Today, Masahiro Sakurai hosted a 45-minute Nintendo Direct solely dedicated to his latest project, Kirby Air Riders. And it was a somewhat unusual Direct! Delivered in Sakurai’s iconic style that he’s developed from giving Super Smash Bros. presentations over the years, the whole thing felt very Smash Bros. in general. But Sakurai also opened the presentation by invoking another game, admitting that Kirby Air Riders is “basically Mario Kart”.
He said this to get ahead of criticisms or comments from the audience that it is, admittedly, a bit odd for Nintendo to have asked him to make a new Kirby Air Ride game coming out right on the heels of Mario Kart World. Both are racing games that feature a diverse roster of racers with different abilities, unique karts and courses, and similar functions such as boosting, drifting, and drafting. Sakurai says he was asked by Shinya Takahashi and Satoshi Mitsuhara to make Kirby Air Riders while he was working on DLC for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
“You might be asking yourself if it’s basically Mario Kart,” Sakurai said. “You race and battle with familiar characters around courses with different features, or so they say. Ok, so it basically is like Mario Kart. I even mentioned this when I received the request ot make the game. I asked them if they still wanted to do it. But as fans of the original know…The appeal of the game is not actually the races!”
And yes, as the presentation went on, it became clear that Kirby Air Riders is filling a very different niche to Mario Kart. For one, Mario Kart World made a big show of expanding its races to 24 racers at a time. But Sakurai pointedly limited Kirby Air Riders races to six, saying that “too many participants in this game can make it messy” in a seemingly lighthearted jab at Kart. In another major difference, while Kirby does have its City Trial mode as a more open zone free-for-all, its primary races are lap races, while Mario Kart World emphasizes driving from track to track across an open world. This is something that Kart fans have actually criticized since the game came out, as Nintendo made efforts to push the long-distance races over circling a track three times (and then U-turned on this choice later).
Aside from the Mario Kart comparisons though, the whole Direct just felt like a Smash Bros. presentation. Much of that is likely chalked up to it just being Sakurai’s presentation style, which we’ve mostly seen for Smash Bros. in the past. But the dramatic way in which he revealed new characters on the roster, the visual style of the title cards and interstitials, the music and sound, and a lot of other elements lent a very Smashy feel to the whole thing. The original Kirby Air Ride took a lot of UI, sound, and style elements from Super Smash Bros. Melee, so it only makes sense to see that happen here too. It’s like Mario Kart meets Super Smash Bros, almost.
Kirby Air Riders is out on November 20, 2025, for the Nintendo Switch 2 and will feature a wide roster of Kirby characters including Waddle Dee, King Dedede, Gooey, Chef Kawasaki, Metaknight, and more. You can catch up on everything announced at today’s Direct right here.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
