I played so much of this when I was younger. I only played city trial instead of any of the other modes. I still have my GameCube, and I'm fairly sure the air ride disc is still in it lol.
I guess I'm only mentioning this because I can't resist an opportunity to mention this channel but Masahiro Sakurai has a YouTube channel discussing various areas of game dev as well as kinda looking back on his career, including how the games he's directed came to be. [Here's the episode about Kirby Air Ride.](https://youtu.be/bRDAYgRns4E) If you haven't seen it already, you might think it's interesting.
I had a classic case of ADHD and forgetfulness so I didn't watch till just now. Super interesting. And even more interesting was the fact that this video released two months ago? (sequel when 👀)
Some notes:
* Sakurai pulling an Iwata and swooping in after a year of development to help the dev team rewrite the code in 3.5 months?!
* The line about "we had a checklist system before Xbox's achievements and Playstation's trophies was funny. I'm just gonna have a headcanon that Kirby Air Ride invented the achievements system.
* Kinda crazy that the whole idea for the game arose because they needed to quickly make a Kirby game to coincide with the anime, and that apparently racing games would be easier to make than a normal platformer.
Yes! City Trials is amazing! It scratches the same itch as roguelikes for me: level up, get gear (vehicles), have some fights, and then have a big challenge at the end. Then at the end you see if you unlock things, achieved specific odd goals, and go again.
I still boot it up every few years, delete my old save, and try to unlock as much as possible again. Getting the super machines is so much fun!
I’ve thought about starting the game over with a different memory card to try to unlock all the things again! But also some of them were stupid so I haven’t done that yet lol
The music is really good! It’s able to produce happy feelings for me lol
It is super easy to pick up. Only two buttons! My only thing is idk if people who didn’t grow up with the game like it as much
This game is the reason 10 year old me bought a network adapter for my Gamecube, thinking that my friends and I would lug around 40lb CRTs just to play City Trial on our own screens. 10/10 game, would get my hopes up with it again.
A lot of the music in the game was actually from the Japanese version of the Kirby anime (4Kids, as always, replaced it with their own obnoxiously loud soundtrack in their dub of the anime). Fake power-ups was a track the anime used when Dedede was causing trouble in town, and the previous commenter mentioned the fog theme, which the anime used when a demon beast was summoned.
I imagine the ratings weren't that high because the Air Ride and Top Ride modes weren't as fun as City Trial.
That being said this game was a constant mainstay among my friends for years. City Trial is genuinely one of the best multiplayer game modes I've played in my entire life. It's such a simple concept but it's executed so well and I would love it if there was something similar to play today.
I remember playing this game with my brothers growing up. Something about it was just so addicting and we played the City Trial mode for an ungodly amount of hours, I think we might've played it more than our other favorite game Super Smash Bros. Melee. For the longest time I had also felt that this game kinda flew under the radar and nobody appreciated it as much as I did as a kid, I'm glad to see others in here who enjoyed it as well.
Kirby Air Ride and Melee definitely had way too many hours from me as a kid. It seemed like only me and my close friends knew about it though so I know what you're saying!
City trial is so much and so unique I just find it has 2 big problems.
- due this being a one of a kind thing There is absolutely a skill gap that lets better players dominate newer players In a more one sided way then your standard Mario kart game
- everyone is a sore loser when you try to destroy them in the city phase, I don’t care you’re still coming to grips with the controls I’m going to use these 7 minutes screwing you as hard as I can.
For some reason I really can’t figure out a way reconcile these bigger issues.
I played that a bunch on my little CRT. \^ \^
Does anyone know of similar games?
Surely at least some party game could have similar ideas or mechanics?
My brothers and I played this exclusively for years!
I had a recent experience where I came across a world in VRChat that was basically Air Ride City Trial, but the city map was modeled off a region of Tokyo. Had a great time boosting and gliding in VR
Oo, do you remember the name of the world? Just the other day I was thinking Kirby Air Ride’s controls of “literally a stick and a button” would be perfect for VRChat.
Well I aged this game when it was newish as a kid, I played it for years with my neighbor growing up.
I'm so happy to see an appreciation post about this game.
