Kirby Air Riders is shaping up to be one of the biggest racing games of the year. The long-awaited sequel races straight onto the Nintendo Switch 2 next month, so Nintendo dedicated another hour-long direct to give us MORE details on what is shaping up to be the best racing game of 2025 (and potentially 2026!).
Top Ride is Back!
This top-view mode returns in Kirby Air Riders, the track gets turned up, and you can race from a bird’s eye view. It can be played with up to four players locally and up to eight with online play. This classic mode returns from the original game and will feature courses like Flower, Flow, Mountain, Steam, Air and Crystal.
Road Trip
Dubbed as the “story mode” for the game, you can ride your kart on the open road and participate in challenges and trials to progress through a story mode with included cinematics. Along the way, you can stop at shops to level up your abilities and purchase new characters and parts to customise your kart.
Copy Abilities
Playing as Kirby in, well, Kirby Air Riders, you can pick up an item that lets you copy a move from another racer. More abilities have been added this time around, with Needle, Freeze, Drill, Flash, Fighter, Sleep, and Missile all being added to the roster.
Online modes will feature matching, which means you will only be placed with other online players who are in the same rank as you. Each race win will give you Global Win Power points depending on your performance, and then your rank will be reflected in a colour.
New Tracks
It wouldn’t be an hour-long announcement without including some new tracks. On top of the large amount already announced, we now know the additional tracks include:
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Airtopia Ruins
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Steamgust Gorge
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Crystalline Fissure
This will bring the total to 18 tracks. For anyone wondering, they did confirm there is no planned DLC at this stage, so everything released on launch day will be what is included with this release.
New Riders
Along with that announcement are some additional characters that will be heading to the game :
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Taranza
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Lololo & Lalala
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Daroach
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Rocky with Meteor variant
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Rick with Rip Roaring variant
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Scarfy
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Marx with True Form variant
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Waddle Dee with Golden variant
All these will be unlockable through a checklist and play through.
New Vehicles
If that wasn’t enough, there are more machines to ride with new vehicles, including
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Formula Star
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Bull Tank
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Wheelie Scooter
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Jet Star
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Hop Star
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Transform Star
You can watch the full hour Nintendo Direct presentation below:
Kirby Air Riders will launch on the Nintendo Switch 2 November 20, 2025. Be sure to keep an eye out for our review closer to release.
