Some Thoughts on the Test Ride: Kirby Air Riders
November 10, 2025
In a year in which Mario Kart World has released, it’s hard to believe that Kirby Air Riders is choosing to compete in the racing genre space. Perhaps it’s for that very reason that Nintendo has opted to provide a Global Test Ride for the game. There’s no better way for potential buyers to appreciate the difference between the two games than to actually try out the new one.
Just to mention one major difference, Kirby Air Riders positions itself as more than just a racing game, and the Global Test Ride definitely backs that up. The City Trial mode, at least, feels more like a party game. There’s a greater emphasis on the chaos and interactivity than the actual driving. When it comes to feeling distinct, Kirby Air Riders absolutely validates its existence. But does it feel like a $70 USD game? I’m afraid the demo hasn’t left that strong of an impression.
Simplicity That Can Reach the Extremes of Fun
Kirby Air Riders, much like its predecessor, isn’t particularly demanding when it comes to the controls. Racers move automatically, and just a mere couple of button and analog stick inputs are enough to perform every single possible action in the game. Despite that relative simplicity, though, Kirby Air Riders is anything but boring. There is more than enough depth in those few controls, and every single mode that you can participate in does an excellent job of borderline overstimulating its players.
Air Ride is as close as the game gets to traditional racing, and, even then, the mode allows for plenty of player expression. Every racer has the capability to add so much dynamism to a race, especially with all the available copy abilities. The tracks also aren’t 100% linear, so how you engage with them is totally up to you. The level of freedom in Kirby Air Riders’ design goes a long way in creating a deep sense of engagement. Being built on fairly simple mechanics does not stop the game from feeling like an experience that has been intently crafted for your entertainment.
City Trial — Hyperactivity Put to Waste
City Trial is Kirby Air Riders’ party game mode, and, boy, is it hectic. It very much feels like it was born in the TikTok era, because it is a constant overload of action, information, and spectacles. For the most part, that serves the mode well. It’s hard to get tired of something that is throwing something new at you every few seconds. City Trial is like a straight injection of bliss.
All the chaos in City Trial matches unfortunately doesn’t amount to much, though. Five whole minutes of collecting stat boosters ends with a single minigame deciding the winner. I’m not entirely against a design philosophy that prioritizes offering more total matches, but the payoff in City Trial just doesn’t feel like enough. It’s pretty unsatisfying to use your acquired build for a single test of skill.
Related Read
The full release of Kirby Air Riders will seemingly offer the ability to customize all the game modes to a player’s personal taste, but the default online experience with strangers is unlikely to be changed. That’s a shame, because City Trial, for a lot of players, will ironically end up feeling too shallow. It offers a lot, but it isn’t fit to captivate players in the long-term after repeat plays. It’s a mode designed more for friends, which is perfectly fine; but that’s not an easy selling point for such an expensive game.
Kirby Air Riders is both fun and unique, but the Global Test Ride is unlikely to win people over who are on the fence about the game. That’s not to say that Kirby Air Riders is underwhelming, but its flaws are pronounced enough that it doesn’t feel like a must-have release. The game is brilliant for those who want to be overloaded with Kirby content, but I doubt you’ll feel bad if you miss out on this.
Still, players who are looking forward to Kirby Air Riders should remain excited. My tone here might sound pretty negative, but there is a lot of evident quality to this release. It’s also impossible to judge the full experience when a few other modes, like Top Ride and Road Trip, aren’t even available to play yet. All I can definitively say is that those who love the original Kirby Air Ride will have even more to love with this new game. By all means, it feels like a nearly perfected formula.