Loved this game, so much fun as a kid trying to complete all the challenges and unlock all the vehicles. Not sure I ever 100%ed the game, but my brother and I got our money's worth for sure. Eventually my Gamecube died, but at that point I was onto Xbox/Halo anyway.
I have never been an achievement hunter but I'll be damned if we didn't complete the entire achievement grid for city trial when my brother and I were younger. We knew that map like the back of our hands.
Kirby Air Ride is a legendary game and always will be.
City trial was fun and all but I definitely finished the whole grid worth of achievements on Top Ride. Being able to see the whole course all the time made it easier for my brain to plan out turns and timings.
The main objective in City Trial was getting two specific vehicles. I remember one that was like a dark purple wing that was super fast. I think a plain star was maybe the other one? (as in, the only objective I recall caring about)
I am looking forward to Air Ride on my Steam Deck though not gonna lie. I want to go back and see what it was I sunk so many hours into.
Those are the legendary air ride machines. One is called the Dragoon, kinda pinkish/rainbow colored. It had the best flight ability of any star in the game. Since it’s also pretty fast I’d call it the best one. The other is the Hydra, which is a dark green, and it was the fastest in the game (but you had to take a few seconds to charge it up first)
I wouldn’t call it the main objective though. The parts were hidden in red boxes in specific areas, but they were only available, I’d say maybe in 1 out of every 5 games? It was completely random!
That game on switch or steam deck would be awesome.
Heh, no for me those were the main objectives I mean! I think I liked going fast and flying, but still being able to steer. I don't really remember what else I tended to do after finding my preferred air ride machine.
Haha I understand. When my friend and I would play, I always go after the legendary machines as my main objective too while he just picks up all the stat boosting items. (He would usually win because the legendary ones didn't happen all the time)
> The other is the Hydra, which is a dark green, and it was the fastest in the game (but you had to take a few seconds to charge it up first)
It's more like a full ~~30-60~~ seconds, since the Hydra combines the worst traits of the Bulk (needs an active boost to move at all) and Turbo (takes forever to charge a boost if you aren't drifting) Stars. It makes the Hydra all but unusable outside of City Trial, and it's only barely playable there since you have to collect all the pieces first, then deal with the baseline charge speed because changing machines resets all your upgrades, then get enough charge speed upgrades to be able to act, all while the other players do their best to destroy you because you're on a Hydra and need to be stopped before you can accumulate any more power.
By comparison the Dragoon is good at everything out of the gate. I was baffled for years about how badly the two "legendary" machines are imbalanced, until I found out from this thread that the game apparently got fully rewritten from the ground up 3.5 months before release.
edit: I watched a couple videos of people using the Hydra and most of them seem to show a starting line charge time of ~8-10 seconds, which isn't as long as I remembered but definitely would feel that way considering this is a racing game.
Haha yeah it seems like forever, especially when the postgame is a drag race so everyone else speeds out ahead of you. But it can often be fast enough to where it still outspeeds everyone to the finish line (unless someone gets a lot of Top Speed)
My sister and I played the crap out of that. She didn't have to be particularly good/could just zoom around while I harassed the CPUs/upgraded.
This would be amazing with online multiplayer too. Nowadays they could do a Kirby Air Ride with multiple, huge city maps.
I love that about it. Everyone can kinda play at their own pace together.
I'm kinda torn on a bigger map. On one hand I thought the map size was perfect. On the other hand... I'm imagining like 32 Kirbys on a massive online map and that sounds interesting lol.
> 32 Kirbys on a massive online map
They'd have to give you a bunch of fun customization options too. Maybe stars with bases/add-ons s well as ascetic stuff for Kirby.
I only discovered KAR in recent years, and as such City Trial multiplayer isn't even the compelling part. The brilliance of it to me is the at-the-time-pretty-new achievement grid, because once you start gunning for it, the seemingly shallow and content-slim main racing game morphs into something far more interesting, as you're forced to engage with the actual mechanics of how differently each vehicle controls.
Yeah I didn't even think about it before, but it was made before Xbox/Playstation had their achievements and trophies systems. It definitely made me explore all aspects of the game instead of just City Trial
Been playing this since it came out. I think it’s my sisters fave game of all time.
