The renaissance the pink puff ball has enjoyed with the popularity of the Switch is absolutely nothing to sneeze at, but there was never a point in time in which I thought this would result in the creation of Kirby Air Riders, even with Masahiro Sakurai involved. Yet here we are with a full blown, feature-filled sequel, and after playing it at PAX West, I still don’t know what to think.
I never played the GameCube original, but I was very much in the scene. I remember both how middling and how bad the reviews were for Kirby Air Ride, and while I’m very much someone that prefers to form his own opinion no matter what the “professionals” say, I was 14. I was a Nintendo fanboy on the GameSpot Forums who eventually smartened up and became a moderator—tangent, I know, but 14-year-olds have to be smart with what little money they have. I think it says a lot that I kept it in my pocket despite my dumb old console wars allegiances.
So after spending about 15-20 minutes with the build at PAX West, I don’t know how I feel about what I played.
The game’s tutorial is actually quite nifty if you’re new to the Air Rider games.
It started with the basics, which I’m glad we took part in. Your “vehicle,” if you will, moves on its own, and if you hold on the B button, you’ll stop for a bit to perform a charge boost. At its core, Kirby Air Riders is supposed to be a racing game, so when you’re stopped in your tracks — whether or not it’s because you’re prepping a charge boost — is not ideal. The game’s sense of speed is absolutely fantastic; it’s Sonic-like in all the best and worst ways. The stop-and-go nature brings out the bad part of it. There are definitely strategies to keep this from happening but nothing I could pick up with the length of time spent on this demo.
Outside of the tutorial, we got our hands on other modes as well against local players. One minigame I did required you to fall through a bunch of hoops, each with different point totals, taking note that you can fall faster by holding a button. Was that fun? Not really, I was just going through the motions.
There was another minigame that tested your ability to glide or float through a course, once again using a bunch of hoops to fly through to build your score. For some reason, as I reached the zenith of my leap into the air, I pressed B, which caused me to fall quickly to the ground, ending the minigame. That wasn’t very fun either.
This demo lacked any real racing.
Then came the real event. I forget what the mode was called, but in this game, you had to collect as many power-ups as possible. It isn’t that simple though — if you collected items that had dull or faded colors, it reduced your build. I wasn’t quite clear on what it was I was doing, so I spent the entire round just wreaking havoc on both the players and bots that were on the field. I used all the fundamentals I learned from the tutorial in what I thought was a battle mode, and it ended up being a fun little frenzy.
I just didn’t know what I was doing.
But was it fun? Yes.
I don’t know if this demo had access to any of the traditional race modes, but that’s what I want to get my hands on before I decide that this is a game I’d buy. So after this experience, I can definitely tell our readers that I absolutely want to play more. Whether it means I’m ready to fork over $70 + tax is another story.
Kirby Air Riders will be available exclusively on the Switch 2 on November 20. If we get another chance to play it before then, we’ll be here to report on it!
The renaissance the pink puff ball has enjoyed with the popularity of the Switch is absolutely nothing to sneeze at, but there was never a point in time in which I thought this would result in the creation of Kirby…
The renaissance the pink puff ball has enjoyed with the popularity of the Switch is absolutely nothing to sneeze at, but there was never a point in time in which I thought this would result in the creation of Kirby Air Riders, even with Masahiro Sakurai involved. Yet here we are with a full blown, feature-filled sequel, and after playing it at PAX West, I still don’t know what to think.
I never played the GameCube original, but I was very much in the scene. I remember both how middling and how bad the reviews were for Kirby Air Ride, and while I’m very much someone that prefers to form his own opinion no matter what the “professionals” say, I was 14. I was a Nintendo fanboy on the GameSpot Forums who eventually smartened up and became a moderator—tangent, I know, but 14-year-olds have to be smart with what little money they have. I think it says a lot that I kept it in my pocket despite my dumb old console wars allegiances.
So after spending about 15-20 minutes with the build at PAX West, I don’t know how I feel about what I played.
The game’s tutorial is actually quite nifty if you’re new to the Air Rider games.
It started with the basics, which I’m glad we took part in. Your “vehicle,” if you will, moves on its own, and if you hold on the B button, you’ll stop for a bit to perform a charge boost. At its core, Kirby Air Riders is supposed to be a racing game, so when you’re stopped in your tracks — whether or not it’s because you’re prepping a charge boost — is not ideal. The game’s sense of speed is absolutely fantastic; it’s Sonic-like in all the best and worst ways. The stop-and-go nature brings out the bad part of it. There are definitely strategies to keep this from happening but nothing I could pick up with the length of time spent on this demo.
Outside of the tutorial, we got our hands on other modes as well against local players. One minigame I did required you to fall through a bunch of hoops, each with different point totals, taking note that you can fall faster by holding a button. Was that fun? Not really, I was just going through the motions.
There was another minigame that tested your ability to glide or float through a course, once again using a bunch of hoops to fly through to build your score. For some reason, as I reached the zenith of my leap into the air, I pressed B, which caused me to fall quickly to the ground, ending the minigame. That wasn’t very fun either.
This demo lacked any real racing.
Then came the real event. I forget what the mode was called, but in this game, you had to collect as many power-ups as possible. It isn’t that simple though — if you collected items that had dull or faded colors, it reduced your build. I wasn’t quite clear on what it was I was doing, so I spent the entire round just wreaking havoc on both the players and bots that were on the field. I used all the fundamentals I learned from the tutorial in what I thought was a battle mode, and it ended up being a fun little frenzy.
I just didn’t know what I was doing.
But was it fun? Yes.
I don’t know if this demo had access to any of the traditional race modes, but that’s what I want to get my hands on before I decide that this is a game I’d buy. So after this experience, I can definitely tell our readers that I absolutely want to play more. Whether it means I’m ready to fork over $70 + tax is another story.
Kirby Air Riders will be available exclusively on the Switch 2 on November 20. If we get another chance to play it before then, we’ll be here to report on it!
by Danreb Victorio
