Kirby Air Riders is a 2025 kart racing game developed by Bandai Namco Studios and Sora Ltd. and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch 2. Players control Kirby characters in four game modes including racing, traversal, and combat. Kirby Air Riders includes all modes from its GameCube predecessor Kirby Air Ride (2003), with additional characters, vehicles, customization options, and features, including a single-player story mode and online multiplayer.
Air Riders was the first Kirby game directed by the franchise's creator Masahiro Sakurai since Kirby Air Ride. Nintendo EPD and HAL Laboratory pitched him the concept in 2021, and production commenced in early 2022 after Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (2018) concluded development of its downloadable content. Shogo Sakai and Noriyuki Iwadare, who worked with Sakurai on the Super Smash Bros. series and Kid Icarus: Uprising (2012), composed the soundtrack. The music was composed with a live orchestra, and included multiple vocal performances for the game's main theme song. Sakurai supervised many parts of the development process, including the music composition, course design, story, and game balancing.
Nintendo announced Kirby Air Riders in April 2025, and promoted it with Nintendo Direct presentations, Nintendo Music releases, and demos for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers. During demo events, comparisons were made between the game and Nintendo EPD's racing launch title Mario Kart World (2025), and the character Rick gained popularity among Kirby fans. Amiibo figures based on characters and machines featured in the game were also released. Kirby Air Riders was released worldwide on November 20, 2025, being supported by post-launch updates and online events. Kirby Air Riders received generally positive reviews, with praise for its gameplay, presentation, customization, music, and mechanical depth, though the game modes drew mixed responses. It has since become one of the best-selling Nintendo Switch 2 games.
Gameplay
Kirby Air Riders, similar to its predecessor Kirby Air Ride, is a racing video game featuring simplified controls where players focus on steering, boosting, and utilizing the series' signature ability to absorb enemies' powers. Unlike Air Ride, which only featured Kirby and the Air Ride Machine equivalents King Dedede and Meta Knight as playable characters, Air Riders features 21 playable characters (Riders), all of which can use Copy Abilities, and each rider has a unique "Special" ability. Kirby has four Special abilities, with the one used depending on the color of Kirby selected. In addition to choosing a character, Air Riders features 22 machines to choose from, each one having different stats. The Air Ride, City Trial, and Top Ride modes from Air Ride return, all of which are expanded in both size and depth, and feature both online and local multiplayer. Additionally, Air Ride adds a relay race allowing players to swap their vehicle after every lap, and City Trial allows players to partake in team battles. Air Ride races can have up to 6 players, Top Ride supports up to 8 players, and City Trial allows up to 16 players simultaneously.
Machines in the game move forward automatically without player input, with players simply steering and maintaining balance. Players can also brake, boost, and perform drift maneuvers with the B button and perform special moves and switch machines with the Y button. Moving the control stick side-to-side allows the player to perform a spin attack, which can damage their opponents. By attacking other characters, players can fill up a "Special Gauge", which, when full, allows them to use their "Special" ability. New gameplay mechanics allow the player to increase their speed. Attacking enemies and performing perfect landings creates a speed boost, and following the trail of stars behind opponents can help the player catch up to them. Air Ride mode is a racing game where players complete a set amount of laps and reach the end as fast as possible. Air Ride features 18 race tracks, including all 9 tracks from the previous game. City Trial is set on a large map, Skyah, where players collect stats, obtain new machines, and battle opponents before they compete in a Stadium event to determine the winner. Skyah features many areas for players to explore, including secret floating islands away from the central map. During City Trial matches, random field events can earn players power-ups based on their performance. Four legendary machines can also be acquired by assembling all three of their parts, with the two new machines being Gigantes and Leo, which are unlocked after completing the story in Road Trip. At the end of a City Trial game, players vote on one of four Stadium events to compete in. All Stadium events return from Kirby Air Ride (with the exception of VS. King Dedede, which was replaced with VS. Boss). New events have also been added, including the Gourmet Race from Kirby Super Star (1996). In Stadium VS. boss events, all players attempt to defeat one of four bosses, either being Marx, Nightmare, Robo Dedede, or Zero Two. Road Trip is a mode exclusive to Kirby Air Riders, which features the game's story. To become one with their vehicles, the Riders play challenges or minigames relating to the existing game modes, and are assisted by characters from previous Kirby games to progress through different routes. The player collects stats, machines, and Road Miles as currency to purchase more useful items. At the end of the mode, the player battles against Gigantes, and upon playing the mode in New Game+, battles against Galactic Nova as the true final boss.