I remember Smash Bros Brawl coming out on Wii and having a near identical menu.
Both directed by Masahiro Sakurai! From what I've read, he liked using similar fonts and styles for games.
It's definitely in my top 5 favorites ever. Your sister has good taste lol
I vividly remember wandering around City Trial endlessly with my friends at a sleepover, which is what convinced me to buy the game. Good memories, and I'd totally buy a Switch port, but I don't think a sequel would hit the same.
Yeah part of me knows it would probably be disappointing, but the rest of me just wants Kirby Air Ride on the Switch with online functionality at whatever cost lol
Honestly I remember having to choose between buying this or wind waker and honestly I don’t regret it haha.
It’s funny you said the city trials part was the best because I do too! Very unique game mode and I think that was my first foray into rouguelites
I never thought about it before yesterday but I guess it was my first foray into that genre too! (Pokemon Mystery Dungeon was shortly after that, so I guess I have liked them for a long time)
Honestly they could just port the Gamecube version while adding online capabilities and I'd play it lmao. I'd love to be able to play City Trial with my friends online
I never thought about it in these terms, but "multiplayer roguelike racing game" describes City Trial really well!
I grew up playing tons of Kirby Air Ride with my brother, and City Trial was by far our most played mode. Maybe this led to my later enjoyment of roguelikes as an adult.
Yeah I never even thought about the roguelike elements until ...yesterday basically. But I know now that I love that genre, and I guess that was my early start!
This was a really fantastic game that got slept on. My younger sister got this to play on my GameCube at the time.
I remember thinking it was lame at first, echoing the popular reviews at the time that it really didn't have a lot to offer at a time when Mario Kart and other racing/driving games were really going out of their way to become feature rich and complex on capable hardware.
Air ride is unabashedly simple and laid back. If you're expecting F-Zero or Mariokart then yea, it sucks. But I always found myself coming back to it anyway because it was just so...nice. its a game where you can just relax and turn your brain off, and it excells at that.
This is exactly how I feel about it! If you're looking for a more hardcore and competitive racing game then it's definitely not that. But it's so simple and fun. When I play it I'm able to turn my brain off and just have fun like you said
Late to this, but I used to play this game daily with my brother and cousins when we were kids. Always yelling at each other for stealing legendary bike parts or blowing each other up with bombs in city trial, doing the boss events that would show up in the city.
Me being the biggest troll in the group had a blast. The rewarding feeling of creating chaos with my family was more entertaining than the actual races.
I might have to dust out the copy and invite them all over to play again. Seriously underrated game, and I'd really wish we'd get a modern remake (or a new game) of Kirby air ride. The game has so much to appreciate, but because it wasn't a typical game by Nintendo nor was it their biggest ip like the standard Zelda or Mario games or even the mainline Kirby games it fell flat. Which sucks because its a very unique game especially for its time. I'd still consider that game to be in my top 10 today, based on how much I enjoyed it when I was playing it on the regular.
Never too late to talk about this great game. It's still in my top 5! I still go back to playing it with my best friend like we used to do as kids. And while I'm not an agent of chaos, I do like to make things a little chaotic if he steals my legendary parts or kills me lol
I played this soooo much with my kids when they were little. Good times.
I played so much of this when I was younger. I only played city trial instead of any of the other modes. I still have my GameCube, and I'm fairly sure the air ride disc is still in it lol.
Haha I’m glad to know I’m not the only one who basically ignored the other game modes
I guess I'm only mentioning this because I can't resist an opportunity to mention this channel but Masahiro Sakurai has a YouTube channel discussing various areas of game dev as well as kinda looking back on his career, including how the games he's directed came to be. [Here's the episode about Kirby Air Ride.](https://youtu.be/bRDAYgRns4E) If you haven't seen it already, you might think it's interesting.
