Kirby Air Riders

Kirby Air Riders arrived on Nintendo Switch 2 at the end of 2025 as the long-awaited sequel to the quirky racing game from the GameCube era. It's led by Masahiro Sakurai, creator of the original Kirby Air Ride, and the project keeps its core idea intact: controls are deliberately stripped down to a minimum. The vehicle accelerates on its own, a single button handles braking and charging a boost through corners, so anyone can grasp the basics within seconds — yet truly mastering the tracks takes much longer, and the gap between players becomes obvious quickly.

Alongside classic races, the biggest draw is a mode where players first roam a sprawling area together, collecting upgrades for speed, handling, or defense, searching for hidden vehicles, and reacting to random events, before a final event kicks off whose objective they don't know in advance. This creates tension between investing time in exploration or keeping an eye on rivals, and every match plays out differently. Add to that a wide range of vehicles with very different characteristics, playable characters from the Kirby universe, and abilities taken from enemies mid-race.

Technically the game leans on clean, vividly colorful graphics and, above all, very smooth performance, which is absolutely essential for a title built around precisely judging turns. The online mode allows matches with multiple players, and local split-screen play is also supported. The music reworks classic Kirby themes and delivers surprisingly strong orchestral and rock moments. Reception was positive, with particular praise for the unusual variety of modes and for the game keeping its distinct identity instead of conforming to the standard racing template. Today it's a title that shines brightest in a group around a single console, since its simple rules let even people who otherwise avoid racing games join in.