Few sequels feel as miraculous, unexpected, and downright fun as Kirby’s Air Rider. By reviving a niche GameCube classic and transforming it into a full-fledged Switch 2 powerhouse, Nintendo and HAL have delivered something rare. It’s a bold and highly creative action racer that not only pays homage to its cult predecessor, but completely redefines what a Kirby racing game can be.
While Kirby’s Air Ride hinted at its greatness, Air Riders arrives at full speed with a toolbox overflowing with modes, unlockables, and single-player content, making this one of the most robust offline racing packages on console. Yes, the online play is great, and frankly much better than I expected, but Kirby Air Riders is equally, and in some cases even more, satisfying as a full solo experience.
For a series often associated with breezy multiplayer fun, this surprising Switch 2 sequel stands out as one of the most feature-rich and replayable single-player arcade racers in years.
A revival that retains ambition and individuality
The first thing that strikes you is the sheer ambition. Air Riders retains the series’ signature one-button steering and fun, floating physics, but elevates them with modern design, Switch 2 horsepower, and a meticulous sense of detail. It’s still wonderfully strange. It’s still Kirby. But now it feels even bigger and fully realized, with a system that can support its bold ambitions.
The roster is huge and features characters from throughout Kirby history. Highlights include Bandana Waddle Dee, Lololo & Lalala, and my personal favorite, Chef Kawasaki. There are also plenty of machines, over 20 of them, all with their own quirks, peculiarities, and limitations.
It’s not just about switching between “fast,” “light,” and “heavy.” Learn the ins and outs of different machines, master their handling, discover their strengths and exploit their weaknesses. It’s a system that rewards you for time spent alone in each mode, pushing and prodding the mechanic to figure out how each vehicle works. Some take hours to master, while others are easy to work with.
Credit: Nintendo
The refreshing part? Air Riders never punishes you for playing solo. In fact, its design often thrives on it. I played over 20 hours in single-player mode, and the motivation to keep unlocking new tracks, characters, and modifiers kept me going. You can change gameplay modes, so it no longer feels like Mario Kart World. Once you finish the bare-bones “campaign,” all there is is online and a bare-bones world.
Here, each track is full of life. Packed with enemies and obstacles, it has a lived-in feel and is a stark contrast to the Plumber’s recent outings. It’s a common problem with arcade racers that offline content can often feel like an afterthought, but here the heartbeat is important. Kirby Air Riders probably has more single-player stuff to do than any multiplayer-focused Nintendo title since Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
750 achievements that actually matter
The achievement system in this game is amazing. Rather than throwaway challenges, they’re meaningful tasks that unlock new cars, new characters, alternate colors, hats and cosmetics, new music, additional tracks, and dozens of mechanical tweaks.
You can immediately try any achievement from the checklist, and the game automatically builds the exact scenario you need. This small quality-of-life feature turns finding results from a chore to a truly addictive pursuit.
Credit: Nintendo
This does not lead to any achievements outside of the game, but the in-game pop-ups appear easily at first, but gradually become more difficult as the game progresses.
Road Trip – One of the best single-player story modes for racers
The real gem for solo fans is Road Trip, a story-driven campaign mode. It feels like classic Smash Bros. modes and Kirby lore blended into a full-fledged single-player RPG-lite journey, all wrapped up in snappy challenge-based missions that slowly grow your machine’s power level. It’s best played in small portions in between other modes to improve your machine, increase your control, and master each track perfectly.
Each run takes around 90 minutes, but is infinitely replayable thanks to branching routes, unlockables, hidden bosses, and clever remix-style challenges. It feels like HAL took the idea of a “campaign mode for a racing game” and tweaked it until it was perfect.
One-on-one combat trials can push the simple control scheme to its limits, but Road Trip’s sense of adventure, progression, and rhythm more than make up for it. For many players, especially those who don’t want to make the jump online (yes, me!), this mode alone is well worth the cost of entry.