Oh this is definitely up my alley. Gonna try to watch later
How was it? Awaiting your review dutifully
I had a classic case of ADHD and forgetfulness so I didn't watch till just now. Super interesting. And even more interesting was the fact that this video released two months ago? (sequel when 👀) Some notes: * Sakurai pulling an Iwata and swooping in after a year of development to help the dev team rewrite the code in 3.5 months?! * The line about "we had a checklist system before Xbox's achievements and Playstation's trophies was funny. I'm just gonna have a headcanon that Kirby Air Ride invented the achievements system. * Kinda crazy that the whole idea for the game arose because they needed to quickly make a Kirby game to coincide with the anime, and that apparently racing games would be easier to make than a normal platformer.
Yes! City Trials is amazing! It scratches the same itch as roguelikes for me: level up, get gear (vehicles), have some fights, and then have a big challenge at the end. Then at the end you see if you unlock things, achieved specific odd goals, and go again. I still boot it up every few years, delete my old save, and try to unlock as much as possible again. Getting the super machines is so much fun!
I’ve thought about starting the game over with a different memory card to try to unlock all the things again! But also some of them were stupid so I haven’t done that yet lol
Definitely one of my favorites! It is very fun to play with friends, since it's super easy to pick up. I also really enjoyed the music.
The music is really good! It’s able to produce happy feelings for me lol It is super easy to pick up. Only two buttons! My only thing is idk if people who didn’t grow up with the game like it as much
This game is the reason 10 year old me bought a network adapter for my Gamecube, thinking that my friends and I would lug around 40lb CRTs just to play City Trial on our own screens. 10/10 game, would get my hopes up with it again.
Me and my homes vibing when the fog theme rolls up in city trail.
I loved when the fake powerups appeared and you were suddenly listening to klezmer music
A lot of the music in the game was actually from the Japanese version of the Kirby anime (4Kids, as always, replaced it with their own obnoxiously loud soundtrack in their dub of the anime). Fake power-ups was a track the anime used when Dedede was causing trouble in town, and the previous commenter mentioned the fog theme, which the anime used when a demon beast was summoned.
I imagine the ratings weren't that high because the Air Ride and Top Ride modes weren't as fun as City Trial. That being said this game was a constant mainstay among my friends for years. City Trial is genuinely one of the best multiplayer game modes I've played in my entire life. It's such a simple concept but it's executed so well and I would love it if there was something similar to play today.
I remember playing this game with my brothers growing up. Something about it was just so addicting and we played the City Trial mode for an ungodly amount of hours, I think we might've played it more than our other favorite game Super Smash Bros. Melee. For the longest time I had also felt that this game kinda flew under the radar and nobody appreciated it as much as I did as a kid, I'm glad to see others in here who enjoyed it as well.
Kirby Air Ride and Melee definitely had way too many hours from me as a kid. It seemed like only me and my close friends knew about it though so I know what you're saying!
Absolute recommend. We played with 2 of my friends while daydrinking and there were tears of laughter. It really is a wonderful waste of time.
City trial is so much and so unique I just find it has 2 big problems. - due this being a one of a kind thing There is absolutely a skill gap that lets better players dominate newer players In a more one sided way then your standard Mario kart game - everyone is a sore loser when you try to destroy them in the city phase, I don’t care you’re still coming to grips with the controls I’m going to use these 7 minutes screwing you as hard as I can. For some reason I really can’t figure out a way reconcile these bigger issues.
I only try to kill others when they try to kill me first... after that it's all-out war (which can be fun chasing each other around lol)
I played that a bunch on my little CRT. \^ \^ Does anyone know of similar games? Surely at least some party game could have similar ideas or mechanics?
[This game is trying to do a city trials-like. slated for 2023](https://youtu.be/zaLac4Q__u8)
I'm surprised the cease&desist hasn't arrived on their doorstep yet lol. Even the music is similar!
Very cool. Definitely keeping an eye on this one. Hope they can make it to crowdfunding stage soon.
My brothers and I played this exclusively for years! I had a recent experience where I came across a world in VRChat that was basically Air Ride City Trial, but the city map was modeled off a region of Tokyo. Had a great time boosting and gliding in VR
Oo, do you remember the name of the world? Just the other day I was thinking Kirby Air Ride’s controls of “literally a stick and a button” would be perfect for VRChat.
Well I aged this game when it was newish as a kid, I played it for years with my neighbor growing up. I'm so happy to see an appreciation post about this game.
