Somewhere, at the very far limits of my reflexes, is Kirby Air Riders. It is waiting for me in its infinite weird.
You want a game that’s fast? That pinballs you around and gets to incomprehensible speeds? Go go go go go go. That’s Kirby Air Riders. It’s Mario Kart on 70 shots of espresso.
I never played the original Air Ride game for the GameCube, but it has its fans. I have, however, played a bunch of Kirby games, as well as Super Smash Bros. Masahiro Sakurai, who has shaped both franchises, is the director of this game. And it shows.
Should you get this game over Mario Kart World, the Nintendo Switch 2’s other launch-window exclusive racing game this year? Hopefully, I can help you decide. My colleague Bridget Carey thinks Air Riders flies too close to the sun, that it’s too much, too chaotic to enjoy. I am feeling the opposite: Fly into that sun, baby. The more I play, the more I crave its speed.
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I love Mario Kart World, but there’s a valid argument that you could just stick with the already-classic Mario Kart 8 Deluxe instead, and maybe pick up Kirby Air Riders as your racing choice. Ask yourself if you love Kirby, and if you love Smash, and most importantly, if you love fast chaos.
The menus and game feel, the chaotic energy, and the rapid mix of skill and luck are very much like Super Smash Bros. The racing is sort of Mario Kart-esque, but very different, including a set of controls that could totally annoy you until you get used to them.
And in case you didn’t know, Sakurai’s work is rather weird. Like, weird, weird. I remember Kid Icarus: Uprising, a 3D shooter that he directed for the Nintendo 3DS console, which was a mix of bizarre controls, whimsical chaos and strange character design. That kind of stuff is here, for sure. But also, there’s a serious speed that reminds me of Sega racing games from my childhood, or F-Zero GX for the GameCube. Going back and playing F-Zero GX and Fast Fusion (a great, cheaper racing game), I feel that same full-energy rush as I do in Air Riders.
The Switch 2 shows off how rapidly it can juggle ultrafast gaming at smooth frame rates here, and the whole game at its most intense moments is far too fast for me to even see properly. But that’s part of the absurdity. Or, I’m growing into the speed of it. Races move quickly, battles in multiplayer modes also move quickly, power-ups that combine and produce explosions are all over the place, like Super Smash Bros gone haywire.
It takes a while to get used to those odd racing controls, though. You don’t press anything to move forward, but you press a single button to brake, drift, and charge up a boost. The physics of that ricochet-style racing feels like operating a series of slingshots, and each racing vehicle has a different subset of moves and restrictions. It feels more varied than the general sameness of Mario Kart vehicles.
There aren’t as many tracks, as far as I can see, as Mario Kart. So far, I’ve unlocked 18 tracks (both new and original Air Rider ones), and a bunch of characters and vehicles. Add to that the power-ups that can be snagged in the races, and it’s a lot of variation, but I want more. More, more, more.
There are also several modes: a straight-on race; a separate series of top-down racetracks that feel like Super Sprint or RC Pro Am (if you remember those); an incomprehensible (to me) City Trial mode that involves collecting power-ups for 5 minutes, stealing vehicles and then pairing off into a random challenge. The challenge could be a battle, a race, launching yourself into targets for points, floating for as long as you can… who knows? City Trial is the game’s party mode, and it feels like a holiday stand-in for Mario Party or Super Smash Bros.
There’s also a storyline mode that’s a string of increasing challenges plucked from all the other modes, which progresses through branching paths and stages, much like the story mode in Super Smash Bros. It’s also a way to unlock extra vehicles, stages and characters.
I’ve mostly been playing Air Riders alone, except for a few hours of online play with Nintendo and some other journalists. This game is designed for multiplayer play, either online or on the Switch in split-screen mode. Games vary from six racers in one mode, to eight in another mode, to 16 in City Trial. It’s hard to judge the online party play at the moment because no one else has had the game. As for playing at home with others, I haven’t done that either. I’m just going solo.
After over 10 hours, I still feel the addictive pull to play. And it’s so fast, chaotic and snackable that it can be smashed through in far less time than a typical Mario Kart World race. It gives me good nervous energy.
It’s also strangely forgiving of old dads like me who might not know what they’re doing. You can simply let go of the controls, and your vehicle will continue moving. Guardrails help pinball you forward even when you’re way off course. The rest is in subtle reflex strategies, floating and attacking and taking corners just right. It feels more like a battle game than a racing one.
There is also an impressive selection of menus and accessibility customizations, more than I’ve ever seen in a Nintendo game. You can re-map buttons, change the screen layout and tweak race parameters in multiple ways that I haven’t even explored yet.
Air Riders is a wonderfully unusual one. Still, it’s a game that feels a step below an absolute must-have, especially since it costs $70, a price that’s too high by at least $20. But for me, right now, it’s 100% the cult hit midnight movie of Nintendo’s Switch 2 Year One library.
And do my kids want to start playing too? Heck yes, they do. That’s a good sign that this game’s doing things right. Now, excuse me, my hamster needs to ride a giant battle chariot in the next race through waterfalls again.