Gamescom 2025: impressions of Kirby Air Riders play

Nintendo arrived in Gamescom this year with a large part of the games, including the most anticipated this year. While we brought you the impressions of Metroid Prime 4 Beond Performent The Switch 2, this time we look at the Kirby Air Raders racing game, which received the release date the day before the fair.

Hard foundations

Although Kirby is known mainly as a series of platforms, this is not his racing debut. Air Riders is a successor to 22 -year -old Air Ride for Nintendo Gamecube, which, however, received a mixed rating. And although the novelty showed great potential, it is far from without problems.

The fact that it works is, of course, the stylization and general graphics, which is at a very solid level, comparable to forgotten earth, but with higher image quality. In the same way, the Switch 2 game works very smoothly, I have not seen any FPS downs, which is extremely important for such a game, so it seems that everything was successful in technically, which is great news.

In addition, depending on the gameplay, it is certainly necessary to praise, perhaps I find something more interesting than the popular Mario Kart. Control is simple without problems, including drifting with subsequent acceleration or sailing in the air, but you can largely control.

Where a great advantage of Kirby’s races over Marius is vehicles. While in Mario Kart they differ mainly in statistics, Kirby is completely different. The main machine is average, but you can gradually encounter vehicles that are perfectly suitable for swimming, a very heavy and durable car, but with which it is difficult to maneuver, or vice versa. Each car has an advantage, but often is also a disadvantage, so everything is well balanced, and everyone finds their favorite, especially in accordance with the style of the game.

Filling

But this finally comes to the contents of the content itself, where I already have significant reservations. Although the game will also offer classic races that can be very interesting, unfortunately, they were not available on Gamescom. Thus, I could try outside the textbook only the second mode, which is a city test, which takes place on a flying island, which has several relatively diverse parts.

You will spend exactly 5 minutes on the island, and the gameplay cannot be described better than as a cross between Mario Card and Super Samp -Rob, which, since the creative director of Masakhiro Sakurai stands behind the second series, makes sense. During the game, you go through the area, breaking stones and get bonuses that improve your car, or you can completely replace your car if you find better.

The events on the map are often randomly, but mostly not very funny, because the main goal is to really improve your car to the highest level. In the last 5 minutes you will have a miniral, which is the culmination of the entire game mode. You can choose from several options, such as a destructive derby, throwing darts or a short race, each of which ultimately turns out to be too fast, especially unlike a relatively long opening on the island.

It seems a little strange to me, because the developers have the right ingredients, but they just mixed not a good cocktail. The first part is too long, the second is too short, and the island’s map and individual mini -games will be quickly achieved. So I am already very concerned about the lack of content, especially compared to the vast world of Mario Card.

In general, I have mixed feelings from Kirby Air Riders. On the one hand, it has a very strong foundation and is based on an interesting brand with a number of familiar characters, including the rich capabilities of a multiplayer environment for up to 16 players, but the content itself (at least from the point of view of the urban test) is a little weaker. Of course, I can’t make a complete picture about 20 minutes of the game, and perhaps the final version will surprise.

Kirby Air Riders was released on November 20 exclusively on Nintendo Switch 2.

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