Nintendo Direct for Kirby Air Riders - 19th August (6am PT // 9am PT // 2pm UK)

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I mean it looks pretty fun but, like pretty much everyone else is saying, it seems redundant when Mario Kart world just released.

I'd have assumed this was maybe a passion project for him, and they allowed him to do it after spending the entire Switch generation slaving away on Smash. But at the beginning he said he is making the game because Shinya Takahashi requested it. So for some reason Nintendo was really invested in having 2 Kart racers during the first 6 months of the Switch 2, which is even more puzzling

MagiusNecros said:
Given the choice I'd take Kid Icarus Uprising 2 over Air Riders any day of the week.
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Even just a Kid Icarus Uprising 1 remastered with non touch controls and updated visuals would have been amazing.
 
This looks like such a Sakurai game, for better or worse. There are clearly so many tiny variables and mechanics that affect the game, and you'll have to really understand and master them to be competitive. But unlike something like Smash, I'm not sure there's enough of a hook that'll keep you interested long enough to learn everything. The base premise of "Kirby racing game" isn't nearly as enticing as something like Smash.

The game feels very autistic, for lack of a better word. I don't mean that necessarily negatively, but more in a way where it's obsessive over every little detail. There is no base simplicity, and there's probably a high skill ceiling, similar to the original GameCube game actually. But, yeah, I just don't know if the overall concept will be enough to make players really want to learn and master all of that.
 
Fbh said:
I mean it looks pretty fun but, like pretty much everyone else is saying, it seems redundant when Mario Kart world just released.

I'd have assumed this was maybe a passion project for him, and they allowed him to do it after spending the entire Switch generation slaving away on Smash. But at the beginning he said he is making the game because Shinya Takahashi requested it. So for some reason Nintendo was really invested in having 2 Kart racers during the first 6 months of the Switch 2, which is even more puzzling



Even just a Kid Icarus Uprising 1 remastered with non touch controls and updated visuals would have been amazing.
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It's a racing game with characters and vehicles, but it seems very different than MKW. Did you watch the whole direct?
 
I couldn't see any regular LOD pop in either, which for an F-Zero-ish racer is super important. Likely some form of mesh shaders are in use, which would explain the well round geometry.
 
Fermbiz said:
So if this is coming out in November, what does this mean for Metroid?
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3 things. Either it's releasing in September as a super surprise, it's a December release....or lol 2026 game.

October is taken by Pokemon and Kirby both in August and now November. And Nintendo generally only does one big release per month.

The real kicker here is Air Riders is getting announced, talked about and released in the same year with a concise release date.
 
I was thinking he wanted to make this and pitched it to Nintendo. It's interesting to me, and funny, that Nintedo asked him to make this and him outright questioning if it's a good idea with Mario Kart World in the mix.
 
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MagiusNecros said:
3 things. Either it's releasing in September as a super surprise, it's a December release....or lol 2026 game.

October is taken by Pokemon and Kirby both in August and now November. And Nintendo generally only does one big release per month.

The real kicker here is Air Riders is getting announced, talked about and released in the same year with a concise release date.
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Don't forget Marios 40th in september.
 
Looks cool, the focus is clearly on City Trial (basically battle royale for Nintendo), and I get releasing it in November to separate from Mario Kart, but why do this direct now?
 
Robb said:
I was thinking he wanted to make this and pitched it to Nintendo. It's interesting to me, and funny, that Nintedo asked him to make this and him outright questioning if it's a good idea with Mario Kart World in the mix.
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Yeah, I would have definitely guessed that Sakurai wanted to make this as sort of a passion project, and Nintendo only agreed to it if he agreed to direct the next Smash as well.
 
diffusionx said:
Looks cool, the focus is clearly on City Trial (basically battle royale for Nintendo), and I get releasing it in November to separate from Mario Kart, but why do this direct now?
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MKW could have a battle mode that's similar to this. I'm not sure I understand why a completely separate game is necessary.

The basic mechanics for this are indeed very different from MK, but I don't know how many people will care about this difference all that much.
 
efyu_lemonardo said:
MKW could have a battle mode that's similar to this. I'm not sure I understand why a completely separate game is necessary.

The basic mechanics for this are indeed very different from MK, but I don't know how many people will care about this difference all that much.
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Well, City Trial is a KAR thing always has been.

I don't want to try to read minds here. I think a sequel to a 20 year old game that has a lot of fan love is reasonable. I just question the timing like many here.
 
I don't think it's a big deal to have this a half a year after Mario Kart; after all, how many third-person action games get released fairly close to each other? Despite being cartoony racers the games play quite differently, especially considering that City Trial (more of a racer-arena thing) is being pushed as the main mode.

I will say that I was hoping for some bigger shakeups to City Trial. Multiple islands, or a larger battle Royale approach mode, or something. It really feels very similar to KAR's City Trial without adding much. I'd hoped the excising of Top Ride would've led to a beefier City Trial.
 
