seems genuinely interested in revisiting a strange idea from early in his career and pushing it forward with modern tech and a better understanding of moment-to-moment fun. There’s something admirable about that.
Everything above paints a picture of a wonderful multiplayer racer packed with character and charm. But here’s where I slam on the brakes: the price. For reasons only Nintendo’s accounting department knows, Kirby Air Riders launches at a premium—$69.99, sometimes even $79.99 at certain retailers during preorder windows. It’s simply too much. The game is fantastic, but it is also lightweight compared to most modern racers. The campaign is small, the track list—while stylish—isn’t massive, and the feature set is clearly built around multiplayer replayability rather than lengthy content. This should’ve been a $40–50 game, or at the very least one with a more consumer-friendly structure. However, since there are no current plans for DLC or Updates, this is a completely finished game. As it stands, the asking price is likely to deter many interested players who would otherwise fall in love with it. And that’s a shame.
Despite the sticker shock, Kirby Air Riders is a wonderful, joyful, beautifully chaotic sequel that embraces everything that made the original a beloved cult classic. It’s a love letter to a very specific era of Nintendo — one that younger players might find fresh and older fans will find deeply nostalgic. It’s the sort of surprise project no one asked for, but now that we have it, I’m honestly grateful. Sakurai didn’t just revive a forgotten game; he brought it back to life. And even though it’s overpriced, the sheer amount of fun per minute—especially with friends—makes this one of Nintendo’s most delightful oddball releases in years.
Score: 8 out of 10
Reviewed on Nintendo Switch 2