More Thoughts From Me Special Edition: Kirby’s Air Ride Impresses

Today Nintendo had a Direct and it focused one game: Kirby Air Riders for Nintendo Switch 2. I watched the Direct and I couldn’t believe how much I really loved what I saw. Let’s talk about it!

When a 45 minute Nintendo Direct was announced for Kirby Air Riders I was skeptical. I had never played the original and while I like Kirby, would I even be interested in a Kirby racing game? I decided to watch the direct anyway.

And I was completely blown away by this game! Kirby Air Riders looks like a ton of fun.

While at first you go “oh its Mario Kart but you can control the forward movement” and then you see just how much the game had to offer. There’s the racing mode, of course, that looks like Mario Kart but also reminds me a lot of F-Zero. The speed is much more of the latter than the former, though you can slow things down to Mario Kart mode. The vehicles you control in this game are much more different than Karts too and the special moves are pretty amazing. You also have copy abilities no matter what character you choose.

The best mode though appears to be The City Trial mode. This is where you go into an open world like environment. Unlike Mario Kart World though, you are only limited to five minutes in the open world. After that, you go into a stadium mode where you take on different types of competitions.

While I though that the racing mode looked really amazing, it was the City Trial mode that absolutely floored me and sold me on this game. Its an open world but not as open as Mario Kart World and the time limit adds another twist to this mode. It looks like so much fun. There are so many random events that happened while you explore and I’m sure not everything was shown. It was hinted that there is a lot more to the game.

Also we found out about online multiplayer with 16 players. Thats pretty cool!

I also love the colorful graphics of the game and the fantastic soundtrack. Kirby Air Riders looks so much better than thought it would. I really should never doubt Nintendo.

I think one of the most surprising aspects of the whole thing is that we did get a release date at the end but its set for November 20th. I thought the game was coming out sooner. It does make you wonder what Nintendo will bring out next month. And when it is Metroid Prime 4 coming out?

In any case, Kirby Air Riders is yet another reason to get a Nintendo Switch 2 this year. I’m glad I already have one. I have no idea if I’ll get a chance to play this game, hopefully there will be a demo at least.

What did you think of Kirby Air Riders? Will you be checking it out?

More Thoughts From Me is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed here are mine and mine alone. Wow. What a cool looking game.