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Soon, the great pink hero Kirby will be making his debut on the Nintendo Switch 2 in Kirby Air Riders. The long-awaited sequel to Kirby Air Ride on the GameCube, the racing game pits the lovable blob against many of his friends and enemies in what'll be 18 tracks to start, half fresh and half from the original.
That'll be nine from each, in numbers. Game director Masahiro Sakurai revealed the information during the latest Nintendo Direct dedicated to his reunion with Kirby, a character he created and with whom he hasn't worked directly since Air Ride, back in the early 2000s, right before he left HAL Laboratory.
This means we're getting every course from the first in Kirby Air Riders, polished up for the leap in hardware and new mechanics in the actual racing. There are two graphical modes, regular and diorama, each offering a distinct aesthetic. Just offhand, I can tell you a few of them are going to look stunning on Switch 2, such as Celestial Valley, Frozen Hillside, and Nebula Belt.
That last one is somewhat evocative of Rainbow Road, being a cosmic trip on a bright, transparent routing. It's the only special track, unlocked through completing 100 laps in total in Air Ride, and there are no other competitors in that version.
I'd expect that to change in Air Riders, and for it to be usurped by newer rewards among the nine other courses. Something based on Isolated Isles: Forgo Dreams, from Kirby and the Forgotten Lands, seems plausible, and perhaps a deeper cut or two, since Sakurai goes so far back with the blobby hero.
Whatever emerges from Kirby Air Riders, it'll need to be truly magical to rival Sonic Racing CrossWorlds and Mario Kart World. But then, y'know what they say: never bet against anything that can eat you whole.
