 |
| Kirby Air Riders brings fast-paced racing to Nintendo Switch 2, with Kirby and other riders speeding across colourful tracks. |
Kirby Air Riders doesn't wait for you to get comfortable. You pick a machine, the countdown hits zero, and you are already moving. No gas button. No easing into it. The speed is just there, right away.
That threw me off at first. My hands kept reaching for a gas button that didn’t exist. Instead, everything comes down to timing. How you angle into a turn. When you tap the brake. When you let the machine run instead of fighting it. The first few races felt awkward. I spun out more than once. Then something settled. Corners started to line up. Boosts landed cleaner. The game stopped feeling strange and started feeling fast.
What helped was jumping between modes early. A few standard races to get my bearings. A Road Trip segment to slow things down a bit. Then City Trial, where things go sideways fast and you are making decisions on the fly. Top Ride works as a quick reset when everything else feels too hectic. None of it expects you to sit there for hours, so it never feels hard to jump back in.
Switching machines made a bigger difference than I expected. Not every bad race meant I messed up. Sometimes the machine just did not feel right yet. Swap rides, adjust how you take corners, and suddenly the same track feels manageable. Even familiar routes change depending on what you are riding.
Kirby Air Riders asks you to unlearn a few habits. It does not explain itself much. You feel it out instead. Stick with it for a bit, and the game starts meeting you halfway. That is when it finally makes sense.
Kirby Air Riders Details
Platforms: Nintendo Switch 2
Reviewed on: Nintendo Switch 2
Developer: Bandai Namco Studios, Sora Ltd.
Publisher: Nintendo
Genre: Racing
Available game modes: Single-player, Multiplayer
ESRB Rating: E10+ (Everyone 10+)
A Guided Detour With Road Trip
Kirby Air Riders is not trying to tell a big story, and that is honestly for the best. Most of your time is spent racing, experimenting with machines, or messing around in multiplayer. Still, there is one mode that gives everything a bit of structure. Road Trip.
Road Trip strings together short challenges across a map. You move from stop to stop, picking events along the way. Some are simple races. Others focus on gliding sections, quick objectives, or City Trial style setups. Nothing lasts too long. That makes it easy to jump in, clear a few challenges, and step away without feeling locked into a long session.
What I liked most is how flexible it feels. If you are still learning a machine, Road Trip gives you space to practice without the pressure of full races. I had a run where one challenge finally helped a slower machine click for me. The next race felt smoother because of it. That kind of quiet learning happens a lot here.
There is a light narrative running underneath everything. Short cutscenes pop up between chapters, giving a bit of context and tying the journey together. They are brief. You watch them, smile, and move on. They never interrupt the flow, and they never feel mandatory. If you are here just to race, they stay out of the way.
Road Trip does not change what Kirby Air Riders is at its core. It is still a fast, skill focused racer. What it does offer is pacing. When City Trial feels too wild or standard races start blurring together, Road Trip works as a calmer option that still keeps you moving. It fits neatly into the rest of the game without asking for extra commitment.
If that works for you, it ends up being a nice place to return to between longer multiplayer sessions.
 |
| Road Trip mode in Kirby Air Riders strings together short racing challenges across different courses on Nintendo Switch 2. |
Learning Control Without a Gas Button
Kirby Air Riders feels strange the first time you take control, mostly because it asks you to stop doing things you have been trained to do for years. Your machine accelerates on its own. That never changes. Every decision comes down to timing, positioning, and knowing when to interfere with that forward push.
Braking sits at the centre of everything. Hold it, and you charge a boost. Let go, and that stored speed fires you forward. Do it too late and you clip a corner. Do it too early and you waste momentum. It takes time to settle into that flow. I replayed the same track more than once just to fix a single turn that kept falling apart.
Gliding changes how you read courses. Some machines stay airborne longer than you expect, opening up safer lines or wider approaches. Others drop fast and reward tighter cornering. It is a small difference on paper, but it shows up quickly. A section that feels awkward on one ride can suddenly feel manageable on another.
Machine choice matters more than I expected. Swapping rides can completely change how a race feels. One machine punishes mistakes hard. Another feels easier to recover with, even if it gives up some speed. I had a rough first lap with one setup, switched machines, and immediately felt more in control. Same track. Different outcome.
Copy abilities keep races unpredictable without getting overwhelming. Inhaling an enemy gives you a temporary tool, whether that is protection or a quick way to disrupt someone nearby. Special moves take time to charge, so using them well becomes a decision. Hold it for the right moment, or fire it off to protect a clean run.
Kirby Air Riders rewards small improvements. You feel progress lap by lap, not through upgrades or menus, but through cleaner movement and better decisions. When everything lines up, it feels right. And when it doesn’t, you usually know exactly where it went wrong.
 |
| Gameplay in Kirby Air Riders focuses on drifting, boosting, and maintaining control through fast corners on Nintendo Switch 2. |
Built for Speed and Clarity
Kirby Air Riders has a lot going on the screen, but it rarely feels hard to read. Tracks move fast, yet you can usually spot the next turn, glide point, or hazard without panic setting in. That matters a lot when your machine never stops moving. You are reacting constantly, and the game does a good job of keeping things clear.
