Kirby Air Ride

Kirby Air Ride is a spin-off Kirby game released for the Nintendo GameCube in 2003. It is a 3D racing game featuring three modes: Air Ride, Top Ride, and City Trial, each unique to one another. The game features a very simplistic control scheme, which involves (primarily) only the A Button and the Control Stick. The C-Stick adjusts the camera angle and the D-Pad zooms in/out on Kirby. Alternative controls are available, i.e. using the L and R Buttons for boosting.

Production
At first, the game was intended as a Nintendo 64 release, but was cancelled early in the making. It was later revised for the Nintendo GameCube and released in 2003. The game has become a Player's Choice and a Best Seller, as featured on recent case art.

Intro
Kirby races against two Broom Hatters. He swallows a Heat Phanphan and throws Fire on the ground, burning the two and killing them. Then, actual game clips play. Suddenly, two Sword Knights appear in front of Kirby. With his Sword, he slices the two, killing them. Kirby then flies off a ledge, where Meta Knight charges toward him, fading to white. Then, Kirby, along with Yellow, Red, and Blue Kirby, race off into the distance.

Gameplay
Kirby Air Ride is a racing game featuring various Air Ride Machines which serve as "vehicles" for the player. There are 3 playing modes: Air Ride, Top Ride, and City Trial.

Kirby is the starting character, but Dedede and Meta Knight, as well as different color variations of the 3, are unlocked by ticking certain boxes in the Checklist. Dedede and Meta Knight are only available for use in the Free Run mode (while playing City Trial), always use the same vehicle, and if they crash, they cannot return to an upright position and are trapped in a permanent death state.

Controls
The game's default control scheme involves the A Button, Control Stick, C-Stick, and D-Pad. The Control Stick steers vechiles, executes Quick-Spin attacks (rotate left/right), and descends/escalates non-Wheelies in flight (up/down, respectfully). The C-Stick adjusts the camera angle, and the D-Pad zooms in/out on Kirby. All the Machines accelerate automatically. Holding down the A Button brakes and fills the Boost Gauge in the lower-right corner of the screen. Releasing the A Button will drain the Boost Gauge, and when the Gauge is full or near-full, the Machine will gain a burst of speed.

By slowing down upon entering bends and flying out of them by boosting, players recover lost time spent turning and accelerate back to top speed. Boosting along straights, however, is counterintuitive; this results in an overall lower speed. Certain Machines have unique boost characteristics, such as using it to fuel up, or not boosting at all.

Air Ride Machines glide upon hitting ramps or ledges. While gliding, tilting the control stick up/down pitches the Machine down and up (respectively), and left/right banks the Machine left and right. Holding the A Button brings the Machine to the ground, cancelling the glide.

Players perform Quick-Spin attacks by quickly rotating the Control Stick left or right. This is the primary method of attacking. Ramming into other vehicles at high speeds damages opponents in City Trial. Copy Abilities also cause damage, and are obtained from non-player enemies,Copy Panels, and Red Boxes (in City Trial).

In City Trial mode, the player can hold button A and tilt down on the control stick to have the character jump out of his/her vehicle and find a new one to use. On foot, the character may run around and jump, and is able to perform up to 5 consecutive air jumps. When the character touches another machine, he will hop onto the machine automatically. If the player is playing as Kirby and he manages to grab a certain number of patches before this, he will cough up some patches as soon as he collected enough.

The C-stick in this game is used for rotating the camera around the Machine and zooming in and out. Full rotation is not enabled, and the camera cannot go into the 90-degree arc at the front of the Machine. In the Pause Screen, the player can rotate the camera in all 720 degrees, but the camera will not go into the ground or through the Machine.

