You can really feel the Super Smash Bros. coming through in Kirby Air Riders. The distinctive tone of a Masahiro Sakurai game is clear to see, from the menu UI, to the iconography of the collectables, and the general gameplay ethos. With the first Global Test Ride demo event kicking off this weekend, and ahead of a release later this month, I had a fresh opportunity to play this game.
Having already gone hands-on back at Gamescom in August, I was much better prepared for what Kirby Air Riders actually is. At first glance, it appears to be a follow cam racer in the vein of Mario Kart, but from the style of the racing to all the other modes that are featured in the game, it’s really nothing like Nintendo’s main kart racer.
For one thing, your vehicle just starts driving with no input from yourself, and the game will even (as I remembered from August) tell you off if you push forward on the analogue stick. Thankfully, I had far fewer visual slaps on the wrist this time around, and I quickly got back into the groove of this one-button racer. You really just have to concentrate on turning and pressing the context-sensitive B button, which will cause you to slow down and drift, gobble up incidental enemies, and batter any nearby rival racers with a Copy Ability that you’ve picked up.
There’s a few exceptions to this simplicity, with a spin attack needing you to waggle the left stick, and pulling back and forward to fly and glide from any ramps. Oh, and your character’s special ability is unleashed by hitting Y. And that’s basically it, though there are some more advanced techniques to learn, such as pumping the brakes to drift through corners without losing speed.
I got to put this to the test once more through the standard Air Ride mode, racing through three courses – the grassy meadows of Floria Fields, the almost biblical sea-splitting of Waveflow Waters, and the charming sunset ride of Mount Amberfalls. The racing is pretty rapid, with plenty of tight corners, the odd side route, and the three tracks having different numbers of laps depending on their length. Waveflow Waters felt particularly manic, as you could easily crash through the water walls of some sections and end up in the wet stuff for a few moments, and there’s some cinematic grind rails and jumps that pull some unexpected moves with the camera.
Revealed during the jam-packed Kirby Air Riders Direct a couple weeks ago, there’s also top-down racing with the Top Ride mode, but I feel that the real heart of this game is in the City Trial and the vehicular combat party game vibes that it gives off.
This was something I was utterly unprepared for during my first hands on – I didn’t play the GameCube original and hadn’t seen the first Direct for this game – but knowing more of what to expect, I could get into the swing of things a fair bit more. There’s tons of characters to choose from, each with their own special ability, and they can be combined with a bunch of vehicles that all have distinctive characteristics, but you have to go and find the vehicle you want when starting off in City Ride.
You’re basically just racing around and running into as many pick ups as possible. No need to be too discerning about what you grab, as they all go to boost your vehicle’s stats… unless they’re greyed out debuffs that you need to try and avoid instead. Skyah is a deceptively compact-feeling map with a ton of secretive feeling paths between the various locations and layers to explore, and the action is constantly mixed up by having portals to drive through, and then the big Field Events to try and draw players together. These can be things like a mini race, a huge pillar to collectively try and destroy, gigantification, or teleporting you all to a dustup derby arena for a knockout battle.
What’s startling is just how much the speed and action ramps up through the few minutes that you’re racing around in Skyah. If you’re sat a bit too close to the screen (as we were), it can be genuinely a bit disorienting just how quick you end up going.
And then, as time is up, you have the other pretty unique distinction of being able to choose the final challenge that you face in the Stadium. Four of these final modes are presented to you, and instead of voting and everyone being lumped together from that, you can actually just go and do the thing you want. If you’ve ended up with a machine that has been built for combat instead of speed, you probably want that Dustup Derby instead of a straight up race, while your more agile vehicle might help with dodging lasers, a better flier will be better suited to Air Glider or High Jump, and there’s some 90s game show classics like trying to hit scores markers on a big wall.
I feel that Kirby Air Riders, much like its forebear, is destined to gain a cult following. There’s a deceptive simplicity to the game that can make it accessible, and that can enable the more chaotic side of the game in City Trial. It’s also clear just how much passion Masahiro Sakurai and the team have for this game. It might not be for everyone in quite the same way as Smash Bros. is, but it’s certainly worth finding out if it is for you with the online tests over the coming weekends.
