2025 has quite possibly been the biggest year for kart racing that video games has ever and will ever see. After over a decade and two whole console generations we got a new Mario Kart game alongside the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2. As well as this huge gaming event we also got Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, providing a somewhat more traditional kart racing experience that surpassed all my expectations. Now to finish off a year of mascot racing fun Nintendo has another console exclusive kart racer for us all to enjoy, this time starring everyone’s favourite pink blob (sorry Jigglypuff). Kirby Air Riders is nothing like any other game in this genre though, ignoring all previous karting tropes and creating something entirely fresh for racing fans of all ages.
There are so many ways that Kirby Air Riders differentiates itself from other racing games. Firstly there’s no button to accelerate, and by default you’re always racing forward at maximum speed. Instead the one button you’ll use to play this game is essentially a brake, where you’ll press your floating vehicle (be it a star or a one wheeled motorbike) to the ground and quickly skid to a stop. You’ll use this to get around sharp corners, and when you do so you’ll charge a boost that launches you in your new chosen direction at breakneck speed. The only other input you really have is to shake the stick from side to side to spin, which functions as an attack against your rivals and all the random Kirby themed enemies plodding about stages. It’s deceptively simple but with a surprisingly amount of hidden depth, and can even be remapped to play entirely with one hand.
The hidden depth of the standard racing mode of the game comes in a variety of forms. There’s how important staying behind opponents is to speed up in their slipstream, which is shown as a sparkly path. You’ll often fly through the sky after hitting ramps, and when you do so you can tilt to get more air and will get a boost for landing perfectly flat. There’s also how much you can gain speed by attacking the random enemies littering the track, and that you can suck them up to gain various copy abilities as is the Kirby way of life. Firing lasers, puffing out frost breath and gaining a sword that you’ll instantly swing at anyone nearby always feels exciting, and can end up being the difference between coming in first place or last.
Perhaps my favourite thing that Kirby Air Riders does differently to its peers though is that it presents itself like a Super Smash Bros game. I guess this shouldn’t really come as a surprise given the involvement of Masahiro Sakurai and company, but it means it comes across as a mad collection of so many different modes that are wildly customisable, and even more unlockables. The standard Air Ride mode is only one of these, and despite loving it I don’t even think it’s my favourite of the bunch.
Top Racer is probably the mode that stole my heart the most, switching the standard behind the kart perspective for a top down one. This makes the whole racing experience feel like a new Micro Machines game or Motorstorm RC depending on your age, and comes complete with its own set of tracks to race around. The core racing in Top Racer still follows the same rules and one button approach of the regular air riding mode, but the shift of view point makes it feel entirely different.
If you’re feeling like playing something a bit more wacky on a given day, you’ll probably want to give City Trial a go. This mode sees you and a bunch of opponents racing around a small open city, with the aim of collecting different icons. These icons grant different stat buffs to your kart, from top speed, to turning, and even flying ability. After a few minutes you’ll lock in your current stats, and will then compete in a mini game to determine the overall winner. These range from short little races to ridiculous games of darts played with your vehicle and a big ramp, and will appeal to your sense of child-like wonder unless you’re dead inside.
If you’re looking for something more substantial in the single player department, the main mode of choice will be Road Trip. This is a campaign complete with a weird story about a living robot planet, that sees you competing in different mini events from all across the other modes. At each stop on the road trip you’ll choose between three potential challenges, which will reward you (similarly to City Trial mode) with stat buffs. These could be single lap versions of a standard race, top races, the mini games from city trial, or a time limited race where the goal is to smash into every other racer within a minute. You’ll do this through different themed levels, and there are branching paths and cutscenes as you go. It’s a really satisfying way to play Kirby Air Riders, because the unavoidable variety will mean it’s impossible to get bored.
Once you’ve mastered all the different ways to air ride, you can take on the world at large in Online mode. This is implemented wonderfully, with casual and ranked modes, regular events that focus on specific modes, and just the ability to play whatever you like most online at any time. You can even create your own 32 player lobby, which is utterly ridiculous and very unexpected. If this is what we should expect going forward, we don’t need to worry about Nintendo lagging behind with online features.
However you want to play Kirby Air Riders, you’ll constantly unlock a vast array of new content as you go. Each mode of the game features a rewards board, with 150 different things to unlock hidden behind picture tiles. You’ll unlock these by doing all sorts of tiny tasks, from attacking a rival in the first thirty seconds of a race to completing a lap without crashing. You’ll reveal challenges on adjacent tiles as you reveal the board too, giving you new tasks to focus on. Some races would end and I’d have five new rewards appear out of nowhere, and my day would immediately get better. Whether it’s cosmetics for your Air Rider licence, new characters or new karts, the constant flow of unlockables is delightful.
Whereas most kart racers feature plenty of characters and vehicles that feel the same, Kirby Air Riders values individuality. Each character has their own impressive special move to slowly power up as they ride, and the karts change the mechanics of racing entirely. The trolley for example gets rid of drift boosting entirely but boosts all other stats to balance it out, which is perfect if you don’t gel with that style of play. When you’ve got a whole host of wildly different vehicles chasing that top spot, the varying strategies they use make the races more dynamic and add yet another layer to this one button racer.
Kirby Air Riders is a breath of fresh air for those who’ve already spent hours exploring Mario Kart World, and it’s no less visually appealing than the Switch 2 launch title. The tracks are massively different from one another, with everything from lush grasslands, digital cyberscapes and gorgeous waterfalls all available to ride on. The soundtrack is just as delightful, with catchy new tunes and remixed versions of Kirby classics that’ll drill their way into your brain like a charming lobotomy.
Kirby Air Riders is such a surprising game, full of exciting design decisions and varied content. It does have a couple of minor flaws though, like the few dud minigames in the City Trial mode and the slightly awkward spin attack motion. I also wish there was a way to just keep racing without having to select individual tracks so often, which is an issue mainly born from that mimicking of the Smash Bros setup.
Kirby Air Riders takes the entire kart racing genre and shakes it so hard it’s barely recognisable, but is still just as fun. With loads of different modes and a huge variety of customisation options, it’s got so much content to experiment with whether you’re playing alone or with friends. Kirby Air Riders might be the king of karts in 2025, and I was not expecting that in such a stacked year.