Machine Abilities

 * Top Speed: Top Speed is the highest speed a machine can attain. It is essential to have this on relatively straight courses such as Drag Races and the Single Race course Nebula Belt.
 * Boost: Boost determines a machine's automatic acceleration and the speed boost when releasing the charge from the Boost Meter. The higher the machine's boost rating, the sooner it can reach its top speed and the faster it goes when releasing a boost charge.
 * Offense: Offense determines the amount of HP damage inflicted on other players upon contact. Offense is disregarded in game modes which do not involve HP bars. High offense gives more damage.
 * Defense: Defense determines the reduction of HP damage received when enemies collide into the player's Air Ride Machine. High defense means less damage received. Defense is disregarded in game modes which do not involve HP bars.
 * Charge: Charge determines the amount of time it takes fill up the Boost Gauge when Button A is held down. The higher the charge rating, the faster the Gauge fills.
 * Turn: Turn determines the maximum angular rotation a Machine can perform. The higher the turn rating, the faster and tighter it can turn.
 * Gliding: Gliding determines the length of time a Machine cay remain airborne. The higher the gliding rating, the longer it can stay in the air. A Machine's weight rating counteracts its gliding rating.
 * Weight: Weight determines the amount of skid a Machine experiences when turning, and directly counteracts gliding. The higher a Machine's weight, the more skid it has when turning, and the less time it can remain in the air.
 * HP: HP represents the amount of damage a Machine can sustain. The amount of HP left is shown by the Damage Bar on the upper right of the screen. On Air Ride matches with the Damage Gauge turned off, the Damage Bar is hidden, but vehicles can still sustain damage and be destroyed. Upon reaching zero HP, a Machine is destroyed. Having any non-zero HP lower than the maximum does not impact a Machine's performance, however.

Character Info

 * Kirby
 * He is the default character and his speed depends on his vehicle. Kirby can be used in all three modes of the game. He can also use copy abilities and collect patches.


 * King Dedede
 * He is the most offensive character and has the highest HP of the three. Depending on how powerful the attack is, he deducts 8 - 10 HP per attack. Dedede's weapon of choice is his hammer. His main drawbacks are his low speed and high weight. King Dedede can only be used in the Free Ride mode of City Trial and Air Ride. The king cannot use copy abilities or collect patches.


 * Meta Knight
 * Meta Knight is quick and has powerful attacks. He is the fastest character in the game and uses his sword, Galaxia, to attack for high damage. However, he has very low defense and HP, so he can only take a few hits. Meta Knight can only be used in the Free Ride mode of City Trial and Air Ride. He cannot use copy abilities or collect patches.

Playable Characters
The player can play in different colored King Dededes and Meta Knights as well as Kirbys. The King Dededes and Meta Knights will still get represented by Kirby's color. For example, the second player's Meta Knight is green, but the background in the select screen is yellow.
 * Kirby
 * Red Kirby
 * Blue Kirby
 * Yellow Kirby
 * Green Kirby
 * White Kirby
 * Purple Kirby
 * Brown Kirby
 * Meta Knight
 * King Dedede

Modes
Below are the three modes the player can choose while playing this game.

List of City Trial Events

 * "Meteors": Two or three small meteors crash into the city followed by a big meteor that will land in the center of the city. The player must avoid contact with the meteors or their machine will take massive damage, or possibly explode. The meteors will leave an array of patches.


 * "Air Ride Fleet": Five Air Ride machines will fly above the city at a somewhat low altitude. The player can pick out one of the machines before they all go away.


 * "UFO": A UFO will appear in any direction of the city with patches on top of it. The player must find their way to the top of the UFO to collect various items.


 * "Dyna Blade": Dyna Blade will appear at a random place in City Trial for a short time. The player must strike the bird in the head 3 times to make it fly away.


 * "Rubbery Items": All items in the city seem to have a rubbery effect on them. The player must get the items as they bounce in the air. Red Boxes with Machine Parts do not bounce.


 * "TAC": T.A.C will hide in any spot in the city. The player must find him and knock the items before he flies away.


 * "Station Fire": All of the rail stations in the city start burning and the player must leave the stations alone until the fires go out.


 * "Dense Fog": A huge cloud rolls up into the city, blinding the player's sight. All indicators are turned off and the player must venture throughout the map with little sight.


 * "Secret Area": An area in the castle will open with patches and possibly food. The player must get the patches before the other players do or before they disappear.


 * "Fake Items": Some of the patches found in Blue Boxes look fake. The player must avoid touching the fake panels while trying to get the real patches. If a fake patch is touched, the player will sustain damage.


