Kirby Air Riders - sometime in 2025
- Thread starter robor
- Start date
_Ex_
Member
lul
What I meant by Sakurai "figuring it out" is determining what exactly was missing from the original Kirby Air Ride, and providing that this time*, while also making a racing game that is fun enough, and differentiated enough, that it deserves to launch alongside Mario Kart World. I do carry a bit of salt here, because I would have rather seen Nintendo produce a new F-Zero instead of another Kirby racer.
*I have finished the 2003 Kirby Air Ride, so have an informed opinion, from my HLTB:
The Wheel of Fortune
Member
Small update by Sakurai:
Article: "Right now, I'm pouring my heart into making Kirby Air Riders.
It's shaping up to be something great!"
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MSduderino
Member
"Today was the release date of the GameCube's Kirby Air Ride. 22nd anniversary!!
At the same time, it is also the anniversary of Iwata-san's passing. 2015.
Ten years have passed since then…
Iwata-san and I were about ten years apart in age and when we joined the company, and soon I'll be catching up to his age, won't I?
Right now, I'm pouring my heart into making Kirby Air Riders.
It's shaping up to be something great!"
Beautiful. I'm not crying! YOU'RE CRYING!
Dacvak
No one shall be brought before our LORD David Bowie without the true and secret knowledge of the Photoshop. For in that time, so shall He appear.
This is gonna sound stupid, but I kind of hope it's not too fleshed out, because I don't think a game like Kirby Air Ride should be occupying that much of Sakurai's time.
I actually have a theory… I think that Nintendo, obviously, asked Sakurai to make the next Smash Bros, and he said yes… but only if Nintendo would let him make a separate passion project or two.
Air Riders is being developed by HAL, Sora, and BandaiNamco, I bet it's a sub-team of the team that's currently developing the next Smash Bros, which would also be developed by those companies.
I bet that Sakurai said he'd only do another Smash if Nintendo published Air Riders, and probably a Switch port of Kid Icarus Uprising. But I bet it's a side project compared to the next Smash.
phant0m
Member
Gonna be a banger
honestly would recommend. dunno how much you played OG switch but I can't express how much better the switch 2 hardware feels overall and the pro controller 2 is
honestly would recommend. dunno how much you played OG switch but I can't express how much better the switch 2 hardware feels overall and the pro controller 2 is
Gameplay Gods Bless
Member
Could already do 8 players in the first Kirby air ride. Hope you can do 16+ now.
Gameplay Gods Bless
Member
Go F yourself. He should make another kid Icarus just to spite smelly smash addicts.
Danjin44
The nicest person on this forum
I really want him to make Kid Icarus Uprising 2....Its one of my favourite Nintendo game.
I dunno how they can top Ultimate. I would release SSBUdx, a new story, upgraded visuals, some new characters, and more DLC later down the line. A paid upgrade will be available for current users.
Kabelly
Member
Easily. Gut a bunch a characters, especially the abundance of worthless clones, and start completely fresh. Ultimate was the best send-off of all the previous games.
TheSHEEEP
Gold Member
Easy:
Scratch unnecessary characters (or make them sub-characters) to clean up that messy AF character screen. You don't need both Samus AND Samus in slightly slower with slightly stronger attacks. You don't need Simon AND Richter. You don't need Villager AND Isabelle. You don't need triple Miis (or any, actually). You don't need Mario AND Dr. Mario. You don't need fitness trainer. You don't need two dozen renditions of anime-game-swordfighter-character which all play almost identical. Etc.
Put better balance on existing ones - all characters are playable, but the fact we have so distinct and mostly agreeing S-to-F tier lists speaks for itself.
Add some new, interesting characters that are actually unique.
Finally fucking allow people to rebind keys properly. Give me (optional) separate keys for tilts and smashes FFS, my sausage fingers simply cannot move that little, never could, and I have hundreds of hours in those games - by now I have simply learned to mostly play without tilts
Allow co-op multi-character gameplay (as in, all players have multiple characters and when one dies the next comes in). In Ultimate, you can only do that VS - but all game modes should support such a setup.
Replace that spirit board campaign with something actually good where you don't need to play for 20 hours until you can unlock your favorite characters.
Maybe have a proper campaign per character or at least per character group (bunch a few belonging together in the same campaign).
There are so many ways to improve upon Ultimate.
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bender
What time is it?
Easy:
Scratch unnecessary characters (or make them sub-characters) to clean up that messy AF character screen. You don't need both Samus AND Samus in slightly slower with slightly stronger attacks. You don't need Simon AND Richter. You don't need Villager AND Marie. You don't need triple Miis (or any, actually). You don't need Mario AND Dr. Mario. You don't need fitness trainer. You don't need two dozen renditions of anime-game-swordfighter-character which all play almost identical. Etc.
Put better balance on existing ones - all characters are playable, but the fact we have so distinct and mostly agreeing S-to-F tier lists speaks for itself.
Add some new, interesting characters that are actually unique.
Finally fucking allow people to rebind keys properly. Give me (optional) separate keys for tilts and smashes FFS, my sausage fingers simply cannot move that little, never could, and I have hundreds of hours in those games - by now I have simply learned to mostly play without tilts
Allow co-op multi-character gameplay (as in, all players have multiple characters and when one dies the next comes in). In Ultimate, you can only do that VS - but all game modes should support such a setup.
Replace that spirit board campaign with something actually good where you don't need to play for 20 hours until you can unlock your favorite characters.
Maybe have a proper campaign per character or at least per character group (bunch a few belonging together in the same campaign).
There are so many ways to improve upon Ultimate.
And bring back tripping.
I looked at some GameCube gameplay, they really need to improve it and make it stand out, I think more actual flying would help.
Tams
Member
Because at the end of the day, Nintendo are a business and F-Zero and StarFox didn't sell very well.
Hudo
Member
Most likely because they actually wanted Sakurai to work on a Smash Bros and Sakurai said he'd do it only if he can make something else before that. And he chose to do a new Kirby Air Ride.
Woopah
Member
It's all about having a champion within Nintendo.
Franchises like Air Riders, Pikmin, Detective Club and DK have influencial people.
I think Miyamoto cares about Star Fox so that could come back. Not sure about F Zero but I wouldn't rule it out either.
Dr. Wilkinson
Member
You're way over-thinking it. Sakurai likes Kirby Air Riders and wanted to make one. That's likely all that was necessary in order for it to be greenlit.
It released on an unpopular console and didn't sell well. 22 years later it's getting a sequel.
. Sakurai gets what he wants, as long as he pumps out a new Smash for each console cycle. I think that's the math and literally the whole business angle.Smash Ultimate has sold 36 million copies. He has basically unlimited sway at Nintendo to do basically whatever he wants as long as that keeps happening.
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Jinzo Prime
Member
Because it's Sakurai's game. That's it. F-Zero and Star Fox don't have champions at Nintendo right now.
SamuraiEdge
Member
Kirby is boring.
Tams
Member
Bridges
Member
Typically I agree but Air Ride kicks ass
The Wheel of Fortune
Member
You say this, and then ask for WFT to be removed? Sod off, mate. She's my main and she's super fun to play with, definitely of the most unique characters out of the roster.
TheSHEEEP
Gold Member
I'll agree she is unique.
But she is also boring as all hell, without an inch of personality, a background, story or reason to keep her in any roster.
Don't give a flying fuck if she's your main. Characters need a good reason to be in a roster and she doesn't have that. She's guaranteed to be at the bottom half of least played characters, too.
Though I'll gladly keep her rather than about eight out of ten copy-paste anime-swordfight-characters or straight up clones like Simon/Richter.
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