Kirby Air Riders Review: The Switch 2’s Best Racer Storms Into the Lead

Kirby Air Riders offers a racing experience like no other. It’s fast, hectic, and reintroduces one of the best battle royale modes ever made in a video game.

As the next first-party racing game to launch on the Nintendo Switch 2, it could be exactly what you’ve been looking for if you found yourself underwhelmed with Mario Kart World.

Like the red plumber’s cross-country adventure, Kirby Air Riders was built solely for the Nintendo Switch 2 and as such, looks gorgeous and plays like a dream. Kirby games have always been colourful and that hasn’t changed with this Switch 2 debut. Environments are gloriously vibrant and backed by the usual playful symphonies and metallic melodies, all precisely chosen for the appropriate track.

Lightspeed laps

While Kirby Air Riders is predominantly a racing game, don’t be entirely fooled as it’s actually got quite a bit in common with fighting games too.

Your vehicle will power forward by itself, all you need to do is steer and press one of two buttons: one for braking, drifting, and Copy Abilities, and the other to activate your special move.

The important thing to know about Kirby Air Riders is it’s unforgiving. Unlike Mario Kart World, the game won’t drop a handy little item onto your lap to get you back in the race. You’ll need all of your skill, will, and determination to climb up the leaderboard and secure first place.

This means fighting dirty. When driving behind another racer, your character will automatically attack them, with greater power if you’ve absorbed one of Kirby and co’s many Copy Abilities along the way. You can also spin the vehicle by wiggling the control stick to bat away oncoming players. Every time you strike another player or one of the enemies scattered across the track, you’ll gain a burst of speed, so looking for openings that you can turn into combos becomes essential especially if you’re only a few places behind the lead. After a vehicle has sustained too much damage, it’ll explode, costing precious seconds that you’ll need to either make up for or take advantage of to win.

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There’s so much depth already and that’s before you start getting into the vehicle selection, all of which will alter your playstyle in several ways.

Some vehicles are all-rounders like the default Warp Star, whereas others are bulkier and, as such, built for combat. There are vehicles that excel at gliding but drag their feet on the ground, and a few sacrifice speed for better handling or vice-versa. That’s just scratching the surface and your selection will come down to personal preference. My favourite was the Shadow Star as it felt like a good all-rounder and paired well with my favourite Kirby character, Meta-Knight.

Unless you’ve played the original Kirby Air Ride on the Nintendo GameCube, Kirby Air Riders will feel like a rude awakening compared to other racers that were released this year such as Mario Kart World and Sonic Racing CrossWorlds. However, it doesn't take long to get with its program and there are several tutorials to help you get to grips with its unique control methods.

Races feel intense, precise, and absurdly fun, especially when you start raising the difficulty of its NPCs. The only downside is the track selection. Because you’re only taking part in individual races rather than a Grand Prix, the selection is rather limited compared to other racing games, though that doesn’t mean there’s a lack of quality to balance out the small quantity. Tracks have plenty of flavour to them with rails, gliding segments, dash panels and some unique set-pieces such as colossal cannons and rapid waterfalls. Additional tracks can be unlocked, remade from Kirby Air Ride. It would have been nice to have just a handful more tracks to add some longevity to the racing mode, but then again, real gamers will know the races were never the best part of the first game, and they’re not the best part of the sequel either…

Escape to the city

City Trial is the crème de la crème of Kirby Air Riders and where you’ll spend most of your time with the game.

In short, City Trial is a chaotic battle royale mode that sees a large group of players collide for victory.

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Dropped into an open map, players are tasked with collecting as many stat-boosting items as possible within the time-limit, before taking part in a finale event that’ll put your stats to good use. Your vehicle’s speed, weight, gliding ability, damage output and more will change as you roam around the city, and it’s a good idea to collect as much as possible so you’re ready for any kind of event.

All players start out in a Warp Star but you can hop off your current ride and grab another littered across the map. Be careful though, if it gets destroyed you’ll have to find a new one on foot in addition to losing a massive chunk of your stat-boosts.

City Trial is without a doubt the best part of Kirby Air Riders. Aside from the copious amounts of random events to spice up your run, it really kicks your gameplay into a higher gear. With the right stats plus additional power-ups, you can blitz your way across the map, sometimes faster than your eyes can keep up with. It’s immensely satisfying to barrel into a crowd of competitors with your Special active, harvesting their stat-boosts and forcing them to grab a new ride, not to mention hunt for Legendary Machine parts. Collect three-of-a-kind and you’ll have a powerful vehicle to unleash on your opponents.

I had a lot of fun with this mode, and it ate away at the majority of my time with the game. I simply couldn’t put it down.

Cross-country coasting

A new addition to Kirby Air Riders that wasn’t in the first game is a story mode called Road Trip. After selecting your character, you’ll embark on a progressively difficult journey in an almost roguelike fashion.

Like City Battle, you start out in a basic Warp Star with default stats and travel down a long road filled with upgrades and challenges. You’ll need to decide which reward or challenge you want before you get to it, and some will even grant you a new vehicle which can be swapped out whenever you like. Challenges can take the form of races or battles against an NPC, with stronger opponents granting better rewards but an increased risk of failure, so choose wisely.

After cruising through each area, you’ll be rewarded with an animated cutscene that tells the game's story, and why these mysterious machines suddenly started appearing on Planet Popstar.

It’s not the most exciting mode to jump into at first, especially if you try it straight after City Trial, like I did. You start off incredibly slow which may turn players away at first, but the pace does pick up if you stick with it. In the end, it still wasn’t quite my tempo, but worth playing solely for the story details.

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Unlockables and customisation

Kirby Air Riders has a lot of unlockable content for those up for a grind. The range includes new characters, rides, the aforementioned tracks, and decorative items in the form of hats and decals. Unlocking stuff works quite similarly to Super Smash Bros Ultimate by completing objectives to smash tiles. Some unlockables can be bought with coins though which you’ll earn from taking part in the game’s various modes and by completing certain challenges.

I did have a dabble at customisation despite it never really being high on my priorities when playing racing games, and by the time I was finished, Meta Knight was wearing a crown and riding a Shadow Star with his face plastered all over it. It’s simple stuff but a great way to stand out from the competition.

Riding off into the sunset

Kirby Air Riders may fall short in terms of track selection compared to Mario Kart World, but I’ll be damned if it isn’t the best racing game released this year, and one of the best first-party Nintendo games to launch on the Nintendo Switch 2.

It’s easy to learn but difficult to master gameplay loop will leave you desperate to improve, and City Trial provides the perfect playground to practice in, keeping you entertained for hours on end.

Pros: Takes full advantage of the Nintendo Switch 2’s power, tight and riveting gameplay loop, plenty of unlockable content, City Trial is the most fun you’ll have all year

Cons: Limited track selection may leave racers wanting more

For fans of: Mario Kart World, Sonic Racing CrossWorlds, Crash Team Racing

9/10: Exceptional

Kirby Air Riders launches on 20 November exclusively for the Nintendo Switch 2. A review code was provided by the publisher. Read a guide to our review scores here.