shockingly simple and surprisingly deep : NPR

World of Mario Kart made it to the finish line this summer. Sonic Racing: Cross Worlds rushed up the sales charts this fall. Now, more than two decades later, a sequel to the GameCube classic is coming out for the holidays. It's been a banner year for cartoonish racing games like this, but Kirby Air Riders may take the crown thanks to its deep customization and radically simple controls.

The game stays true to the minimalism of the original Air Ride. You constantly accelerate and control the left joystick. Hold down almost any other button to apply the brakes, allowing you to corner and charge the boost gauge. Release the button as soon as you feel the urge to run forward.

Instead, press the button to inhale the nearest enemy. If that enemy has a “copy ability”, you'll absorb it to throw fireballs, spray ice crystals, shoot spikes – the list goes on. You can also damage enemies by swinging the joystick to crash into them. Each hit increases your speed.

Devastating clash in City Trial mode.

Nintendo/James Mastromarino

hide signature

switch signature

Nintendo/James Mastromarino

That's it! From these foundations, the game draws a dizzying variety of playstyles. Each racer has its own characteristics and special techniques. The machines have unique features beyond their specifications. One slides when you brake. The other rushes forward, changing direction only when charging. Another one bounces off the ground when you turn the joystick.

These varied playstyles serve different purposes in the game's many multiplayer modes. The standard option, Air Ride, includes new and existing courses. Contrast Top Ride mode raises the camera behind the rider for a bird's eye view of the entire track. While this mode is a significant improvement over the 2003 version of Top Ride, it is still finicky and frustrating.

Finally, there's City Trial, the game's best and most inventive mode. In matches that rarely last more than 10 minutes, you'll travel across a massive map collecting upgrades and switching between vehicles before the final showdown occurs, alternating between races, gladiator arenas, high jumps, and more. City Trial can even accommodate up to 16 online players for maximum chaos, and I'm sure it will dominate my family's gaming time again!

Players secretly vote for the final arena after the City Challenge time expires.

Nintendo

hide signature

switch signature

Nintendo

All of these modes come together in the all-new Air Riders single-player campaign. This roguelike “Road Trial” game extrapolates the City Trial stat hunt into smaller challenges. You'll progress through various stages, facing obstacles of your choosing to overcome to improve your stats, defeat periodic bosses, and unravel a crazy story.

The full journey can take almost two hours, combining dozens of micro-contests that last from a few seconds (no pun intended) to just over a minute. I grew tired of the format by the third playthrough, but unlocking vehicles and the odd achievement still sprayed my brain with the dopamine I craved.

In Road Trip, players periodically choose one of three challenges, each with their own reward.

Nintendo

hide signature

switch signature

Nintendo

Road Trip mode is ultimately an afterthought. It's truly a multiplayer game that offers the deepest online functionality of any Nintendo game I've ever seen. I joined the reviewers' session and between matches hung out in the “pen” – a lobby where I could switch between emotes and watch the score screens of other party members' games. Here we also flaunted our fits. As you play, you earn Miles, a currency that you can use to suit up your racers and decorate your cars with a variety of awesome stickers, wraps, and extras.

It's no surprise that designer Masahiro Sakurai, who created Super Smash Bros. as well as Kirby, puts a lot of emphasis on the bombast of the game's multiplayer. But these flourishes contrast with the game's mechanical restraint. Air Racers could complicate the formula in a thousand different ways. Instead, the game's elegant core feels as fresh in 2025 as it did in 2003.