Game: Kirby Air Riders
Genre: Action, Racing
System: Nintendo Switch 2
Developer | Publisher: Sora Ltd, BANDAI NAMCO Studios | Nintendo
Age Rating: US 10+ | EU 7
Price: (Digital Download) US $69.99 | UK £58.99 | EU € 69,99
Release Date: November 20th, 2025
Review code used, with many thanks to Nintendo Europe.
Kirby Air Riders is a Nintendo Switch 2 sequel to Kirby Air Ride, released on the GameCube back in 2003. It’s predominantly a racing game, but just like Kirby Dream Buffet, there is more to it than dashing round a track.
Will this be a breeze in the park, or a demolition derby?
On Your Marks…
There are 4 modes in Kirby Air Riders, each with a unique take on racing. Air Ride is a more traditional race, with the aim of finishing first. Top Ride, where you are still aiming for first place, but it’s a shorter race around a mini course via a bird’s-eye view. City Trial is a competition to power up your machine before going head-to-head with other riders in a mini-game stadium. Finally, Road Trip, the single-player story, to uncover the mystery of Zorah.
Before launching into a race, it’s best to complete the Lessons sections. Each section will give you an explanation and practice of the skill(s) being taught. As this is Kirby Air Riders, and not some ex-plumber in a go-kart, there are some unique aspects to racing, namely the copy abilities. Similar to the main Kirby games, your chosen rider can inhale passing enemies and use their ability against others for a short time. Grab a sword, needle or fire enemy and unleash that power, but try to avoid those sleeping enemies, else you’ll end up napping. Enemies can also just be inhaled and catapulted at others on the track – anything goes in order to gain the advantage!
Each rider and machine has different strengths, and you’ll learn which rider and machine works best with your style of racing. You’ll start with access to 4 riders and 3 machines, with each of the race modes having about 8 courses. However, you’ll unlock many more riders, machines and courses as you play and complete various goals.
Race to Win
Air Ride
The courses in Kirby Air Riders are shorter and quicker than in other racing games. It’s exceptionally fast and furious (so much so that it’s hard to get an unblurred screenshot!). You can drift round corners (quite a few of them are hairpin or switchback turns), grind and slide along rails and gracefully glide through the air.
As well as using copy abilities or enemies as ammunition, you can also use spin attack moves to try to destroy competitors’ machines. In addition, as you defeat enemies, your special gauge increases and, once full, can be used to unleash a unique attack, generally flinging the competition out of the way.
Top Ride
The aim is still to finish first in Top Ride, but you have a totally different perspective on the action. Peering down from above, you can control your rider and machine with either free control (moving the stick in the direction you need) or steered mode (using the horizontal action of the stick to turn clockwise or counter-clockwise). Power-ups and copy abilities still appear, but you ride through them to activate, rather than inhaling. Some of the courses have teleports, rails or jumps to move you around the arena, with various obstacles to aid or hinder progression.
City Trial
In City Trial, each player starts with the basic compact star machine, and you have five minutes to roam around the city arena swapping machines and collecting upgrades, with the aim to create the ultimate (and in some cases legendary) vehicle. However, this isn’t a leisurely drive!
Hazards, mini boss battles, short races, bonus boxes and more are sent to distract and reward you. Collect as many power-ups as you can, while avoiding competitors’ spin attacks, which will damage your machine. If you can’t find any food items to restore your machine’s health and it gets destroyed, you’ll have to run around looking for a new machine to use. Some power-ups are grey, which will decrease that stat, but you can use this to your advantage if you’re trying to create a specific type of machine. Using certain riders (like Meta Knight or King Dedede) will automatically smash boxes containing power-ups with their sword or hammer, rather than using the spin or boost attack.
There are many secret or out-of-the-way locations in the city arena, so it’s worth using the Free Run mode to explore, without the pressure of competing. Although the city arena layout is generally the same each time you play, there are small changes to some locations and colourways which help to keep Kirby Air Riders City Trial fresh.
At the end of the five minutes, you’ll be given a choice of four mini-game stadiums, with the recommended option(s) highlighted. Here, you compete directly against other players to win the game. One of the stadium mini-games is a boss battle, and in this case, you will all work together to defeat the boss.
Although the City Trial mode is frantic, it doesn’t feel as punishing as the Air Ride or Top Ride, especially when racing is not your ‘thing’. All three modes have a Free Run option, with Time Trials available in Air Ride and Top Ride. You can also just play the stadium mini-games, without completing the city arena part.
Kirby Air Riders Multi-Player
Kirby Air Riders can be played solo, against CPU-generated riders. However, Air Ride, Top Ride and City Trial can all be played with other gamers, whether that’s via a single system, local wireless or online. There are several ways to play online, via ranked matches, quick matches or the Paddock, a gaming lobby where you can play more customised matches. Although you can create a Paddock to be open to anyone, you can configure it for friends or invitees only. In this gaming lobby, you can share your collection of vehicles via the garage, compete against each other in any of the race modes, listen to music and send emotes with limited wording.
