Topic: Kirby Air Riders

After playing for an hour I can say that Kirby Air Riders is lots of fun. City Trial is deliciously chaotic and Air Ride is quite fun (though for standard races, I definitely prefer Mario Kart). It's definitely a game with a low entry point and high skill ceiling, which is something I quite like.

100% I'm going to buy the full release!

I had a ridiculously long time for City Trial to get started at one point. It finally did, but it felt like it lasted longer than a City Trial, and I couldn't cancel and get out of it like I can in Splatoon! I THINK I'm getting better at the mode.

Yeah, Mario Kart World has nothing to fear from this game, but I know I'll enjoy the full package and I hope it sells well anyway.

I put in a few hours into the trial. Although I had fun, I don't think this is a near-term buy for me. I liked the normal races well enough but there wasn't much of them in the demo. City trial isn't my cup of tea. I like some of the coliseum mini games, but they are a bit hit or miss. I'm glad I got to try the trial though. If I ever find a good sale, I might grab the game.

Alright I think it's clicking... someone just told me to chill and have fun in City Trial instead of making the mini game the main thing.

I don't mind it. After playing both playable modes for a while, I tend to agree with some comments I read that it feels a bit too on rails for my liking.
And I agree with those that said the 5 minute timeframe in City Trial seems too long.

I'd like to try Air Ride mode with online multiplayer, but even if that's more fun than playing with CPU opponents, I think I'll skip this game for now.
I was looking forward to it, so I'm glad they provided a demo in any case to get a feel of it all.

I went back to Mario Kart World soon after and prefer having more control in that game compared to this one.
I wasn't planning to try out the Sonic Racing game coming to Switch 2 because I thought Kirby Air Riders and Mario Kart World would be my favourites when it comes to racing games, but I'll give the Sonic Racing game a go..if they release a Switch 2 demo; hopefully.

i wouldn't say this game has less control - you just don't immediately understand how to control it. that's probably why i wonder how long some people in this thread that didn't like it played it for, because just like the original, this game needs time to click if you're not already familiar with it. low skill floor, but it only gets really fun once you really know what you're doing.

@squiddu-real Although that's fair, if a several hour demo can't get people on the fence to fully 'click', it's probably just not a game for them. Either that or the demo has failed its purpose.

@FishyS the only failure of the demo to me is a lack of many of the options in the base game.

why no custom accessibility settings? not even just for motion sickness' sake, some people just want to change the fov.
why can't you exclude cpus in paddocks? i've heard some people say 16 players is too much for city trial (i disagree but nonetheless it is a frequent complaint) but then i would say 8 would be a good balance.. why do they always need to be there in the demo?

for a game priding itself on all its customization, it seems like a big misstep to not include much of it and potentially help either ease people into the gameplay better or just alleviate random issues some people have. the full game feels like it arbitrarily will have a much better first-time experience than the demo specifically meant to be a first-time experience for people on the fence.

Game looks definitely more hectic then GC version.

@squiddu-real My main issue with the demo (besides quibbles with the controls which I wonder if they will let you change in the real game) is just that the demo focused on the parts of the game which feel less fun to me. I would have liked to try the normal races in multiplayer and I would have liked to do the stadium events without having to go through a long city trial each time.

I basically liked all the parts of the game except the city trial but the demo was pretty much only city trial.

@FishyS i definitely don't like them downplaying air ride mode so hard, yes, i get it sakurai, people moreso play for the city trial, but way to downplay the bit i feel will be way more fun than it was in the original! i swear if the online for that mode is sparse you're all dead.

and that last bit can be changed in the full game, even the original had time settings for city trial (minimum of 3 minutes, though i wonder if it can go lower in riders).. you can also fully remap buttons, and for the people that care, i hope there's a toggle to make quick spin a button. smash games have had similar things with the tap to jump!

I definitely won't write off City Trial yet, but I also expect to enjoy the actual racing more, even the little Top Ride mode that's absent from this demo.

Don't forget that there's a story mode, even if we can't know just how long and deep it is. That and making custom machines, collecting gummies, and enjoying the music will keep me plenty entertained enough.

I am just really happy to see people vibe with Air Ride.

I can't speak for the new game but I can say for myself, it did take a while to fully appreciate the game's appeal as a whole, so I was slightly worried I'd see more of people not getting it than I have. Like I rented it several times back in the day before buying it, and each time I got the game either way, I enjoyed it more than previously.

You will miss nothing with this game, even if you buy it year after release

@Patko_SK i mean... there will be no paid dlc, so you are quite literally right. noone needs to play any game.

Played the Demo / Playtest, felt a bit underwhelmed. I played the Gamecube version a lot back then (100%'d, and still kept playing City Trial), it's an amazing couch co-op game, but it doesn't hit the same when playing online. I believe this game can be loads of fun with GameChat (or any other voice-chat client), or with your buddies locally.

I am aware this is a limited Demo and not everything is there, but I feel like there's not much difference compared to the Gamecube version. If you never played the original, I believe you'll have a lot of fun with this game, but for those who already played it, I'm not sure if this is really a necessary pick.

Had a lot of fun with the demo! First of all, this game might be the Luigi’s Mansion 3 of showing what the system can do graphically even on technically underpowered hardware. Everything is so snappy and flows very nicely. The gameplay is also a lot of fun, I didn’t go too far deep into it but I appreciate that the skill floor is low and the ceiling is high. Really enjoyed City Trial but I definitely need to explore the world a little more to get the hang of it, it was very hectic. The regular racing mode was a lot more fun than I thought it would be, I think the copy abilities add just enough skill to the equation and also serve as good comeback mechanics. Excited to pick this game up somewhere around Christmastime and see what the story mode is all about.
It’s been a great year for racing games.

@Zeugziumy i would say there's enough differences here to justify a new game. it just immediately feels similar, but that's sort of the point, it's a sequel.

if you care for online and like air ride, it's kind of a no-brainer.

@squiddu-real The Demo / Network test was probably not the best Demonstration of it (it was a Network Test after all), and perhaps a more complete Demo would be more appropriate, I feel like it. Perhaps after release like they did with Bananza.

I can't comment on the game itself since I don't have it(or a SW2), but this feels like a weird argument to make against it. "If you already played the original, then you don't need to play this more refined and expanded upon sequel!" Just seems disingenuous is all I'm saying. It's like saying you don't need to play Mario 3 because Mario 1 is another platformer that already exists.