Gaming is simultaneously bigger than it has ever been and a complete mess at the moment. More people have been playing games than ever, and revenue has skyrocketed alongside the public visibility of some of the biggest gaming franchises. However, many games either feel rushed and hollow or focus too much on asking the player to spend more and more. Not to mention how the industry has chewed up and spat out thousands of workers in the race to meet impossible financial expectations year in and year out, both in terms of burning them out and tossing them out when cuts are demanded. All of this makes me feel that gaming needs a sort of reset or something to go back to basics. While this is ever-present in the indie space with games like Deltarune and Hollow Knight, there has been one upcoming release that has caught my eye in terms of what a gaming experience really needs to be: Kirby Air Riders.

Releasing later this year, it is the sequel to the cult classic GameCube game Kirby Air Ride. Directed by Kirby and Smash Bros creator Masahiro Sakurai, and his first Kirby game since the first Air Ride, it has been a game that has a lot in terms of what it offers as a base experience. There is racing, as expected, but the game is also overflowing with other things to do. So many big, so-called “AAA” games are pumped full of money, but have little to show in terms of replayability and depth. What caught my attention about Kirby Air Riders is just how much there is to do and see within this one game, even with the little things.

There’s basic racing, but it has been enhanced with many new options. Dozens of new characters and vehicles are at the players’ disposal compared to the limited options of the first game. Said characters and vehicles can also be customized with skins and hats for the characters and paint and accessories for the machines they ride on. The race courses in the game are vast and extremely well-detailed and Sakurai even included the 9 original courses from the first game too. Alongside racing, there is City Trial. City Trial is commonly referred to as the killer app of the original Air Ride. Battling against multiple players in a wide map arena, battling enemies and other players, building up stats, and facing events either within the map or at the end of the time limit. The sequel has made a much larger map and has provided far more options for how to play the game, including many more events. There is also Top Ride, a more birds-eye view and simple racing style. Sakurai himself stated there was doubt it would be brought back, but he did it anyway and expanded it further than the original in scope and detail. There is also a completely new model: Road Trip. It is essentially a revamped sort of classic mode from Smash, involving challenges that utilize all the modes and gameplay from the entire game, and has branched path options alongside stat building.

All of these game modes are full of polish and provide so many ways to play the game, which is great for replayability and simply having fun. It’s not just that they are well developed, though, it’s that there are so many ways to play and so many options for how to. That is what Kirby Air Riders is showcasing: the benefits of having a game overflowing with content and stuff to do at the forefront. Even in the little things, Sakurai has focused on providing options and detail. Online accounts have digital credit cards that can be customized. There are collectable gummies of the ride machines that can be messed around with. There’s an in-game checklist that unlocks stuff by completing tasks. On top of all of this, Sakurai has stated he has no plans at all for DLC or even future free updates. Everything he wants this game to be is in the initial package, and that’s novel for the modern AAA game. Most of them either pump out a ton of DLC after the fact, create perpetual marketplaces to get players to keep buying, or come out half-baked and finish the game later with updates. Having a game on this scale basically coming out fully formed used to be more common a few generations ago, but it’s not the exception and not the rule.

We need more games that simply provide more to the player as a full experience. Too many of them, as of late, are content with bare bones options and asking for more to fill in the rest. Kirby Air Riders, meanwhile, feels almost overwhelming in terms of modes, options, and just having things to do, even with the smallest elements. It’s a testament to both Sakurai as a director and Nintendo’s game design, and I think more games need to take this approach. Focusing only on making as much money as quickly and efficiently as possible devalues game design and a lot of other elements of the medium. Allowing artists and designers more freedom to simply make the game they want will result in more great experiences that will probably last longer than whatever flash-in-the-pan trend the suits want to chase after. Even so, I do think indie developers have this down to a T, given the attention many releases have gotten and how they offer far more for far less. However, there is the benefit of having a big studio pour a lot of resources into a content-rich game, and I feel that they can easily afford it. Said games can be both more elaborate and have even more to do. Heck, it would probably be less expensive than most of the games intended to be the “big releases,” considering how much is wasted on trend chasing and executive meddling. In general, gaming needs re-adjustment, and I think focusing back on quality game design and offering more in said games is a good step forward, and Kirby Air Riders shows how that can be a boon to interest and presentation.