 * "Energy Tanks": All of the Air Ride machines' tanks are overfueled, increasing the player's top speed for a short amount of time.


 * "Lighthouse": The lighthouse turns on, healing any player that stands underneath the lights.


 * "Same Item": For some reason, all the boxes seem to have the same item and will slowly spin around. This will stay that way for about a minute. Red Boxes with Machine Parts do not spin.


 * "Regeneration": Several circles of light will appear around the city and heal any player who stands in it.

Machines in both Air Ride and City Trial

 * Warp Star
 * Slick Star
 * Winged Star
 * Formula Star
 * Shadow Star
 * Swerve Star
 * Rocket Star
 * Wagon Star
 * Turbo Star
 * Jet Star
 * Bulk Star
 * Wheelie Bike
 * Wheelie Scooter
 * Rex Wheelie

Top Ride-only Machines

 * Free Star
 * Steer Star

City Trial-only Machines

 * Dragoon
 * Hydra
 * Flight Warp Star
 * Compact Star

Enemies

 * Balloon Bomber
 * Bronto Burt
 * Broom Hatter
 * Caller
 * Cappy
 * Chilly
 * Dale
 * Flappy
 * Gordo
 * Heat Phanphan
 * Noddy
 * Pichikuri
 * Plasma Wisp
 * Scarfy
 * Sword Knight
 * Walky
 * Waddle Dee
 * Wheelie

Courses (Air Ride)

 * Fantasy Meadows
 * Celestial Valley
 * Sky Sands
 * Frozen Hillside
 * Magma Flows
 * Beanstalk Park
 * Machine Passage
 * Checker Knights
 * Nebula Belt (unlockable)

Courses (Top Ride)

 * Grass
 * Sand
 * Sky
 * Fire
 * Light
 * Water
 * Metal

Stadiums

 * Drag Race 1
 * Drag Race 2
 * Drag Race 3
 * Drag Race 4
 * Destruction Derby 1
 * Destruction Derby 2
 * Destruction Derby 3
 * Destruction Derby 4
 * Destruction Derby 5
 * Air Glider
 * High Jump
 * Target Flight
 * Single Race
 * Kirby Melee 1
 * Kirby Melee 2
 * VS. King Dedede

Reception
Kirby Air Ride sold 422,311 copies in Japan and 750,000 in the United States. . Upon its release, it received mixed reviews from most websites and magazines, with many praising its clean presentation and the originality of the City Trial mode while criticizing its gameplay as being overly simple. It has an average score of 65% on GameRankings. Kirby Air Ride's similarity to other titles released for the GameCube around the same time (most notably F-Zero GX and Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, both of which were also made by Nintendo) resulted in it being categorized as a rather throwaway title. . Matt Casamassina of IGN said "this racer only comes recommended as a potential buy to parents who are shopping for their under-nine son or daughter." He also gave the game a 5.2 out of 10.

Trivia
Kirby Air Ride カービィのエアライド Kirby Air Ride Kirby Air Ride
 * This is the last Kirby game that the series creator, Masahiro Sakurai, would work on as part of HAL Laboratory. This was due to him publically critisizing Nintendo regarding circumstances during the development of the game. He would later return to work with HAL Laboratory to help develop Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
 * The US release was tied in to the first airing of the two Air Ride In Style episodes of Kirby: Right Back at Ya!. As the episodes were originally made as part of the final storyline, fans complained about the discontinuity. Comic adaptations were also released around the same time in various Nintendo Power issues.
 * Music as well as the environmental settings from the anime were used in this game, as well.
 * Green Kirby is seen on a Wing Star on the spine of the boxart. Green Kirby is the only unlockable Kirby featured if one disregards Meta Knight.
 * Super Smash Bros. Brawl's main menu screen strikingly resembles Air Ride's, and therefore might have been based off this game.
 * The menu also has the same sound effects for selecting something as Super Smash Bros. Melee.
 * One of the machines in Kirby Air Ride, the Dragoon, also appears in Super Smash Brothers Brawl. It is a deadly weapon and instant KO if it hits the other players.