Summary
- One of the final reveals during today’s Switch 2 Direct was Kirby Air Riders.
- The new racing game is a sequel to 2003’s Air Ride.
- No firm release date, but it will be here before the end of 2025.
From The Forgotten Land to his Dream Buffet, Kirby got a lot of love on the Nintendo Switch. Nintendo has already confirmed that love will be immediately spilling over onto the Switch 2 as we were given a first look at the pink puffball’s next adventure during today’s highly anticipated Direct.
Kirby Air Riders was saved for the end of the Direct and, as seasoned Kirby veterans will know, it appears to be a sequel to Kirby Air Ride, a racing spinoff that launched on the GameCube more than 20 years ago. No firm release date for Air Riders, but it was confirmed that it will be here in 2025.
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The trailer began with an empty star filling with color before Kirby hopped on and rode it down to what is presumably Planet Popstar. He is then joined by some different color Kirbys who begin to race alongside him. While the backdrop is unmistakably Kirby, it’s far more colorful and detailed than anything we’ve seen in a Kirby game before, even The Forgotten Land.
Kirby Air Riders Is Coming To Switch 2 In 2025
The Sequel To Air Ride You Didn’t Know You Wanted
There are a lot of Kirby games on the original Switch, which means, thanks to backwards compatibility, all of those games will be playable on the Switch 2 as well. The pick of the bunch is Kirby and The Forgotten Land. Perhaps the biggest punt Nintendo has taken with Kirby since the character’s creation as it had the mascot embark on a 3D adventure for the first time.
The Forgotten Land was a big hit for Nintendo, but its creators admitted post-launch that they didn’t think a 3D Kirby game was even possible, hence Nintendo sticking to two dimensions for the first 30 years of Kirby games. The developers were worried Kirby was too round to be playable in 3D and that it wouldn’t be clear which way the character was facing due to his spherical nature. I’m glad that hurdle was overcome, and here’s to the start of a whole new generation of Kirby games, hopefully both in two and three dimensions, starting with Air Riders.
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