Other players will be able to view your licence card, a customisable snapshot of you as a racer.
There are also going to be in-game events, where participants will be able to earn rewards to customise their licence and machine. The first event, called “Everyone, to the Stadium!”, starts on 27th November (7 pm PT).
Road Trip
Road Trip is the single-player adventure in Kirby Air Riders. It starts with a cutscene, giving the start of the story about Zorah. It’s an interesting, if somewhat slightly bizarre tale, which I will not divulge too much of. Needless to say, as you progress along your Road Trip, you’ll uncover more memories to explain the mystery.
The Road Trip consists of 11 stages, with about a dozen parts to each. You will have choices to make along the road, whether that’s selecting a type of race or challenge, or selecting a power-up. You can complete the Road Trip in ‘casual’, ‘normal’ or ‘hard’, and can freely swap between them at any time.
I played on the ‘casual’ setting (aimed at those wanting to focus on the story), and didn’t find the stages too challenging, although some needed multiple attempts to complete. The early stages seemed a little too easy, but the challenges do get harder. Quite often, towards the latter stages, I found myself mashing the button and wiggling the stick in the hope of winning, rather than playing with any great skill. That said, it’s quite addictive, and you’ll find yourself thinking, “Just one more stage….”
At certain points, you’ll have a rest area, where you can select one of three power-ups, and occasionally, you’ll encounter a shop on the road, where you’ll be able to spend some of the Road Trip specific in-game money you’ve acquired on more power-ups and boosts.
Once you’ve finished your first Road Trip, you’ll be able to play a ‘New Game +’. You’ll need to do this if you want to unlock everything available, and the ‘New Game +’ carries across any acquired machines and leftover Road Trip money you’ve got. My first Road Trip took about 4 hours to complete.
Who Doesn’t Like a Checklist?
Kirby Air Riders has an amazing 750 achievements to tick off on a checklist grid, across the 4 different modes and online play. Initially, there are no clues as to the requirements, but you’ll easily unlock some with your first attempt at each mode, and when you do, the four surrounding achievements are revealed. Each completed goal will uncover a square of an overall picture and give a reward of a sticker or other decal, or even unlock a new racer, machine or course.
The checklist achievements really help to get the most out of the game, especially when winning races doesn’t come naturally. Many of the goals require just participating a certain number of times, or scoring high in the stadium challenges. You’ll eventually have to win races and defeat bosses, but at least you get a sense of accomplishment from the start.
Express Yourself
The in-game currency you earn for completing races, milestones and achievements can be spent at the in-game shop. Here you can buy stickers, patterns, accessories and shapes, all of which can be used to decorate and customise your machines and license. You can even buy hats and other headwear to put on your rider.
If you read my Donkey Kong Bananza review, you will know that my artistic skills are very limited, so customising my machine is not something I have spent too much time doing. If you do create a masterpiece, you might want to sell it in the in-game Machine Market. As with most marketplaces, you never know what you might find. Check out some of the ones which NintendoLife found.
One of the most bizarre rewards I’ve encountered in any game are the Kirby Air Riders gummies. These machine-shaped gummies seem to serve no other purpose than to play in, like a large gummy soft play pit.
Gameplay
The Lessons section in Kirby Air Riders explains all the controls clearly, via a short video and a practice session. These can be referred to at any time. Personally, I found moving the left stick from side to side to perform a spin attack quite tricky to master, but luckily, some riders will attack automatically. The B button is used for drifting, braking, inhaling and exhaling, which can get a bit confusing, but as the action is so manic, you don’t really have time to press many other controls.
There are various settings within the Options menu, including text size, colour filters, brightness, rumble and other HUD settings. You can also turn off the checklist reminders and on-screen help prompts.
Kirby Air Riders autosaves regularly during the Road Trip, with the ability to create a separate save file at the end of each stage. In other modes, the autosave occurs at the end of the race, so no progress against the checklist is lost.
As the machines race around the Kirby Air Riders courses, there is a lot of turning and twisting, explosions and flashes. To be honest, at times it’s a visual overload, so it might not suit all gamers.
Conclusion
Kirby Air Riders is an intense, fast-paced racing and battling game, with additional challenges to add variety. The price point may be restrictive for casual gamers, so I hope they introduce a demo and GameShare, so that more can experience the joys and thrills that Kirby Air Riders offers.
If racing is your happy place, then it’s probably Two Thumbs Up. For me, there was enough to be greatly entertained, with the racing being challenging at points, but not so hard to make me feel incompetent.
Final Verdict: I Like it a Lot 
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