A 45-minute deep-dive into Kirby Air Riders revealed all the ways it’s setting itself apart from other kart racers. While director Masahiro Sakurai started the latest Nintendo Direct out by joking that his new Switch 2 exclusive is basically just Mario Kart, everything that followed built the case for why it’s actually much more. What essentially amounted to a Kirby Air Riders Let’s Play starring the Smash Bros. director himself revealed new modes, mechanics, and the game’s release date.
Kirby Air Riders will come to Switch 2 on November 22. In addition to the main racing mode, it’ll also feature a series of other contests from time trials to a destruction mode that looks an awful lot like Twisted Metal. The menus and sound-effects look straight out of Smash Bros. Ultimate, including the win screen that shows characters applauding. The entire showcase even ended with a surprise reveal for what seems to be a new Kirby character that looks like Meta Knight if he were dragged out of an alternate, post-apocalyptic dimension.
The main attraction in Kirby Air Riders is the Air Riders mode. While it’s structured much like the original GameCube release back in 2003, a second button has been added to the control scheme. In addition to pressing a button to drift around corners and building up boost, characters also have access to a special ability that can be unleash to speed up or attack other players. The courses are also bigger this time around to accommodate more racers, with an updated roster and vehicle garage for players to mix-and-match with.
But the new City Trials mode is what looked far more interesting. Like Mario Kart World it drops you into a big sandbox where you drive around exploring and collecting power-ups. Random events than spawn that you can join to compete in with your upgraded vehicle. The challenges range from battles to gobbling up as much food on the map as possible. There are also mini-games reminiscent of hitting the sand bag in Smash Bros. with players aiming and flinging themselves at a wall of different scoring cubes to rack up points.
Whether that’s all enough to make Kirby Air Riders feel like the big November release the Switch 2 deserves remains to be seen. It’ll arrive just a month after Pokémon Legends: Z-A, and we still don’t know when Metroid Prime 4 is coming out. Sakurai ended his stream saying that there’s still more to reveal in Kirby Air Riders, hinting at another Nintendo Direct coming sometime in the fall. In the meantime, it would be great to get the GameCube version on Switch Online.