Nintendo has officially announced the Kirby Air Rider, the long-awaited follow-up to the 2004 Kirby Air Ride.
Revealed in yesterday’s Kirby Air Riders Direct, legendary director Sakurai walked through the game’s new features, returned favorites, and expanded the mode. This game will be released on November 20th, 2025 on Nintendo Switch 2 only.
From the beginning, Kirby Air Rider is not just a nostalgic revival, it’s a complete rethink. Some might expect a pink puffball to spin on Mario Kart, but this game is nothing.
With a mix of air gliding, rail grinding, drift boosting and combat-centric races, Kirby Air Riders look more like a more chaotic vehicle combat than a kart racing. The vast diversity of movement, including land, sea and air, is already visually and mechanically separate from everything in Nintendo’s flagship racing series.
It’s more than just a race
The game emphasizes tactics as much as speed. Each rider brings unique stats, traits and special moves, even enemies like Kirby, Meta Knight, King Dedede, Bandana Waddle Dee, or chefs Kawasaki and Cappy. These can dramatically change the way you handle your machine on a variety of courses. Now you can mix and match riders with different machines to open up endless combinations.
The machine itself will glide, polish the rails, perform air stunts, and reward accurate landings with a burst of speed. Throwing in Kirby’s signature ability gives you a gameplay that feels fast, wild, completely unpredictable when copying the enemy’s mid-race.
Biggest city trials return
Fan Five Light City Trial Mode has returned, but is now set on a huge floating island known as Skya. Players will roam open areas where they gather power-ups, ambush their rivals and upgrade their machines before entering a randomly selected stadium event.
From short races to demolishing derbys and even the surprising bosses to fighting Kirby mainstays like Cracco, City Trial is set to once again be in showpiece mode.
Multiplayer also gets serious upgrades. Up to 8 players can compete locally, while 16 players’ matches are available online. Nintendo is adding GameChat support for video and audio communication mid-races.
Other Modes and Added
Traditional racing fans can jump into air ride mode. There, “Star Slide” makes you a rocket with attacking rivals building speed and drafting behind your opponent. There is also a lesson mode added for newcomers to practice advanced mechanics in the game.
In addition to that, Nintendo has released seven tracks from the Nintendo music app Kirby Air Rider Soundtrack.
Outstanding Nintendo Racer
A fusion of fast drift, chaotic combat and open-ended strategy has made Kirby Air Riders one of the most exciting Nintendo racers for many years.
It makes movement look fantastic, burst with colour and energy, and most importantly, not chasing Mario Kart, but cutting open its own lane.
For convenience, we have included the entire showcase below.
Kirby Air Riders will be released on November 20, 2025 for the Nintendo Switch 2.
