image: lukiegames.com
In this series I will go over all the games I remember playing as a kid on my Gamecube. Some were good, but most were bad, but all of them have a special place in my heart.
One day when I was a kid, my friend brought over a game that was very odd and something that I was not accustomed to at that point. This game was nauseating, fast and simple and at the time I hated it. Tracks were confusing, speeds were too much and I could not handle the motion sickness that was going on. I reviled the game and my brother loved it, so I was adverse to putting it in the series until I was able to play it recently and look at all the fun things it has to offer.
Kirby’s Air Ride is a simplified racing game where the control stick and the A button are the only controls, making it very easy for anyone to pick up and play. The game is centered around three modes: Air Ride, Top Ride, and City Trial and they are all super fun to play around with. Air Ride is a standard course mode where players race around a track and pick up items to use against their enemies. Top Ride is a top down racer with much smaller tracks but can be challenging and have its own strategies. City Trial is a sandbox mode where Kirby can zip around a large open world city with a bunch of different terrains and all sorts of fun mysteries hidden in the world.
This game is a very unique racer in the very basic but intuitive controls. The A button does most everything and its easy to distinguish when the A button will be used for what action. I was able to understand the game when I was very young and the ability to pick up and play a racing game without in-depth explanation was very helpful to me. It was very smooth and easy controls to use as the game has some pretty complex tracks that can be a lot of fun when the A button is used correctly. These controls do very from vehicle to vehicle, as the different vehicles have different controls and attributes to them.
The music is a lot of fun as well and very upbeat, not unlike a lot of other racing games. This game, however, maintains it’s Kirby cuteness while balancing the energy and urgency of a racing game. The power up sounds are very good too, and it is very satisfying to hear once you pick one up or attack another player with them.
Kirby’s Air Ride is a way simpler Mario Kart if you want to get really young kids into playing games, something that Kirby is already known for. Everything is smooth, and though the visuals may be a little jarring at first, it’s definitely something worth checking out.
Next week Pac-Man takes on a genre and fails hard.
