Many of us are still recovering from the incredible fun and long Nintendo Direct focused on Kirby Air Riders that arrived earlier this week. The event, hosted by Masahiro Sakurai, revealed how his next passion project would look, play, and definitely not be “just another Mario Kart.” Seriously, people, stop doing that. However, it’s one thing to look at a game via a video presentation and think it’s cool. It’s another to actually play it and see what it’s like. Thankfully, certain people got their hands on the title at Gamescom, and the reception is really good.
One report came from Nintendo Life, which broke down how the game looked, played, and the things that they were able to do within the short demo they had fun in. They only got to do Lessons and City Trial Mode, but it was enough to see that this game was going to be fun, and that Sakurai had “put his magic” into yet another title. Here’s a quick recap of what they, and others, felt via Stealth:
Nintendo Life Kirby Air Riders Demo Impressions:+ Visuals/Music have "Sakurai Magic"+ Animations are bold & expressive+ Orchestral songs & remixes are all brilliant+ Controls feel extremely natural & easy to learn- City Trial could get old- Motion sicknesswww.nintendolife.com/previews/sak…
— Stealth40k (@stealth40k.bsky.social) 2025-08-20T10:36:05.307Z
Now, as for the “City Trial Could Get Old” bit, even the Nintendo Life writer admitted that they weren’t playing the mode with a full crowd. They had only three people in it with them, and it can hold up to sixteen people. Plus, the game has numerous customization options to fiddle with, so it’s possible that things could be adjusted so that it won’t get boring.
It should also be noted that comments on Stealth’s post praised the original version of City Trial on the GameCube, and that one didn’t even have online capabilities.
From what I'm reading and hearing, Kirby Air Riders has more in common with F-Zero than Mario Kart World when it comes to the racing speed.
— Stealth40k (@stealth40k.bsky.social) 2025-08-20T10:47:32.528Z
Regardless, Kirby Air Riders is shaping up to be a great Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive, and we only have three more months until its arrival!
