Kirby Air Ride

Kirby Air Ride is a spin-off Kirby game that was released for the Nintendo GameCube in 2003. It is a 3D racing game that features three modes: Air Ride, Top Star, and City Trial, all which are unique to one another. This games uses very simplistic controls, which are only the A button and the control stick. However, alternative controls, such as the L and R buttons can be used for boosting instead, but A is the default button.

Production

This game was actually going to be released for the Nintendo 64, but was cancelled early in production. However, it was later revived- this time, as a GameCube game. The game was finally released in 2003.

Intro

Kirby is seen racing against two Broom Hatters. He swallows a Heat Phan Phan and throws Fire on the ground, burning the two and killing them. Then some clips from the actual game are seen. Then, two Sword Knights are in front of him. With his Sword, he slices the two, instantly killing them. He then flies off a ledge, where Meta Knight is charging towards him. After a few gameplay sequences, Kirby, yellow, red and blue Kirbies are seen racing off into the distance.

Gameplay

It is a racing game, that has 3 modes: Air Ride, Top Ride, and City Trial. It has many different Air Ride Machines, that can be ridden.

Besides Kirby, other characters could be unlocked and played as, by getting special marks in the Checklist. The game was designed to be simple, and uses only two buttons. Meta Knight and King Dedede, both unlockable characters, always have the same vehicle, and if they crash, they must uselessly inch on the ground.

Controls

The game uses very simple controls for the player to manuever his/her machines. The game requires the player to use just the A button and the control stick to manuever his/her machines. The machines will accelerate by itself, but holding down the A button will make the machines stop. As the machine stops, it fills the Boost Gauge, seen in the lower left hand side of the screen. After the Boost Gauge is nearly to completely filled, when released, the machine will boost. It is not recommended to boost several times, but rather during curves to slow down and get a boost. Some machines have very unique characteristics regarding boosting, such as using it to fuel or have no boost at all.

The player can quick-spin as a form of offense, by quickly tilting the control stick to the left and right. This is the primary way of attacking others. Ramming into other vehicles at high speeds will only damage the opponent in City Trial. The player may also use Copy Abilities, located either in enemies on the track in Air Ride or by finding copy panels in City Trial. The ability may vary upon each copy ability.

Another feature of this game is gliding. Any vehicle can glide when it hits off a ramp or anything that sends the vehicle in the air. The player can control the gliding by moving around the control stick. The controls are in airplane controls; tilting up makes the machine go down, while tilting down makes the machine go up. The player may plummet down by holding down the A button towards the ground to stop gliding.

In City Trial mode only, the player has the option to jump out of his/her vehicle and find a new one to use. The player simply has to hold A and tilt down on the control stick to hop out of the machine. On foot, the player may run around and jump, plus having 5 extra jumps. After the player touches another machine, he/she will hop on the machine automatically. However, if the player happens to grab a certain amount of patches, Kirby will cough up some patches.

The C-stick in this game is used for rotating the camera to turn around the machine, so look back and see. However, the camera will stop at the diagonal facing Kirby. The C-stick can also be used for zooming in and zooming out of the player. In the Pause Screen, the player can rotate the camera in all directions, except underneath the ground and through the vehicle.

Machine Abilities

Top Speed: Top Speed is the highest speed it go without stopping. The higher the top speed rating is, the faster the machine will go. It is essential to have this on relatively straight courses such as Drag Races and Nebula Belt.

Boost: Boost is another word for acceleration in this game. Boost is the amount of time it takes for the vehicle to reach its top speed. The higher the acceleration, the less time it takes for the machine to reach its top speed.

Offense: This is basically the amount of damage the player can produce. The higher the offense rating, the more damage the player can take out. Offensive power is disregarded when Air Ride races don't have HP bars.

Defense: Defense is decreasing the amount of offensive power added to the vehicle. The higher the defense, the less damage the machine will take from enemy attacks. Defense is disregarded on matches where there are no health bars in it.

Charge: Charge is the amount of time it takes to fill up the Boost Gauge. The more Charge power the vehicle has, the faster time it takes to fill up the Boost Gauge for a boost.

Turn: Turn is how efficiently a vehicle can turn. The more turning ability the machine has, the faster and tighter the machine has.

Flight: Flight is the amount of time the vehicle stays in the air. The more flight the machine has, the farther the machine flies.

Weight: Weight is the amount of bulk the vehicles have. The more weight a vehicle has, the skidding the vehicle has. Weight can also lower the flight time a machine has.

HP: HP is how many hits the machine can take before getting destroyed, shown by the Damage Gauge on the right part of the screen. On Air Ride matches with the Damage Gauge turned off, there is no Damage Gauge to represent how many hits a vehicle can take before getting destroyed.

Character Info

Kirby is the regular character, and his speed depends on his vehicle. King Dedede is the most offensive one, having ten or eight health depending on how powerful the attack is and has his hammer with him, again. However, he is the heaviest out all three of them, making him quite a slow ride. Meta Knight is fast and powerful, so he's a good choice. Though, if the player is going face to face with someone with more health, it would not be a very wise decision, because he's only got three or five health bars.

Playable Characters

Note that 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 the Kirby's color, for example, the second player's Meta Knight is green, but the background in the select screen is yellow.

Modes

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

Name	Description
Air Ride	In Air Ride, players may choose a vehicle and race in 8 different courses, with a set amount of opposing racers the player may wish to choose. The player can not race alone. At first, the only option is the Warp Star, but as the player progresses, more machines will be available for use. The player may also wish to race in Time Attack, which is basically a race against time with as many laps as the player wishes, or Free Run, which a race against his/her best time.
Top Ride	Players in Top Ride mode will race in an overhead 2D environment, with the same controls as Air Ride mode with the exception of gliding. Players must choose only Kirby and an option of two stars to use: the Free Star and the Steer Star in 7 courses. The player may also wish to either race against other players or race against time or himself/herself.
City Trial	Players in this mode wander around in a large city with many different environments, to collect patches to power-up his/her machine to compete in the Stadiums after the time ends. The player has an option to abandon his/her machine if he/she wishes. Stadium is also an option to compete in as a mode in this mode. Free Run is just a wander around the city, with no time limits and unlimited machine use.

Kirby: Air Ride Machines

Machines in both Air Ride and City Trial

Top Ride-only Machines

City Trial-only Machines

Enemies

Courses (Air Ride)

Courses (Top Ride)

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

Trivia

This is the last Kirby game that 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.
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.