An August Nintendo Direct is indeed happening, though maybe not the one fans were expecting. The company announced a deep-dive into Kirby Air Riders is coming on August 19, the same day that Gamescom kicks off in Germany. We basically know nothing about the upcoming racer except that Kirby creator and Smash Bros. director Masahiro Sakurai is in charge and its scheduled to arrive before the end of 2025.
Tune in on Tuesday, August 19, for a livestreamed Kirby Air Riders Direct featuring about 45 minutes of information about the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 game,” Nintendo posted in its Switch 2 news app today. Nearly an hour about Kirby Air Riders? In this economy?
The game was originally revealed back during the Switch 2’s April Nintendo Direct but only with a cinematic teaser and Sakurai’s named flashed across the screen. It’s a sequel to the 2003 GameCube fan-favorite which included, among other things, the novel mechanic of players not needing to hold a button to accelerate. But it was also a weird also-ran for a console that already had F-Zero GX and Mario Kart: Double Dash.
The new Kirby Air Riders falls into a similar position with the Switch 2, coming so soon after Mario Kart World, F-Zero via the Switch Online retro library, and the great indie launch racer Fast Fusion. Expectations are also markedly higher for exclusives featuring first-party characters in the Switch 2 era, though Kirby Air Riders is a joint venture between Sakurai’s studio and Bandai Namco.
The upcoming game is supposed to round out Nintendo’s holiday release lineup, though we’re still waiting on Metroid Prime 4’s release date, a game that was originally teased back during the first years of the Switch 1’s life-cycle. A Kirby Direct probably wasn’t on most fans’ bingo cards for August, but hopefully the big Nintendo Direct that helps define the longer-term roadmap for the Switch 2 will still be coming soon.