The courses themselves have a good mix of layouts. Some push you into long glides where you are adjusting midair and hoping you land clean. Others stay low and tight, with quick bumps and corners that punish sloppy timing. A few tracks throw in brief guided moments that shift your angle or send you flying for a second. Just enough to break the pattern. Not enough to feel scripted.
Machines are easy to tell apart at a glance. Their shapes, colours, and effects give you a decent idea of how they might handle before the race even starts. Once you are riding them, the animations sell it further. You can see weight shifts during turns, slight pauses before boosts, and clear reactions when attacks land. It all reads well at speed.
Characters keep that familiar Kirby look, and it fits the tone of the game. Expressions are simple but clear, especially when things go wrong. You notice it when you clip a corner or get hit at the worst possible time. Small details, but they help.
Sound design does a lot of quiet work here. Boosts have a sharp snap to them. Gliding has a softer whoosh that you start recognizing without thinking about it. Music keeps pace without pulling focus, which is exactly what you want when races get hectic. Performance stays steady throughout. Even in crowded City Trial runs, I never felt like the game was struggling to keep up.
After a while, you stop thinking about how it looks and just play. The game stays out of your way, and you can focus on hitting the next turn. That is exactly what you want in a racer like this.
 |
| Bright effects and clear character animations help Kirby Air Riders stay readable during busy races on Nintendo Switch 2. |
Where Things Get Unpredictable
Kirby Air Riders changes a lot once you start playing with others. The game still feels fast, but the mood shifts as soon as other people are involved. Matches become less predictable, and you start reacting to what everyone else is doing instead of just chasing clean lines.
City Trial is where this really shows. You drop into a large map with limited time and very loose direction. Everyone spreads out, grabbing power-ups, swapping machines, and trying to build something usable before the final event appears. The moment that event is announced, the tone changes. You realize whether your choices paid off or not, and there is no time left to fix them. I had one round where I felt set up perfectly, only to get caught out by a bad matchup right at the end. It stung. We laughed about it immediately.
Local multiplayer works well for quick play. You can actually see what’s happening, even when things pile up. Someone always gets caught out, everyone reacts, and suddenly you are running another race.
Online play keeps that same feel. The Paddock acts as a warm-up space where you can test machines, swap builds, or just mess around before committing to an event. Once a match gets going, it feels pretty close to local play, so moving between them is easy.
Top Ride fills a smaller role, but it fits. The top-down tracks are short, rounds end quickly, and it works well as a break between longer City Trial sessions. You reset, laugh off the last result, and move on.
Multiplayer is where Kirby Air Riders shows its personality most clearly. It is less about perfect runs and more about reacting in the moment. That balance makes it an easy pick when you want something competitive without taking it too seriously.
 |
| Split-screen multiplayer in Kirby Air Riders lets racers compete side by side on Nintendo Switch 2. |
Kirby Air Riders Gets Better With Practice
Kirby Air Riders took longer to make sense to me than most racers, and I mean that in a good way. The opening races felt awkward. I made mistakes that were clearly my fault. Corners I thought I had lined up fell apart fast. Then things started settling. Not all at once. Bit by bit.
What kept me coming back was how much control you gain just by sticking with it. No upgrades to chase. No stat screens to babysit. You improve because your hands start doing the right thing without thinking about it. A cleaner turn here. A better boost there. Even familiar tracks feel different once you change machines or approach them with more confidence.
The mode variety helps a lot. Standard races stay quick and focused. Road Trip gives you direction when you want something calmer. City Trial is where things usually get messy, especially with friends. Top Ride works as a quick reset when things start feeling a bit much. None of it feels padded. You move from one mode to another because you want to, not because the game is pushing you.
Multiplayer is where I spent most of my time. Not because it is perfectly balanced, but because something memorable always seems to happen. A last-second hit. A bad build that somehow works. A final event that flips everything you thought you had planned. You remember those moments way more than just winning.
Kirby Air Riders is not a racer you master quickly. It asks you to slow down, even while everything is moving fast. If you give it that space, it rewards you with a style of racing that feels different from what you have been playing for years. It has rough edges. It can be messy. But once it clicks, it is hard to walk away.
If you are willing to learn it on its own terms, this is the kind of game that quietly earns a permanent spot in your rotation.
Kirby Air Riders Review Summary
Liked
- Auto-acceleration shifts focus to timing and clean lines instead of holding a trigger.
- Machines feel meaningfully different, and swapping rides changes how tracks play.
- City Trial creates memorable matches that feel different each time.
- Road Trip offers short challenges that work well in smaller play sessions.
- Tracks stay readable at speed, with sound cues that support quick reactions.
Didn't Like
- - The opening hours can feel awkward while you relearn how to take corners.
- - It can be hard to recover after a mistake when a race gets crowded.
- - Some modes may not land if you only want traditional point-to-point racing.
Overall Assessment of Kirby Air Riders
Gameplay: ⭐⭐⭐⭐½ (4.5 / 5)
Graphics: ⭐⭐⭐⭐½ (4.5 / 5)
Sound: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ (4 / 5)
Replayability: ⭐⭐⭐⭐½ (4.5 / 5)
Comments
Post a Comment
Comments are moderated. Please stay respectful and on topic.