It’ll sound surprising at first that this is the least-played game on this list, but it’s also the most recent release. So there’s that. That kind of explains it.
- Release year: 2025
- Developer: Sora
- Platform: Switch2
If there’s one thing that I never expected to happen during the Switch 2 reveal, it was that it would be getting a sequel to Kirby Air Ride. This year. But lo, here we are, and Kirby Air Riders is a real thing that has happened. I played the original game a lot on GameCube, and while it was a great time, it was very arcadey and meant for short bursts. Also, multiplayer, which has been a pretty consistent problem for me. But now we have this sequel that has a full-on campaign and online play, which solves both of those problems handily.
Now, I say that Kirby Air Riders has a campaign mode, but it’s really just a way to string a bunch of challenges together. There is a story, and it’s told though long, elaborate, very expensive-looking cutscenes. But at the end of the day, it’s kind of meaningless. An immobile robot drifts through space until it lands in a secluded part of Pop Star. It wishes to move, and the Fountain of Dreams propels that wish up to Nova, who very much monkey-paws it in the most excessive way possible. It’s ludicrous and makes little sense and again, is pretty meaningless in the greater Kirby canon, but hey it’s an excuse to have all these characters get together to race, right?
And race you shall! As the weirdest racing game ever made, Kirby Air Riders is played using only the control stick and a single button. Well, a second button was introduced in this one because each character has a special move now. But the simple control scheme works really well, even though it takes some getting used to. In fact, getting used to Kirby Air Riders’ quirks is kind of the name of the game. It looks like a chaotic fun racer, but it’s actually got a lot of depth under the hood, with plenty of stats and systems for you to work with.
The base game is pretty straightforward racing: you pick a character and machine, then set off on a single race across one of over a dozen colourful tracks. The Top Ride mode plays a lot like Super Off-Road or any number of other isometric racing games from the 90s, where the game is heavily simplified and you can see the whole race course at once. City Trial is what made Kirby Air Ride famous, dropping you and three other players on a large map, where you would drive around to collect power-ups for a few minutes, then be pitted against each other in a random challenge. Hope you built up the right stats!
Of the new things Kirby Air Riders adds are, as stated before, an online mode where you can play against folks in any of the modes described above. I’ve played a bunch of online races, and I’ve been thoroughly humiliated in just about every race. I did okay in Top Ride, at least. There’s also that campaign that I mentioned, called Road Trip, which is kind of a roguelike mode in which you drive along a track, and have to choose from three options at set intervals. There can be races, arena battles, random challenges, bosses, free power-ups, all sorts of things. It’s also way longer than I thought at about three hours long. And to be honest, it took me way longer to finish than it should have because I kept dipping out to go play a few more online races.
There’s a heck of a lot crammed into this unassuming package, and while it’s definitely tuned for a very specific audience (fans of the original game), I think Kirby Air Riders is accessible enough for anyone. I’m not a biggest fan of racing games myself, try as I might, but really all you have to do is slap a coat of Kirby-themed paint on anything to sell me on it. Kirby Air Riders isn’t really something you’ll likely sit and play for hours on end, but it’s a blast to bust out for a few races here and there. Also, you can become a gummillionaire!