Kirby Air Riders
Image: Nintendo

Masahiro Sakurai's detailed rundown of Kirby Air Riders finally brought us the news that we wanted with a deep dive into the game's City Trial mode.

Yes, the best mode from the GameCube original is returning for the Switch 2 sequel, and it looks just as high-octane and bonkers as we would have hoped.

The Direct introduced us to Skyah, the new hub world for this mode, which you'll have to speed around to collect and build the best machine that you can. This sandbox area looks substantially bigger than the one we know from the early 2000s, with several different zones like caves, volcanoes, oceans and more.

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With the machine built (and the five-minute time limit up), it's off to the races in the Stadium events, which will put your build through its paces. Much like in the original, these events range from agility tests, to long-jump competitions, so there's something for every build.

This mode is available for up to 16 racers at once, with up to eight players in local co-op.

Honestly, this was how we spent most of our time with Air Ride on the GameCube, so it'll be interesting to see whether bigger really does mean better when this one arrives on Switch 2.

Do you have any fond memories of City Trial? What do you make of the revamped mode this time around? Let us know in the comments.