Miles are a form of in-game currency that can be earned by playing the game and are spent in the shop. They can be used to unlock customization options such as cosmetics for their characters and vehicles. In the My Machines menu, vehicles can be fully customized with items purchased by the player, which can be listed online for sale on the Machine Market. Gummies shaped after machines are supplementary collectables earned during general gameplay and have no monetary value, which can be viewed and interacted with in a dedicated menu. While online, players can roam around the Paddock, a lobby where they can interact with other online users before matches. The player's performance in online matches determines their Global Win Power, a ranking system which is displayed on their license. This license can be customized further with stickers and special effects. Five Kirby Air Riders Amiibo figures can be scanned into the game and trained as a "Figure Player". There are 150 challenges on the checklist to complete for each game mode, with 750 total achievements. These challenges can unlock many collectible items and reveal a large mural on a 10 by 15 grid, with the player able to attempt challenges right from the checklist menu.
After a day one update, "Daily Air Ride" and "Limited Time Events" were added, allowing online players to race on a daily rotation of Air Ride courses and race under special rules during events respectively. These events are planned to be hosted until one year after the release of the game. A later update added a new mode to Air Ride, Grand Prix, which has players compete in races one after the other, declaring a winner based on their overall score.
Plot Zorah, a sentient machine, crash lands on Planet Popstar, where it is stuck immobile for ages. Zorah's wish to be able to move is eventually picked up by the Fountain of Dreams and granted by the orbiting satellite Galactic Nova. Galactic Nova begins to create Air Ride machines based on Zorah's design, and deploys them to Popstar in dormant form. Individuals who could awaken and harness the machines by sharing their will become known as "riders", and machines eventually become fully integrated into society. Meanwhile, Galactic Nova brutally remakes Zorah into the machine Gigantes, which, if activated by a strong-willed rider, will destroy the planet. Galactic Nova, through Gigantes, sends a signal to these strong-willed riders and their machines to start their journey to Gigantes. Noir Dedede, a sentient rider and machine formed from a piece of Zorah's will before being transformed, attempts to stop riders—and the player—from reaching Gigantes.
The player manages to reach Gigantes, who activates after sensing their approach. The player manages to weaken Gigantes in the ensuing battle, before engaging in a final race with Noir Dedede to reach the machine's core. If the player loses against Noir Dedede, Gigantes will self destruct, but if the player wins against Noir Dedede, they pierce through Gigantes, neutralizing it. With its equivalent of a heart now gone, Noir Dedede withers, while Galactic Nova flies away from Planet Popstar.
If all twenty-two machines in the game's Road Trip mode are collected in the "New Game+" mode, the true ending is initiated. Gigantes attacks the player and absorbs all of their machines, upgrading itself into Hyper Gigantes. Noir Dedede summons the Legendary Machines Hydra and Dragoon to fight alongside the player. After the powered-up Gigantes is defeated, Noir Dedede then fuses itself with Zorah's core and takes control of Hyper Gigantes to create a road for the player to reach Galactic Nova. A third Legendary Machine, Leo, appears before the player to lead them to Galactic Nova. The player defeats Galactic Nova, which explodes. With Zorah's original core still intact, the machines manage to reassemble Zorah's original form, now allowing it to freely depart into the cosmos.
Development
Kirby Air Riders was directed by Masahiro Sakurai, creator of the Kirby series, developed by Bandai Namco Studios and Sora Ltd. This was the first time Sakurai directed a Kirby title since Kirby Air Ride in 2003, with his last role in the series prior to Kirby Air Riders being a "Special Advisor" for Kirby & the Amazing Mirror in 2004. According to Sakurai, pre-production started in 2021 when the idea was proposed by Nintendo EPD executive general manager Shinya Takahashi and HAL Laboratory president Satoshi Mitsuhara, with full production starting in April 2022. It was the first game to be developed with the SOL-AVES engine created by Bandai Namco Studios, which had been in development since 2019. Kirby Air Riders was produced by Shinya Saito and Makoto Okazaki, with programming management by Takashi Nakagawa and Masakazu Yorifuji.
Before development began, Sakurai designed a realistic 3D model for one of the machines, Wheelie Bike, which would serve as the basis for the game's realistic art direction. When designing the Air Ride courses, twenty themes were created, eventually being reduced to ones that were most distinct from each other. Two teams were in charge of the visuals and design of each course. The design team would create the two-dimensional layout, have the course be refined further by Sakurai, and make final adjustments, using colors to represent visual elements. Each Air Ride course was designed to be similar to a ride at an amusement park, incorporating elements of action games. To enhance the visibility of corners where players could take turns, lights were added to courses to better communicate a proper depth of field. The courses for Air Ride were planned to be shorter than the previous entry, but their expansion during development allowed for more variety in their design. The machines were created for Air Ride first before being adjusted for use in Top Ride.