KIRBY AIR RIDERS: SAKURAI BRINGS THE STAR BACK TO THE TRACK
8.0 of 10 bananas. Masahiro Sakurai returns to the strangest racer Nintendo ever made and builds it out with a story mode, online play, and the beloved City Trial. Loud, deep, and generous, but the simple steering and chaos will not click for everyone.
By the Alpha. Switch 2 cartridge listing. Updated Oct 26 2026.
Honest note: This is not a fresh hands-on playtest. I built this verdict from launch reviews, critic consensus, update history, and what is known about the game today. If I put real hours in on stream, I will update the score and say so.
Platforms: Nintendo Switch 2 only (Bandai Namco Studios and Sora Ltd., published by Nintendo, released November 20 2025). It does not run on the original Switch. The Amazon button is the Switch 2 cartridge listing, 48.99 dollars at my Oct 26 check, sold by a third-party seller named European Rarities and shipped by Amazon. The listing photo shows a European box with a PEGI rating, so the copy you get may be a European import. Nintendo says Switch 2 game cards are not region locked, but look at the seller and the box before you pay.
Get Kirby Air Riders for Nintendo Switch 2 on AmazonSit with me a moment. Back on the GameCube, the troop had one game nobody could explain. You barely pressed a button, the machine flew on its own, and somehow we played City Trial until the sun came up. Twenty two years later, the man who made it came back to finish the thought.
What It Wants To Be
Kirby Air Riders is a racing and battle game for Switch 2 directed by Masahiro Sakurai, the creator of Kirby and Super Smash Bros. It brings back every mode from Kirby Air Ride on the GameCube, including Air Ride races, top-down Top Ride, and City Trial, where everyone scrambles around a city collecting power-ups before a surprise final event. On top of that it adds more riders, more machines, deep customization, a single-player story mode, and online play.
What Works
Critics landed warm. It sits at 79 on Metacritic from more than a hundred reviews, with OpenCritic reporting 87 percent of critics recommend it. IGN, GameSpot, and Nintendo Life all gave it 8 out of 10, and Game Informer gave it 8.5. The praise is consistent: the music, the bright visuals, and a mountain of unlockables and modes. City Trial is the star again, a ten minute scramble that feels part racer, part party game, part brawl.
What Breaks
Listen well. This is not Mario Kart. The controls are deliberately simple and the racing can feel like it plays itself until you learn charging and drifting, and some players never warm to that. The track list in the main race mode is a common complaint, and a few critics called the whole thing a niche taste. Metro gave it a 4 out of 10, so not every reviewer bought in. It is Switch 2 only, so original Switch owners are out.
Who Should Play
Play it if you loved Kirby Air Ride, if your house has four controllers and a group that likes chaos more than lap times, or if you want a racer a young ape can pick up in a minute. Skip it if you want a serious kart racer with tight lines; Mario Kart World is that game.
STRENGTHS
- City Trial is back and better
- Huge pile of modes and unlockables
- Great music and presentation
- Easy for kids to pick up
HONEST COSTS
- Simple steering will not click for all
- Thin main race track list
- Switch 2 only
- Third-party seller and European box at my check
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