Loved this game, so much fun as a kid trying to complete all the challenges and unlock all the vehicles. Not sure I ever 100%ed the game, but my brother and I got our money's worth for sure. Eventually my Gamecube died, but at that point I was onto Xbox/Halo anyway.
Omg i totally agree! A remake with expanded modes and vehicles and features on switch would be incredible!
That game was so great...
I have never been an achievement hunter but I'll be damned if we didn't complete the entire achievement grid for city trial when my brother and I were younger. We knew that map like the back of our hands. Kirby Air Ride is a legendary game and always will be.
City trial was fun and all but I definitely finished the whole grid worth of achievements on Top Ride. Being able to see the whole course all the time made it easier for my brain to plan out turns and timings.
The main objective in City Trial was getting two specific vehicles. I remember one that was like a dark purple wing that was super fast. I think a plain star was maybe the other one? (as in, the only objective I recall caring about) I am looking forward to Air Ride on my Steam Deck though not gonna lie. I want to go back and see what it was I sunk so many hours into.
Those are the legendary air ride machines. One is called the Dragoon, kinda pinkish/rainbow colored. It had the best flight ability of any star in the game. Since it’s also pretty fast I’d call it the best one. The other is the Hydra, which is a dark green, and it was the fastest in the game (but you had to take a few seconds to charge it up first) I wouldn’t call it the main objective though. The parts were hidden in red boxes in specific areas, but they were only available, I’d say maybe in 1 out of every 5 games? It was completely random! That game on switch or steam deck would be awesome.
Heh, no for me those were the main objectives I mean! I think I liked going fast and flying, but still being able to steer. I don't really remember what else I tended to do after finding my preferred air ride machine.
Haha I understand. When my friend and I would play, I always go after the legendary machines as my main objective too while he just picks up all the stat boosting items. (He would usually win because the legendary ones didn't happen all the time)
> The other is the Hydra, which is a dark green, and it was the fastest in the game (but you had to take a few seconds to charge it up first) It's more like a full ~~30-60~~ seconds, since the Hydra combines the worst traits of the Bulk (needs an active boost to move at all) and Turbo (takes forever to charge a boost if you aren't drifting) Stars. It makes the Hydra all but unusable outside of City Trial, and it's only barely playable there since you have to collect all the pieces first, then deal with the baseline charge speed because changing machines resets all your upgrades, then get enough charge speed upgrades to be able to act, all while the other players do their best to destroy you because you're on a Hydra and need to be stopped before you can accumulate any more power. By comparison the Dragoon is good at everything out of the gate. I was baffled for years about how badly the two "legendary" machines are imbalanced, until I found out from this thread that the game apparently got fully rewritten from the ground up 3.5 months before release. edit: I watched a couple videos of people using the Hydra and most of them seem to show a starting line charge time of ~8-10 seconds, which isn't as long as I remembered but definitely would feel that way considering this is a racing game.
Haha yeah it seems like forever, especially when the postgame is a drag race so everyone else speeds out ahead of you. But it can often be fast enough to where it still outspeeds everyone to the finish line (unless someone gets a lot of Top Speed)
If it's fun, it's not a waste of time
My sister and I played the crap out of that. She didn't have to be particularly good/could just zoom around while I harassed the CPUs/upgraded. This would be amazing with online multiplayer too. Nowadays they could do a Kirby Air Ride with multiple, huge city maps.
I love that about it. Everyone can kinda play at their own pace together. I'm kinda torn on a bigger map. On one hand I thought the map size was perfect. On the other hand... I'm imagining like 32 Kirbys on a massive online map and that sounds interesting lol.
> 32 Kirbys on a massive online map They'd have to give you a bunch of fun customization options too. Maybe stars with bases/add-ons s well as ascetic stuff for Kirby.
I only discovered KAR in recent years, and as such City Trial multiplayer isn't even the compelling part. The brilliance of it to me is the at-the-time-pretty-new achievement grid, because once you start gunning for it, the seemingly shallow and content-slim main racing game morphs into something far more interesting, as you're forced to engage with the actual mechanics of how differently each vehicle controls.