There were so many features explained quickly in Japanese, I got lost. I'm having a hard time understanding the gameplay loop and the City Trial sandbox looks pretty small, but I guess you fight in it multiplayer. I didn't play the first one and this looks like it has potential, but it's hard to get excited about it. What do you do? share a small sandbox to collect powerups with 16 others before racing them? Could be fun, just never played something like that.
 
MSduderino said:
There were so many features explained quickly in Japanese, I got lost. I'm having a hard time understanding the gameplay loop and the City Trial sandbox looks pretty small, but I guess you fight in it multiplayer. I didn't play the first one and this looks like it has potential, but it's hard to get excited about it. What do you do? share a small sandbox to collect powerups with 16 others before racing them? Could be fun, just never played something like that.
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If you played Smash Bros for 3DS, it's kind of like that game's Smash Run. You collect powerups in a moderately-sized nonlinear world for 5 minutes and then are whisked off to compete in a short mini game with your powered-up character. What makes it fun is how you can palpably feel your parameters getting stronger and stronger as you play, mixed in with fun random events and stuff to keep things fresh.
 
MSduderino said:
There were so many features explained quickly in Japanese, I got lost. I'm having a hard time understanding the gameplay loop and the City Trial sandbox looks pretty small, but I guess you fight in it multiplayer. I didn't play the first one and this looks like it has potential, but it's hard to get excited about it. What do you do? share a small sandbox to collect powerups with 16 others before racing them? Could be fun, just never played something like that.
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It's a Roguelite.
 
MagiusNecros said:
Well yes of course.

Thus far every big S2 game is a glorified S1 game.

Made Mario Kart for S1 but moved it late to S2. Made Donkey Kong first as a S1 game and moved it to S2. S1 players can even play game by linking up with an S2 player. Enhanced versions of BotW/TotK are glorified S1 games. Metroid Prime 4 is getting S1 and S2 versions so glorified S1 game.

Guess what Pokemon ZA also glorified S1 game since it coming to both consoles.

Like damn so far I haven't seen a single S2 game developed specifically for S2 since it's creation.
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I'm seeing this a lot on here and am confused why this distinction matters/ what it means to people.

So, many of Nintendo's best/ most popular games began development before being moved to new hardware. The new hardware makes the game better, not worse, because it allows the developers to fully realize their vision. That makes for a better game, which is why it was moved in the first place.

So is the argument that the game being in development longer, and the game being improved by that change, is... a criticism and makes the game less appealing? You want a game that barely runs on existing hardware and has stuff removed because the system can't accommodate features they planned for the game but couldn't make a reality? It's just an odd take, and I'm not sure it makes logical sense.

For example, clearly Mario Odyssey was at one point planned for Wii U, but that didn't happen, and Switch was fast-tracked and Wii U was winded down early, due to widespread unpopularity. The game certainly was in development originally for Wii U until ~2015. Does anyone think of Mario Odyssey and say to themself "Gosh, if only this hadn't originally been planned for Wii U, it could've been so much better!". That's clearly not a thing. So this topic fascinates me, why people cling onto this idea that games that began on old hardware are somehow lesser games than ones that were never planned for pre-existing hardware.
 
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KungFucius said:
I am still fucking confused. Why make a Kirby Mario Kart and release it weeks after a new Mario Kart drops?
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It's a sequel. To a GameCube game. What's the argument, that Nintendo can't have two mascot vehicle racing games? They have two platformer series, Mario and Yoshi. Both are somewhat similar but co-exist just fine. 🤷‍♂️
 
Dr. Wilkinson said:
It's a sequel. To a GameCube game. What's the argument, that Nintendo can't have two mascot vehicle racing games? They have two platformer series, Mario and Yoshi. Both are somewhat similar but co-exist just fine. 🤷‍♂️
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They've got way more than two platformer series (DK, Kirby, Wario, Starfy, etc) but otherwise I agree. People are making too big a deal out of two racers being released in the same year when that kind of scrutiny rarely gets applied to more "gamer-friendly" genres like RPGs, FPSes, adventures, and action games. There's some sort of weird stigma for more arcadey experiences.
 
Dr. Wilkinson said:
It's a sequel. To a GameCube game. What's the argument, that Nintendo can't have two mascot vehicle racing games? They have two platformer series, Mario and Yoshi. Both are somewhat similar but co-exist just fine. 🤷‍♂️
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I think people are confused because they're used to multiple platformer franchises and multiple shooter franchises coexisting and releasing in the same year, but not multiple mascot racers.

But the popularity of MK is pretty definitive proof that there is room in the market for this genre to expand. 3rd parties are constantly trying to get their piece of the pie as well.
 
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Tough crowd around here -- I thought it looked pretty fun! And November is a great release date, if you take a look at the release schedule. All the third parties and MS / Sony were all scared of GTA6 landing this fall, this is actually the only major release for November at the moment, on any platform.
 
I don't find it odd to have multiple racers, I find it odd that they chose to put them out in the Switch 2's first few months. And it's also odd that it's not a new F zero which people have been asking for.
 
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