Kirby Air Riders is a Switch 2 racing game from Masahiro Sakurai

The Kirby and Super Smash Bros. creator returns with his first game in seven years.

by Dominic Preston

Apr 2, 2025, 2:34 PM UTC

Dominic Preston is a news editor with over a decade’s experience in journalism. He previously worked at Android Police and Tech Advisor.

The Switch 2 is getting an unexpected sequel to GameCube racing game Kirby Air Ride, with Masahiro Sakurai — the original Air Ride’s director, not to mention the creator of both Kirby and Super Smash Bros. — returning to lead development.

Air Ride, launched in 2003, is a four-player racer in which players control different-colored versions of Kirby across various vehicles, along with unlockable characters like Meta Knight and King Dedede. Air Ride is relatively unique for its simplified controls, in which characters move forward automatically, leaving players to worry only about steering, boosting, and using Kirby’s trademark ability to suck up enemies and steal their powers.

Air Riders’ trailer doesn’t give much away, though the shot of four Kirbys racing together suggests a return of that player count. Most exciting is the return of Sakurai, whose last game was 2018’s Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Kirby Air Riders will release on the Switch 2 some time in 2025, though likely after the console itself arrives on June 5th. It’s part of a wave of GameCube throwbacks in the Switch 2 launch event, including the arrival of GameCube titles on Nintendo Switch Online and the launch of a wireless GameCube controller that’s compatible with the Switch 2.

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