It took me a while to do a review on this because it's not the type of game that you just play through once and then you're done. This is something you come back to over and over and over again, just like the original Kirby Air Ride. It's already become a mainstay at family gatherings and hanging out with friends and I can't imagine that changing any time soon. It's the type of game that is just so solid that it'll last quite a while playing it this way. Before this new one came out, we were STILL playing the original from time to time so many years later.

Now, it doesn't do anything crazy, but if you have ever played the original Kirby Air Ride you will be in for a massive treat. This game is so similar to the original that my brother laughed with glee when he realized he hadn't played that game for YEARS but still had the muscle memory for this new one. It's the original game but with much prettier graphics (and they are REALLY pretty) and more stuff. More tracks, more events, a whole character roster with little customizations, custom air ride machines (and more of them), a fun little story mode, and a massive City Trial map for the main event.

Said City Trial map hasn't yet begun to feel stale, and to be completely honest with you I'm still not even tired of the original game's map. I do honestly really wish there was at least one more City Trial map, because that would help mix things up quite a lot, but you can tell that the one map (Skyah) was very meticulously crafted alongside everything else in the game. I can see myself coming back to it time and time again with friends just like the original one.

The online mode is a really nice addition because, like many people, I've always wanted to play Kirby Air Ride online! It works remarkably well and doesn't bear any of the issues you traditionally would see in online Nintendo experiences, and it does seem that the era of bad online for Nintendo is starting to be left in the dust. However, there is still work to be done. I don't know why, in the year 2025, we aren't able to play online with multiple players on a single console. With the original, you could hook up two Gamecubes over LAN and play with two people on each console. Mario Kart Double Dash let you do this with up to 8 consoles with 16 players. Stepping outside of Nintendo, plenty of other games over the years have let you play split screen online, such as Halo or Call of Duty. The only reason I can possibly guess for this lack of ability is some sort of mandate from Nintendo to get people to buy more consoles. Corporate greed ruining video games, once again. There is no other reason why you shouldn't be able to play with at least two people on a single console online, unless the netplay is hanging by a thread... which honestly could be the case too. Either way, it's a huge missed opportunity that I feel does diminish the excitement for online play. Kirby Air Ride is a game that I always love playing with people in person, so it would have been cool to play with people IRL and also online.

That's not to say the online outside of that is horrible though, not by any means. It has great functionality with private rooms that multiple people can host custom matches from for smaller groups within the room. It's something that I do genuinely appreciate, especially in the wake of Mario Kart World's absolutely abysmal online experience with its lack of options.

The little campaign mode was fun! It was long or elaborate, but I enjoyed playing through it and the "true ending" was awesome. Kirby has a habit of pulling out crazy stuff for endings and this was no exception!

I also really respect Masahiro Sakurai, the game's director, in his attempt to just release a fully complete game without adding more content to it later on. He flat out said that what you see is what you get here. That's a good outlook to have because it really pushes a developer to make sure they get the game right on the first go around. It is a little bit unfortunate because there are some things I would love to see that I think would enhance the game even further, but at the same time I think we're all aware and have seen many examples of games that add so much content they are barely recognizable and just become slop. You risk alienating players at that point. Sakurai's view is far closer to that of someone who just really loves video games, and not a corpo who is always thinking "line must go up." I really dig it. I wouldn't hate it if there was another City Trial map added though, and maybe some more cosmetics. Just saying!

Besides that, the graphics are also obviously beautiful, you don't really need to play the game to see that. There are always so many things going on screen but it is a very orderly chaos. Everything feels so intentionally designed and I love it. There are many moments in the game where you are able to think "Yup, this is definitely a Switch 2 game" where that wasn't really as present with something like Mario Kart World.

The sound is amazing, the music is amazing, as if you expected anything less from Kirby. The characters are all unique and have different synergistic combos with the different air ride machines. In fact, this is another one of those Sakurai bangers that is deceptively simple on the surface but has pretty deep mechanics that all coalesce into something that is marvelously enjoyable for players of all skill levels and of all ages.

#beardgamereview