Legendary developer Masahiro Sakurai has officially revealed why Kirby Air Riders was made, after the series had been dormant for more than 20 years. The game's announcement was surprising during a previous Nintendo Switch 2 Direct, but it was arguably even more astonishing that Sakurai was at the helm of the project after so many years of working on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and the game's existence seemed to come out of left field.
During the Kirby Air Riders-focused Nintendo Direct, Sakurai explained that he received a request for a new Kirby Air Ride game from Nintendo corporate director Shinya Takahashi and former president of HAL Laboratory Satoshi Mitsuhara while Sakurai was working on the DLC for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Sakurai was busy, but drafted a proposal for the game, which was an unknown project he mentioned on his YouTube channel previously.
The extensive DLC for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate kept Sakurai too busy to work on the game at the time, but when the final character, Sora from Kingdom Hearts, was released in October 2021, he was then free to start Kirby Air Riders. Sakurai also confirmed that the co-developers of Kirby Air Riders are Bandai Namco...
