‘Kirby Air Riders’ Looks Amazing While Fans Continue To Wait For The Next Nintendo Direct

Up until recently, Nintendo had been suspiciously silent on Kirby Air Riders, which is a bit surprising given its part of the launch year line-up for the Nintendo Switch 2. Then, randomly, they dropped a 45-minute Direct that went into detail about the game.

The Direct covered its unique control scheme, where each Air Ride machine moves forward without the player ever even touching any buttons, only requiring a control stick to steer left or right. It also explained the introduction of “special moves,” which allow players to attack other Riders on the field.

The original City Trial mode returns as players visit the floating island Skyah, where they can collect power-ups and attack opponents to cause damage or force an opponent to drop power-ups. Players will have five minutes to power their machine up as much as possible before moving on to phase two of the trials, the Stadiums. Once there, they will have different challenges to deal with while mitigate threats from other playters to reach victory. The video also confirmed Air Ride mode, where players get into a race to see who can cross the finish line first.

Perhaps what’s most interesting about this announcement: despite having such a lengthy Direct, there’s still so much in the air for Nintendo right now. I think its safe to say Metroid Prime 4 is launching in December, so they have plenty of time to talk about it later. But no one has any idea what’s happening beyond that in the next year. Even with multiple Directs over the past two months, fans are … still eagerly awaiting the next Nintendo Direct to figure out their favorite company’s plans. Nintendo really does feel like they’re playing a different game than every other publisher out there right now.

Kirby Air Riders releases exclusively for the Nintendo Switch 2 on November 20th.