Kirby Air Riders - PAX AUS 2025 Hands On Preview
I never played the original GameCube Kirby Air Ride, but I understood it to be this strange twist on Mario Kart, infused with Kirby energy, and that it didn’t come close to the enormous heights of *insert bias here* the franchise pinnacle, Mario Kart: Double Dash. With Sakurai returning to the IP spin-off with 2025’s Kirby Air Riders, I’m more intrigued than ever to check out this high-octane second attempt at a Kirby racing game. Thanks to Nintendo bringing the game to PAX AUS, I was able to spend 20 minutes with the title, and stepping away from my time, I was equal parts exhilarated, pleased, and completely stumped by the time I spent with it. As a result, I’m completely energised to play more.
In the build that I had the opportunity to check out, I was quick to realise, that Kirby Air Riders wasn’t the game that I thought it was. I had wrongly assumed that the game was a racing title, but upon going hands-on, I’ve realised that Kirby Air Riders is more of a vehicular combat game. Not quite of the same brutality that players might expect from a Twisted Metal game, but in fact it is this beautiful triangulation of Mario Kart, Twisted Metal, and splashes of Smash Bros.
The first order of business in this session was to run through some tutorials. Kirby Air Riders does a good (if not slightly prolonged) job of introducing the player to the various acceleration, boosting, and spin attack techniques that are at your disposal. One of the game’s great learning curves will undoubtedly come from players attempting to master the spin attack, as it requires the player to quickly jiggle the left analog stick left and right, which clashes with the player’s need to use that same stick to direct themselves through the course.
With the tutorials out of the way, it was on to some racing where I was able to choose one of 12 different racers, some more prominent in the Kirby (and broader gaming) realm than others. Upon selecting your racer, you will also have the opportunity to choose from a selection of vehicles to balance your racing experience that much further, and then, finally the course you’ll take on. Beyond standard racing, the game give you the chance to partake in a range of mini-game-like events that then serve as the entry point to a chaotic encounter with other racers in either solo play against CPU’s, or against other human players.
The mini-games beforehand provide an opportunity for the player to accumulate a number of power-ups, which are then unleashed in a stadium which can hold up to 16 online players, or eight locally, to battle it out for a chance at glory. This portion is likely to be a bit of a sensory overload for the player, as opponents hurtle around the arena, power-ups, and items are scattered throughout, while the space itself is quite contained with roads spinning off in a manner of directions. The most appropriate comparisons are to the afore mentioned Twisted Metal (sans the violence), and Mario Kart’s Battle Mode, but the intense speed of the vehicles makes it all quite overwhelming. I was the victor in both final matches that I played, but I felt that I was victorious despite not really knowing what was doing. Good luck to everyone once that feeling changes.
What I got to experience was a multi-player focused experience, and I presume that there will be much more to see aside from this. More time playing solo will absolutely help me to refine my craft and revisit the multiplayer arena with an enhanced skillset, that will hopefully set me up for further future success, but as I sit an reflect on what I have recently played, I’m overwhelmed by explosions of colour, intense speed, and confusion. Despite that, I’m super keen to try more.
Time Until Launch (November 20, 2025)