City Trial – Great as a solo experience
While City Trial has long been considered a multiplayer favorite, Air Riders has quietly become one of the best single-player survival racers on consoles thanks to a variety of mechanics that make it feel like a Forza game with the usual mechanics like seasonal weather, randomized events, rotating city shapes, and plenty of secrets to find. Along these tracks you can find rare mechanical parts to upgrade. It’s a collection, but in the absolute best way.
Credit: Nintendo
There are so many differences and confusion that even a five-minute solo session becomes a little story in itself. It’s incredibly wild and chaotic, requires you to play at a breakneck pace, and generally requires a fair amount of skill.
Classic racing – with new depth
Air Ride mode returns with 18 courses, nine of which are new and nine from the original. And they’re all great. Faster, tighter and more responsive than ever, these races finally feel like they demand real skill.
Offline, racing becomes the perfect playground to master the rhythm of boosting and finding the sweet spot to let go while sliding around corners. While racing, Kirby’s inhalation ability can be used to suck enemies in, giving them various abilities.
Some give you explosive speed, while others give you a sword, allowing you to quickly dispel racers and enemies floating around you. Another important part of mastering the race is learning the shortcuts to each track’s environment. You can gain advantages by combining these shortcuts with speed improvements and refining machine-specific tactics.
This is the first Kirby racer where you can seriously enjoy time trials and practice runs by yourself. The top ride was an additional feature that we didn’t get to experience in the original title, so the very idea of shrinking the map and moving the camera into top-down mode was a lot of fun.
look at the part
What makes Air Rider so appealing is its polished feel, with custom rule sets, a gorgeous Machine Lab visualizer, a music library with custom track frequency settings, and a character selection screen that’s full of charm that you’d expect from a brand new Smash Bros.
You can feel Masahiro Sakurai’s design DNA everywhere. There’s a quality here that most arcade racers don’t even strive for. It feels really special to have a master like Sakurai at the helm. There’s so much attention and detail put into every corner of this game that you can’t help but fall in love with it.
Credit: Nintendo
Air Riders is a technically outstanding product, running at a solid 60fps in both handheld and docked modes (and holding up admirably even in chaotic four-player split-screen).
Switch 2 offers smooth physics, fast loading times, and detailed environments. Check out some of the tracks, including Mount Amber Falls, a spectacular descent through a glistening autumn forest, and Waveflow Waters, a chaotic ride through waves and ocean rails. It’s an incredible sight to see on your Switch 2 screen or 4K TV.
These are just two tracks, but in reality, none are missing.
final thoughts
Kirby Air Riders is more than just a revival. That’s a statement. This is a declaration that, when fully realized, niche ideas can create the most engaging and content-rich experiences on modern hardware.
While the simple control scheme can be a stretch at times, the game has an endless amount of meaningful unlocks that will keep you coming back for more. The sheer amount of single-player content is incredible for an arcade racing game. Much of this is thanks to Sakurai, who ensures that this isn’t just a Mario Kart clone.
The addition of a full-fledged campaign opens up something different to the genre, supported by characters and machines that exude a level of charm and personality that only Kirby games can provide.
It doesn’t matter whether you go online or invite your friends. Even if you’ve never touched multiplayer, Kirby Air Riders is worth playing. In fact, its solo offering is so forgiving that it ranks as one of the most satisfying single-player arcade racers on the Switch 2.
From fun comebacks to ambitious sequels, cut it however you like. Either way, this is one of Kirby’s most unexpectedly awesome adventures yet.
4 1/2 stars (out of 5 stars)
Highlight: Engaging gameplay. Solid visuals and performance. Best racer of the year
Lowlights: Some modes can be a bit too chaotic.
Developer: Masahiro Sakurai, Bandai Namco Studios, Sora Co., Ltd., HAL Laboratories
Publisher: Nintendo
Platform: Nintendo Switch 2
Available: Currently
Review was conducted on Nintendo Switch 2 using a release code provided by the publisher.
Featured header image provided by Nintendo.
