NintendoIf Mario Kart World is a nice leisurely drive through the countryside, then Kirby Air Riders is screaming down a twisty mountain road at 2 a.m. while blasting Nirvana. Despite both appearing to be similarly styled racing games, they couldn’t be more different — and where Mario Kart feels solid but safe, Kirby revels in its chaos, like a mischievous little demon. The original GameCube Kirby Air Ride was extremely divisive for its time, being shockingly hardcore and deep in spite of Kirby’s reputation as one of Nintendo’s more approachable franchises. I’m extremely pleased that this long-awaited follow-up hasn’t lost any of that rambunctious energy, and even feels like it’s truly trying to deliver on the vision of the original. It’s the kind of weird and abrasive games I want on the Switch 2. Kirby Air Riders feels more like a spiritual successor to the original GameCube game (released in 2003), than it does a proper sequel. For all intents and purposes, this is the Air Ride experience significantly upscaled, improved, and refined to a blinding sheen. This game marks the return of Kirby’s creator, Masahiro Sakurai, to the franchise, and it feels like he’s determined to make everyone see how brilliant Air Ride actually was in the first place. And after playing an hour of races and City Trial mode, I genuinely love how much Kirby Air Riders sticks to the vision. Air Riders might feel initially simple, but what I loved the most about it at the end of my time was how relentlessly demanding the game is. Unlike Mario Kart, you don’t need to hold a button to move forward; your ride will automatically do that on its own. Instead, you’re controlling the direction, drifting and boosting, and the ability to point your ride’s nose up and down. But the key difference with Air Riders is that it’s technically a “battle racer.” What I mean by that is fighting your fellow racers and enemies on the track is an absolutely crucial part. Hitting other racers can slow them down, and defeating enemies on the track gives your ride a boost. On top of that, every character can use Kirby’s iconic Copy ability on specific enemies, granting you a kind of power-up attack. Then there’s the new Special feature in this game, specifically, where you build up a gauge by causing damage. When full, you can use a character’s unique Special attack, which has varying effects. Meta Knight hops off his vehicle and flies in the air, using his drill attack to speed ahead and damage anything in his path. Meanwhile, Chef Kawasaki throws out spicy curry to inflict status effects on anyone who runs into one. Air Riders’ stages are packed with visual effects and hazards. | NintendoWith the Special system and speed boosts, you constantly want to be causing as much damage as you can — but that can be a bit tricky, as so often all your attention will be focused on simply staying on the track. The speed of Kirby Air Riders is legitimately like Mario Kart dialed up to eleven, as you whiz around the track and slam into barriers on curves. This is a racing game all about maintaining your momentum, and perfectly leaning into drifts to pull off a split-second boost is part of that. But you’ll also have to contend with environmental hazards. One track had us racing through an ocean as it split apart like Moses parting the Red Sea. It took every ounce of efffort I could muster to stay on target, as Kirby got a mouthful of water as I rammed into the watery sides. Then there’s City Trial mode, which is like a cacophonic vehicular ballet, where 15 players vie for power-ups and duke it out in a massive city split into different zones. All the players are active at once, and the goal is to collect as many power-ups as possible, while contending with emergent, random events. At one point, meteors started falling from the sky, creating deadly obstacles that left a valuable collection of power-ups at their impact. Another creates an arena in the middle of the map, where any players who enter have to duke it out. At the end of City Trial, every player has to choose from one of four different minigames to play. This includes hitting targets to get teh most points as you fly through the air, doing a drag race, a battle royale, and more. Because there are four different minigames, there are theoretically four winners at the end of every City Trial. It’s a bit strange, but it does lean into that feeling of sheer chaos well. Air Racers, just like the first game, puts a huge emphasis on battling. | NintendoLayered on top of all this is how integrally different each vehicle is — each one feels drastically different. For example, the Tank lets you continuously move while holding down the boost button, giving you far better movement than others. Meanwhile, the Shadow Star moves extremely slow, but has great combat potential, and the Wheelie Bike has great top speed and terrain capabilities, but can struggle on turns. All of this means that in both races and City Trial, you need to juggle the properties of your vehicle, your character's skills, and everything else that’s thrown at you. It’s a demanding experience, but there’s a ton of joy to be found in mastering the game’s systems, and hitting first place in a breakneck race is an unbelievable adrenaline rush. And that’s really what I respect most about Air Riders right now, how much it feels like it challenges players. Mario Kart World is a great racing game, and while there is customization, there’s a deliberate effort to homogenize the characters and cars outside of visuals. Because Mario Kart wants everyone on a level playing field. Kirby couldn't care less about that idea — it wants you to embrace unique characters and mechanics, and master what you enjoy the most. City Trial kind of feels like a bizarre game show, in a good way. | NintendoIt’s easy to see how the adrenaline rush of Air Riders can give off that “just one more race” feeling, especially with how quickly these races go. But two decades later, it’s legitimately great to see this sequel stick unrelentingly to its vision, to challenge players in the exact same way a GameCube game did. The Nintendo Switch 2 is arguably a fairly safe system in a lot of ways, and that makes sense given the Switch’s success. But for this new console to really succeed, it’s going to take some wildly eclectic game ideas. Coming in hot off the success of Donkey Kong Bananza, Kirby Air Riders feels like a good indication that Nintendo knows what works.Kirby Air Riders launches on November 20 exclusively for Nintendo Switch 2.