Leading into today’sNintendoDirect for Kirby Air Riders, there were two questions on everyone’s mind: When will the game be available forNintendo Switch 2, and will there be a City Trial mode?
Let’s start with the latter:yes, and it looks absolutely fantastic.
At the end of the Nintendo Direct, we got our answer for that first question: Kirby Air Riders is coming to the Nintendo Switch 2 on November 20th. For those in America, that’s the week before Thanksgiving; it appears that the sequel to Kirby Air Ride is, inexplicably, Nintendo’s big holiday release this year.
There was no mention of pricing on the Direct, but Nintendo has the game listedon their website for $69.99.For now,Mario Kart Worldremains the only $80 game. With Microsoft backtracking on their decision to raise the price of their games to $80, I wonder if Nintendo is doing the same.
Kirby Air Riders Teases A Possible Story Mode Featuring Dark Matter
We were treated to 45 minutes of Kirby Air Riders footage hosted by Sakurai himself, where he detailed a large portion of what the game has to offer.
Again, City Trial is back with a new map, new mini-game Stadiums, and more. The “traditional” Air Ride racing looks like a massive improvement over what took place on theoriginal GameCube game. That’s not all, though, as Sakurai teased that there’s still plenty more we haven’t seen, such as the possible addition of Dark Matter to the game.
After the release date announcement, a cutscene played showcasing the mysterious Kirby character who was the boss of Kirby’s Dream Land 2 and 3.
The teaser feels eerily reminiscent of some of the cutscenes from the Super Smash Bros. series, and with Ultimate having an increased emphasis on its story mode, it’s possible Kirby Air Riders could be getting the same. Of course, it’s Sakurai, so it could be a playable character tease as well.
I’m sure we’ll know soon enough, as I doubt this is the last we’ll see of Kirby Air Riders before its release this November. Sakurai himself said in his sign-off that he wants to share “the other wonderful aspects of the game” soon.
