Kirby Air Riders is a cute, chaotic racing game

Kirby is a uniquely wholesome Nintendo character, yet his games often have a quirky mean streak to them. They're all about letting players absorb enemies and take on some wild powers to tear through vibrant stages with reckless abandon. That's especially true with Kirby Air Riders, the long-awaited sequel to the GameCube classic racing game, Kirby Air Ride. Much like the original, it's a fast-paced racing game starring Kirby and friends as they race through visually striking locales – it also happens to be one of the most chaotic racing games I've played in quite a while.

At PAX West 2025 in Seattle, I spent an hour playing Kirby Air Riders, reacquainting myself with the approachable yet surprisingly deep mechanics from the cult-favorite 2003 racing game. It's certainly interesting to see game director Masuhiro Sakurai follow up Super Smash Bros. Ultimate with a Kirby racing game. Still, after playing Air Riders, this racer carries that similar 'go-for-broke' energy that runs deep in his previous games.

Like the original game, you race through a variety of stages inspired by the Kirby series. The sequel takes things further with an expanded roster of Kirby characters, such as Meta Knight and King Dedede, each with their own unique skills and stats as racers. While you race through traditional tracks, Air Riders – much like the original – also opens up free-for-all action stages and mini-games that test your skills in drifting, gliding, and the classic ability of sucking up to gain new powers.

Kirby Air Riders totally doubles down on what made the original so unique, and that's what makes it such an incredibly bizarre take on a racing game. In many ways, Air Riders does to racing games what Smash Bros did for the fighting genre – injecting non-genre-conforming systems and concepts that may seem out of place for the type of game it wants to be.

However, playing Kirby Air Riders can take some getting used to, especially considering its fairly limited control scheme. Much like the original, acceleration happens automatically, and the game instead has you focus on managing movement and momentum with the control stick and a single button to engage boosts – and that's all you need for controlling your chosen racer's vehicle. But therein lies the nuance of playing; by managing momentum and speed, you can engage drifts and power spin attacks to overcome rivals on the track.

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It pays to be aggressive in Kirby Air Riders, as you'll gain speed by successfully landing attacks on enemies. A particular racer I used often was Return to Dream Land's Magolor, who could sprout ground spikes after landing from jumps. The sequel even expands upon the offensive nature of Air Riders with a new special ability button, which activates character-specific attacks after filling a meter.

I was really taken aback by how fast and chaotic races can get, and I found myself getting caught off guard by how diabolical the other rivals can get, unleashing attacks and snatching victory in a pinch. In fact, I closed two races in 2nd place back-to-back in the final second due to King Dedede engaging their vehicle's boosts at the right time. In that sense, it took me some time to come to grips with the game's rapid pace and how quickly things can turn against you.

This was especially true with the returning City Trial mode, which is essentially Kirby Air Riders' take on the classic kart-racer battle mode in the vein of Mario Kart 64 or Twisted Metal. In City Trial, players and CPU characters enter a mad dash to collect power-ups and upgrade their vehicles in a large open area, which culminates in themed mini-games to decide the final winner.

It took me some time to understand the larger goal of City Trial, as it felt like getting swept up in a colorful mosh pit – one where other players can snatch your vehicles. This battle mode quickly becomes extremely hectic and the dynamic events lead to some truly bizarre scenarios, such as bombs raining down on the arena, which can send players scrambling. City Trial is a fun, mini-open-world to explore that features a set of secrets to find, and I really took a liking to just how much is packed into these events.

It took me some time to really get into the groove of Kirby Air Riders and its pretty ruthless approach to action-racing – and this was after spending 20 minutes running the generous tutorials that explained the systems at work. I still liked the sheer spectacle of it all.

Once I found my flow within the chaos, it really helped to bring Kirby Air Riders into focus for me, and I really appreciated the over-the-top spectacle that it is as a racing game. It's a very different type of racing that sets itself apart from Mario Kart World and other games of its kind. In fact, there are aspects of Kirby Air Riders that I still don't quite understand. OK with that because I just had so much fun trying to go with the flow.

Kirby Air Riders will be released on November 20, 2025 on the Nintendo Switch 2.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/kirby-air-riders-hands-on-123040486.html?src=rss https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/kirby-air-riders-hands-on-123040486.html?src=rss