incredibly simple and surprisingly profound: NPR

Mario Kart World crossed the finish line this summer. Sonic Racing: Crossed Worlds rushed the sales charts this fall. Now, after more than two decades, a sequel to a GameCube classic is released in time for the holidays. It’s been a banner year for such cartoon racing games, but Kirby Air Riders might take the crown with its deep customization and radically simple controls.

The game stays true to the minimalism of the original Air Ride. You constantly accelerate and steer with the left stick. Hold almost any other button to brake, allowing you to drift through corners and charge a boost gauge. Release the button once you’re ready to sprint.

Instead, press a button to inhale a nearby enemy. If this enemy has a “copy ability”, you’ll absorb it to throw fireballs, spray ice crystals, shoot spikes – the list goes on. You can also damage your opponents by wiggling your joystick to spin on them. Each hit gives you a speed boost.

A devastating clash in City Trial mode.

Nintendo/James Mastromarino

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Nintendo/James Mastromarino

That’s pretty much it! The game extracts a dizzying variety of playstyles from these bases. Each racer has different stats and special moves. Machines have unique quirks in addition to their own stats. You slide when you brake. Another zips forward, only changing direction when you charge. Yet another jumps off the ground when you wave the joystick to turn.

These varied play styles serve different purposes in the game’s many multiplayer modes. The standard course, Air Ride, contains many new and old courses. Contrast Top Ride mode elevates the camera behind your rider to provide a bird’s eye view of the entire track. Although this mode is much improved over the 2003 version of Top Ride, it remains finicky and frustrating.

Finally, there’s City Trial, the game’s best and most inventive mode. In matches that rarely exceed 10 minutes, you’ll navigate a huge map, collecting upgrades and swapping between vehicles before a final showdown that mixes racing, gladiator arenas, high jumps and much more. City Trial can even accommodate up to 16 players online for maximum chaos, and I’m sure it will dominate my family’s gaming time once again!

Players secretly vote on a final arena after the city trial time expires.

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All of these modes are remixed in the all-new Air Riders single-player campaign. This roguelike-style “Road Trip” extrapolates the stat hunt of City Trial into bite-sized challenges. You’ll pass through various stages, encountering your choice of obstacles to overcome for stat upgrades, which you’ll need to defeat periodic bosses and unravel a crazy story.

A full Road Trip can take nearly two hours, stringing together dozens of micro-contests that last from a few seconds (no kidding) to a little over a minute. I grew tired of the format by my third time, but the vehicle unlocks and the strange realization still splatters my brain with the dopamine I craved.

Road Trip offers players the opportunity to periodically choose between three challenges, each with its own reward.

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Road Trip mode is ultimately a sideshow. This is truly a multiplayer game, with the most in-depth online features of any Nintendo game I’ve seen. I joined a review session and spent time in a “paddock” between matches – a lobby where I could browse emotes and watch the results screens of other group members’ games. This is also where we displayed our cuts. You earn “Miles” as you play, a currency you’ll spend to dress up your pilots and adorn your machines with a stunning array of decals, skins and add-ons.

It’s no surprise that designer Masahiro Sakurai, who created Super Smash Bros. as well as Kirby, pays particular attention to the brilliance of multiplayer. But these flourishes contrast with the game’s mechanical restraint. Air Riders could have complicated the formula in a thousand different ways. Instead, the game’s sleek core feels as fresh in 2025 as it did in 2003.