Kirby Air Riders is still slated for 2025 on Switch 2 despite no gameplay footage, but game director Masahiro Sakurai says we'll probably see some "soon"

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I'm still not 100% convinced it's making its 2025 release date

Kirby Air Riders screenshot of a blue, green, yellow, and pink Kirby on different Air Ride Machines
(Image credit: Nintendo)

Super Smash Bros creator and Kirby Air Riders director Masahiro Sakurai says that we should finally see gameplay for the upcoming Switch 2 racing game "soon."

Arguably the biggest surprise from the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct was the announcement that Masahiro Sakurai's newest project wasn't a new Super Smash Bros game, or even something entirely new. No, it was in-fact a sequel to the cult-classic GameCube racing game Kirby Air Ride, and it will be coming out before the end of 2025. And since then, we've been bombarded with information about the game like… actually, there's been nothing since then.

In a Twitter post (translated by Nintendo Life), Sakurai celebrated the 20th anniversary of his company Sora, "It doesn't matter to most people, but today, Sora Co., Ltd. is celebrating its 20th anniversary…That's a long time! Thank you for your continued support." He then acknowledged Kirby's lack of info, saying, "The new game *Kirby Air Rider* hasn't even shown gameplay footage yet, but I think we'll be able to share some information soon."

Nintendo typically has a Nintendo Direct in September, which is presumably when "soon" will be, but then again, it's been a weird year for Nintendo. Outside of Pokemon, none of the big Switch 2 releases slated for the rest of 2025 have release dates, with Metroid Prime 4, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, and Kirby Air Riders all having generic "2025" release dates.

Plus, Nintendo skipped its typical February and June directs with there being two shows a week apart back in March/April, with the March Direct almost exclusively announcing Switch games coming in 2026 like Rhythm Heaven Groove and Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream. So there's a chance the September direct might not even be in the cards, but Nintendo is seemingly running out of time if both this and Metroid are still coming in 2025.

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Scott McCrae
Scott McCrae
Contributor

Scott has been freelancing for over three years across a number of different gaming publications, first appearing on GamesRadar+ in 2024. He has also written for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, VG247, Play, TechRadar, and others. He's typically rambling about Metal Gear Solid, God Hand, or any other PS2-era titles that rarely (if ever) get sequels.

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