Topic: Kirby Air Riders

I didn't realize that was you! That's fun. I am terrible at city trial 😆 It's such chaos. The normal circuit races seem decent but it was hard to tell since those don't have multiplayer during the trial. I like some of the mini games which come after city trial but not all of them.

Overall I'm pretty mixed; I've had fun but not sure if I'll buy it. Some of the modes and some of the controls are a little iffy for me. If it were cheaper I would buy it just for the parts I like.

Tried it now and unfortunately it‘s just too twitchy for me … but no biggie Prime 4 is just around the corner and also I already have a great Kart Racer with MKW. Think I‘ll get it from the public library for a weekend just to check out the other race tracks though.

@FishyS Yep! Hehe. I should put a note in my signature about user name on Switch.
Yep same. I get there is a lot more content in the full thing, but not one for me. I am glad there was a demo though!

After a couple of hours, I'm pretty sure this is going to be my favourite game of this year. Been having a blast playing City Trial online even though it's just a demo and unlike Mario Kart World, I haven't really noticed any issues with lag so far which is promising.

16 player matches are pretty hectic but having four stadium events to pick from certainly makes winning a lot easier. You can go really hard at specialising in particular stats as there's a decent chance that a stadium that's good for your build might show up. Think I've been winning around half my matches so far even though I'm not that great at it yet. Also the magnet item might be my new favourite thing.

Yeah, basically the same as the original... and I didn't like the original much to begin with. The racing feels good with Waddle Doo and Dark Star, I like the graphics, music, lore, the series and Kirby but I feel like I'd get bored of this quick like I did he original. The racing is fine but I feel like something is missing. City Trail is too random, hectic and all that to a quick mini game that's over quick. I do feel like I'll like the new Road Trip mode but I don't think it would be worth it for just that. I may get it eventually... or see how people like it or what's in it but... not in a hurry to buy it atm. Gonna take a rest and play again see how I feel.

I feel like it'll be very satisfying to master but yeah it does get very hectic while also sort of feeling like I'm not impacting any of it.
That's my only criticism really and that's something that can ironed out by playing a bit more I think.

I definitely see why it wouldn't click with some people though.

I've gotten to the point that I've been winning almost every stadium event but that's just how it goes when there's no rating system in the demo I guess. Probably just beating up on children.

Racing is as fun and fluid as the videos suggested. I liked the stages a lot. Will definitely get the full version. Thanks for the demo!

The racing is really fun, so I will wait for the review about the story and roguelike mode. Those seem to be the most enjoyable part for me (while the city trial is a bit too chaotic)

I like it. It's another polished, quality game from Sakurai and company. I'll have to take notes from the lessons, but I got used to the mechanics quicker than I thought I would.

City Trial is pure chaos as expected, but once I get used to slowing down or stopping with Boost Charges, changing machines, and ramming into damaged machines to knock them out, I'll get better. What's really going to take time and discernment is getting used to all the different machines and finding the right combinations. I feel like heavy machines are good for City Trial, but lighter ones might be good for racing.

I thought I could wear custom hats if I pre-ordered the game. Are those unlocked next weekend after the game's been paid?

I really want to try this as Kirby Air Riders was the main reason for me buying a Switch 2 but at the same time I think I would rather wait for the full release so I can be surprised. Good to see people enjoying it though. In the meantime I'll just play the original Kirby Air Ride on my Gamecube while I patiently wait for this.

Sounds like a blast! I'd love to try it, but I'm for sure gonna get this game anyways so I'll just wait for the whole game to come out!

I started downloading the online demo! I'm excited to try it out. It's been ages since I last played the GameCube original.

I hardly ever played the original, but playing this with the GCN NC controller is unsurprisingly perfect.

I like what I played of Air Ride mode, I do wish you could adjust the CPU level though I understand that feature is in the full game. City Trial I need more time with but the really chaotic nature of the mode is resulting in me needing to adjust visual settings.

@OmnitronVariant question, would you be able to elaborate on why it feels bad to you? quick spin aside, there's nothing particularly obtuse or strange about the racing controls. only thing i had to get used to was starting a brake drift before a turn to take it as sharp as possible, otherwise the only thing i could see throwing people off is the auto-drive.

for the record, machines in this game play vastly different from each other. some are intentionally stupid slippery.

@Grumblevolcano strange to me this playtest excludes a lot of the cool accessibility settings. nice to have the presets for those who need those settings, but why can't we customize specific ones and test them like in the full game? i feel like we've already seen in this forum that this is a game that can easily activate peoples' motion sickness, it kinda needs that granular control for first impressions.

I liked that mode, but not having multiplayer for the trial and forcing us to go against the easiest NPC setting made it a little hard to feel how it will work in practice.

@squiddu-real I don't get motion sickness or anything but I still would have preferred to be able to adjust the FOV setting without changing the rest.

@squiddu-real One of the things that feel really bad is how many actions the "action" button does (A and B). It inhales enemies in proximity; it's held down to start the drift mode. It's tapped to turn. It's also held down in combination with dragging the stick downward to break. Contextual buttons are annoying enough in slow games, but extremely annoying in this one. The inhaling of enemies but also drift that slows you down being one button feels really bad.

But there's also things about the game feel I really dislike. The drift boost system itself just doesn't feel fun. Actions feel weightless and they added a ton of screen shake to fake it, which you can turn off, but then it feels even worse.

There's also so many icons and HUD things above character heads and for pickups on the course, that it's a visual mess. And interacting with the very fast paced racing feels bad because of the chaos that culminates in just a noisy screen.

So I don't enjoy the controls and think they feel bad, and I don't enjoy the game design because it isn't fun to me. I'm only responding to you here, not trying to start an argument with anyone, because I've already decided the game is not for me and moved on from the conversation about it.