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Kirby Air Riders was one of the most surprising upcoming Switch 2 games shown amongst yesterday's bombardment of Nintendo Switch 2 Direct news – a sequel to the adorable Kirby racing game which first arrived almost 22 years ago. During the Direct, it was confirmed that director Masahiro Sakurai will be leading development, and he's now revealed what studio is making the game.
On Twitter, Super Smash Bros. and Kirby creator Sakurai has confirmed that the Switch 2-exclusive Air Riders is indeed the mystery game he teased last year (despite the fact that before the Direct, he insisted he knew nothing about what would be shown), and it's being developed at Bandai Namco Studios. For reference, that's the same studio behind both Super Smash Bros. 4 and Ultimate – pretty much without debate the best fighting games on their respective consoles.
昨日発表した『カービィのエアライダー』は『スマブラfor』『スマブラSP』と同じく､バンダイナムコスタジオで開発しています。スタッフ一同、力を入れて打ち込んでいますが､新情報のお知らせにはお時間いただきます。お待ちください! https://t.co/v9u1XqdHRsApril 3, 2025
Kirby Air Ride obviously wasn't a fighting game, and it was developed by HAL Laboratories (which most recently made Kirby titles like Forgotten Land and Return to Dream Land Deluxe), but no one can deny the quality of the games that have come out of Bandai Namco Studios. It also helped with the development of Mario Kart 8 and its Deluxe Switch version, so it's also been involved with some of the best racing games in the past.
As translated by Automaton, Sakurai adds: "The full staff is giving their all in developing the game, but it will take some time before we can share more information."
With that in mind, it sounds like we could be waiting a while before we see Kirby Air Riders again, but with it currently being slated for a 2025 release, it shouldn't disappear for too long.
While you're here, be sure to check out everything we know about Nintendo Switch 2 pre-orders if you're thinking about picking up the new console at launch.