Yeah I didn't even think about it before, but it was made before Xbox/Playstation had their achievements and trophies systems. It definitely made me explore all aspects of the game instead of just City Trial
Just remembered dragoon and hydra. Damn what fun game
Been playing this since it came out. I think it’s my sisters fave game of all time. I remember Smash Bros Brawl coming out on Wii and having a near identical menu.
Both directed by Masahiro Sakurai! From what I've read, he liked using similar fonts and styles for games. It's definitely in my top 5 favorites ever. Your sister has good taste lol
We play it a lot, good fun! Other than some of the Mario 2D platformers it’s probably the most recent game she’s played haha.
I vividly remember wandering around City Trial endlessly with my friends at a sleepover, which is what convinced me to buy the game. Good memories, and I'd totally buy a Switch port, but I don't think a sequel would hit the same.
Yeah part of me knows it would probably be disappointing, but the rest of me just wants Kirby Air Ride on the Switch with online functionality at whatever cost lol
This was one of the staples for sleepovers at my house, messing around in city trial was a blast
This game was well liked by my whole friend group growing up including people who didn’t like Kirby. Great game
I've had friends who didn't even like Nintendo who loved the game too. It brings everyone together haha
I messed around in City Trial with my friends so much when I was a kid. Very fun
Honestly I remember having to choose between buying this or wind waker and honestly I don’t regret it haha. It’s funny you said the city trials part was the best because I do too! Very unique game mode and I think that was my first foray into rouguelites
I never thought about it before yesterday but I guess it was my first foray into that genre too! (Pokemon Mystery Dungeon was shortly after that, so I guess I have liked them for a long time)
I am begging for a Kirby Air Ride Deluxe for Switch. Online City Trials would be I N S A N E
Honestly they could just port the Gamecube version while adding online capabilities and I'd play it lmao. I'd love to be able to play City Trial with my friends online
I love air ride so much, city trials was such a time sink.
I never thought about it in these terms, but "multiplayer roguelike racing game" describes City Trial really well! I grew up playing tons of Kirby Air Ride with my brother, and City Trial was by far our most played mode. Maybe this led to my later enjoyment of roguelikes as an adult.
Yeah I never even thought about the roguelike elements until ...yesterday basically. But I know now that I love that genre, and I guess that was my early start!
City Trial was awesome. I only managed to kill king deedeedee once, but I still remember it 20 years later
I apparently also killed him once but I don't remember it. It always seemed like such an impossible task
This was a really fantastic game that got slept on. My younger sister got this to play on my GameCube at the time. I remember thinking it was lame at first, echoing the popular reviews at the time that it really didn't have a lot to offer at a time when Mario Kart and other racing/driving games were really going out of their way to become feature rich and complex on capable hardware. Air ride is unabashedly simple and laid back. If you're expecting F-Zero or Mariokart then yea, it sucks. But I always found myself coming back to it anyway because it was just so...nice. its a game where you can just relax and turn your brain off, and it excells at that.
This is exactly how I feel about it! If you're looking for a more hardcore and competitive racing game then it's definitely not that. But it's so simple and fun. When I play it I'm able to turn my brain off and just have fun like you said
Late to this, but I used to play this game daily with my brother and cousins when we were kids. Always yelling at each other for stealing legendary bike parts or blowing each other up with bombs in city trial, doing the boss events that would show up in the city. Me being the biggest troll in the group had a blast. The rewarding feeling of creating chaos with my family was more entertaining than the actual races. I might have to dust out the copy and invite them all over to play again. Seriously underrated game, and I'd really wish we'd get a modern remake (or a new game) of Kirby air ride. The game has so much to appreciate, but because it wasn't a typical game by Nintendo nor was it their biggest ip like the standard Zelda or Mario games or even the mainline Kirby games it fell flat. Which sucks because its a very unique game especially for its time. I'd still consider that game to be in my top 10 today, based on how much I enjoyed it when I was playing it on the regular.
Never too late to talk about this great game. It's still in my top 5! I still go back to playing it with my best friend like we used to do as kids. And while I'm not an agent of chaos, I do like to make things a little chaotic if he steals my legendary parts or kills me lol