Twenty-one years after Kirby first took to the skies, he’s back on Switch 2 with a sequel that feels like a sugar rush in motion.
Kirby Air Riders isn’t just a nostalgia trip to those who played the original cult classic on Gamecube; it’s a whirlwind of colour, chaos, and charm that somehow manages to feel both instantly familiar and completely new.
From the moment you hop into one of Kirby’s signature ships, you know you’re in for a ride that’s as much about fun as it is about speed.
It’s hard not to instantly want to draw comparisons to Mario Kart World, Nintendo’s golden child of mascot racing games.
Mario Kart is polished, accessible and endlessly competitive, while Air Riders leans less on traditional racing and more on battle-royale and party-game energy, serving up short, high-intensity bursts of chaos that keep you on your toes.
City Trials is the standout mode in Air Riders. You can jump into more traditional races in Air Ride mode, but this is the hook that keeps you coming back.
A group of players drop into a city, scramble for upgrades, then face off in a random end-game event. It sounds simple, but it’s a loop that always convinces you to go for just one more run.
Races and challenges rarely last more than a couple of minutes, which turns each round into a tiny adrenaline rush.
Where Mario Kart feels like a smooth highway, Kirby Air Riders is a candy-coloured rollercoaster, full of twists, surprises, and moments that make you laugh out loud.
Playing solo is fun, but the real magic shines in multiplayer. The game’s layers of strategy reveal themselves as you experiment with drifting, gliding, power-ups, and different ships.
Glide too high and you slow down; hug the ground and you score a turbo boost. Attack an opponent at the wrong moment and risk being knocked off course, risk and reward are everywhere.
Even characters feel distinct: nimble Kirby versus a drifting juggernaut like King Dedede makes each match a playful puzzle.
From a design perspective, fans of Smash Bros Ultimate will feel right at home. Masahiro Sakurai’s fingerprints are everywhere: the crisp, satisfying controls, the polished animations, and the layered mechanics that reward experimentation echo Smash’s DNA.
It’s familiar, but Air Riders has its own identity, combining party-game chaos with subtle strategic depth.
At the end of the day, Kirby Air Riders isn’t about finishing first, it’s about having a blast while you get there. A wacky, fast, and colourful ride, it’s Nintendo at its most playful, daring, and brilliantly chaotic.
