Kirby Air Riders Reviews
Like many others I thought we were in for another Mario Kart World fun racer game, when Kirby Air Riders was first announced and also wondered why Nintendo decided to release both games so close together in the Switch 2's launch year. However after the gamescom demo and with each additional hour into the full game it became increasingly clear to me how different the two games are and especially how much depth the Kirby spinoff has. Kirby Air Riders is much more than just another fun racer: the game modes all give their own twist to the game and City Trial in particular offers seemingly endless hours of fun & enjoyment, while the game runs almost perfectly smooth on the console.
Review in German | Read full review
Kirby Air Riders is like a box full of charming toys. There’s a lot to poke your nose into and prod away at, but it’s not long before I realize there just isn’t much to its many offerings. While its sense of polish and variety is impressive, this has come at the devastating cost of focus. You get lots of ideas and gameplay quirks that are individually fun for a while, but seldom do they come together to form something especially satisfying or cohesive. In its attempts to have lots of things that might please everyone, it winds up not doing any one thing all that exceptionally. As a racing game, it’s mechanically shallow and tracks offer little in terms of skill or engagement, often focused on looking nice rather than providing the player with fun challenges that are interesting to revisit. City Trial fares somewhat better, but having only one map whose changes generally aren’t that impactful means it has to fall back on randomness to do anything interesting. Sure, there are things like Roadtrip or Top Ride that are kind of fun in their own right, but again, these are just a collection of distractions rather than anything substantive on their own. I suppose that’s fitting as the final form of an old GameCube that suffered from many of the same issues, but it’s a shame that time didn’t do this format as many favors as I was hoping. I think fans of the original game will like, if not love this, so in that sense I can’t call the game a failure despite my many misgivings with it. It wanted to be a bigger version of Kirby Air Ride, and for better and for worse, it wound up being precisely that.
Sakurai-san fully realizes the vision he sketched out over twenty years ago in the previous chapter for GameCube. Part kart game and part action game, Kirby Air Riders manages to stand out from easy genre comparisons and shine with its overflowing originality. A content-rich package offering countless hours of fun, further enhanced by impeccable technical execution. An unmissable title for many, provided you accept two strict conditions: the chaotic nature (at times truly significant) and the depth scattered among the many (perhaps too many?) facets of gameplay.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Kirby Air Riders is the definition of a cult classic in sequel form, with a generous budget and developed by a very competent team. It's as crazy as it is wonderful.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Kirby Air Riders is a thrilling new take on a Kirby idea that fans have been missing for a long time. It successfully combines racing, arena exploration, and ability-driven combat into one experience. It keeps the original idea but brings everything up to date, from physics to visual design. The game lets you play aggressively, defensively, or experimentally, depending on the machine and abilities you choose. It does this by combining freeform combat with competitive racing.
Kirby Air Riders is a racer unlike any other and another great addition to a quickly growing Nintendo Switch 2 library. Even with Mario Kart World and Sonic Racing CrossWorlds occupying a lot of my time in 2025, I’ll make sure to keep carving more aside for Kirby’s unique speedster.
Kirby Air Riders proves it is far more than a simple Kirby spin-off. Road Trip, City Trial, Top Ride, and standard races all offer different ways to play, and the fun never stops with both couch co-op and online.
Kirby Air Riders isn't for everyone, especially if you're struggling to get the hang of something. It is not a traditional racing game, but one where you have to do a lot at the same time with a limited number of buttons. Fortunately, there are also other modes that make this easy to master and also make the game much more fun. So are you ready for some challenge after Mario Kart World? Then Kirby Air Riders is definitely something for you.
Review in Dutch | Read full review
Kirby Air Riders surprised me with its accessibility, fast pace, and variety of modes, but its extremely short sessions and some overly quick minigames end up hurting the experience. Technically solid and artistically vibrant, the game delivers a fun, chaotic, and well-polished package. In the end, I enjoyed playing it and had some good moments, but I didn’t fall in love with it. It’s fun, creative, and unique, just not particularly memorable.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Kirby Air Riders surprises with deceptively simple one-button controls that hide a deep, high-speed racing experience. While the lack of difficulty options may alienate younger players and City Trials feels weaker than the stellar Air Ride mode, the robust content, slick visuals, and addictive "just one more run" gameplay make this a spin-off worth boosting into.
Despite its design flaws and City Trial misses, Kirby Air Riders offers enough substance and charm to make it a game you’ll keep coming back to—whether for quick bursts of fun or to teach your friends something new when they come over.
Accessible, chaotic, and endlessly fun, Kirby Air Riders is racing for everyone.
Whether you want something a little more fast paced than Mario Kart World or want something loaded with content to get your money’s worth out of the Switch 2, Kirby Air Riders is an excellent addition to any Switch 2 library.
Kirby Air Riders brings all the chaos from Super Smash Bros. bringing the same pros and cons with Nintendo's lovable fluff ball to the next level. (Review in Portuguese for Entertainium Brasil).
Kirby Air Riders is absurdly challenging to get into. The controls are complicated, and the process of unlocking things is a mess. But when you eventually understand the gameplay mechanics, the sheer amount of content, the thrilling races, and the modes like City Trial and Road Trip, will keep you engaged no matter how long you play. Masahiro Sakurai has done it again!
Kirby Air Riders isn't the game that will shake up the Switch 2 line-up this year, but Sakurai has managed to realise his dream: to bring a forgotten series back to the top. And he has done so in a way that may not be excellent, but is still worthy of the name it bears, with brilliant insights and satisfying dynamics. But be warned: this is not a “new Mario Kart”, let's be clear.
Review in Italian | Read full review
What's really great about Kirby Air Riders is that it gives players a reason to keep playing. Players will naturally earn achievements as they play, and that makes it hard to put down. It's clear that Sakurai fully fleshed out the game he wanted to make in 2003, and the passion he had for Kirby Air Riders really shines through.
Kirby Air Riders is a winning bet on Nintendo Switch 2, delivering many hours of fun from the simple and making each competition an exciting experience.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Instead of betting on a vast open world or a grand online component, Kirby Air Riders sticks more to its own game, with its satisfying single-player campaign, chaos, and creativity.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Kirby Air Riders is the ultimate proof of Masahiro Sakurai’s brilliance, delivering a deceptively simple experience that hides an incredibly high skill ceiling beneath its gameplay. Beyond reviving the addictive chaos of Urban Trial and offering robust customization, the title is a delightful surprise and a love letter to fans. The game arrives fully localized with Portuguese voice acting, which cements this work not only as a triumphant return, but as an instant classic that is indispensable in any Nintendo Switch 2 library.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review