Kirby Air Ride
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''Kirby Air Ride'', known in Japan as , is a 2003
racing video game Racing games are a video game genre in which the player participates in a racing competition. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to fantastical settings. They are distributed along a spectrum between more realistic rac ...
starring
Kirby Kirby may refer to: Buildings * Kirby Building, a skyscraper in Dallas, Texas, United States * Kirby Hall, an Elizabethan country house near Corby, Northamptonshire, England * Kirby House (disambiguation), various houses in England and the Unit ...
, developed by
HAL Laboratory formerly shortened as HALKEN (derived from its native name), is a Japanese video game developer founded on 21 February 1980. While independent, it has been closely tied with Nintendo throughout its history, and is often referred to as a seco ...
and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. ''Kirby Air Ride'' has the players and computer-controlled racers ride on Air Ride Machines. The game supports up to four players, and was the first GameCube title to support LAN play using broadband adapters and up to four GameCube systems. It was the final ''Kirby'' game directed by series creator
Masahiro Sakurai is a Japanese video game director and game designer best known as the creator of the '' Kirby'' and '' Super Smash Bros.'' series. Apart from his work on those series, he also led the design of '' Meteos'' in 2005 and directed '' Kid Icarus: U ...
. The game had a convoluted development cycle, starting as one of the first wave of
Nintendo 64 The (N64) is a home video game console developed by Nintendo. The successor to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, it was released on June 23, 1996, in Japan, on September 29, 1996, in North America, and on March 1, 1997, in Europe and ...
games before undergoing numerous revisions to the basic concept and being cancelled for a time. Upon its eventual release for the GameCube it saw a mixed reception from critics, who criticized its simplicity, but was a commercial success, selling over 1.2 million copies worldwide.


Gameplay

''Kirby Air Ride'' is played primarily through use of a vehicle, many of which are taken from the previous ''Kirby'' games, such as the Warpstar. Players take control of Kirby or any of his multicolored counterparts to compete in races or other minigames. The simple controls are a defining feature of ''Kirby Air Ride''. Unlike most racers, no input is necessary for the craft to move forward. Other than the use of the Control Stick to steer, the A button performs all the other actions in the game, including braking, charging up for a boost, sucking in nearby enemies and thereafter using the powers absorbed from them. Gliding is also a definitive feature of the game, as the player can control the crafts' altitude when they go airborne. Each of the three modes of the game has a "checklist" associated with it. These are 12x10 grids which contain 120 squares, all of which are initially blank. Each square has a hidden goal contained inside it, and certain goals also have unlockable content attached to them, such as alternate machines, new items and courses, new characters, and music tracks for the sound test. When a goal is completed, the squares fill to reveal completed goals. In practice, this system of discovering unknown goals is balanced out by several goals which are relatively easy to obtain, such as "finish a race three times" or "race on every course," and various other goals which only require the accrual of play time; these, in turn, make it easier to find out what other, more specific goals are, since each goal unlocked will open up the objective of the goals touching the goal completed.
Kirby Kirby may refer to: Buildings * Kirby Building, a skyscraper in Dallas, Texas, United States * Kirby Hall, an Elizabethan country house near Corby, Northamptonshire, England * Kirby House (disambiguation), various houses in England and the Unit ...
is the only playable character available from the start of the game, and the only one who can ride different machines and suck up enemies to copy their abilities. Multiple players are represented by different colors of Kirby.
Meta Knight is a fictional character and antihero in Nintendo's ''Kirby'' video game series created by Masahiro Sakurai and developed by HAL Laboratory. He first appeared in the 1993 video game '' Kirby's Adventure'' as a nameless character, remaining un ...
, Kirby's rival, is an unlockable character. He doesn't ride machines, but instead uses his wings to float above the ground. He controls like a combination of Wing Kirby and Sword Kirby, as he uses sword attacks automatically when he approaches enemies or other players. Because he has high speed and acceleration in the game, he cannot charge.
King Dedede is a fictional character in Nintendo's ''Kirby'' video game series created by Masahiro Sakurai and developed by HAL Laboratory. Dedede first appeared in the 1992 video game '' Kirby's Dream Land'' as the main antagonist, but gradually bec ...
is also unlockable. Controlling him is almost exactly like using the Wheelie Bike, except he can attack automatically with his hammer, similar to Meta Knight's attack.


Modes of play

;Air Ride Air Ride is a basic, back-view racing mode. The player chooses a racing machine and races against up to three other human or computer players via split-screen or LAN to get to the finish before anyone else. There are two ways to play a typical Air Ride race: *Laps: Laps is the default mode, where the player finishes the race by completing a set number of laps around the course. The number of laps can be custom set from 1 to 99, or kept at the track's default. The default number of laps may depend on the current course. *Time: In Time mode, players race for a set amount of time, and the player that goes the farthest down the track wins the match. In both modes, the Kirbys may swallow and acquire the abilities of enemies strewn along the track and use those powers against their rivals. Doing so will slow Kirby's enemies down and potentially do damage to them (if the Health Bar is activated for the race.) In addition to the racing mode, Air Ride also has the option of Time Attack mode, where a single-player races around a track for three laps. Lastly, a single player can also race Free Run mode, an endless race with the sole purpose of reaching the fastest possible Lap Time. ;Top Ride Top Ride is a racing mode on smaller, simpler tracks, and is viewed from above the track. Due to the decreased track size, the default number of laps is increased per track. Top Ride has only two vehicles to choose from; the red Free Star moves in the direction the Control Stick is tilted, while the blue Steer Star rotates clockwise or counterclockwise based on tilting the Control Stick right or left. Like Air Ride, Top Ride also has Time Attack and Free Run modes. There are seven courses total, based on seven different themes: Grass, Sand, Sky, Fire, Light, Water, and Metal. ;City Trial City Trial is a larger mode where players must navigate a city, along with several more sections such as a forest, cave, and volcano, while grabbing Air Ride machine upgrade items, such as boosts, top speeds, charges, offense, defense, and more. Various Air Ride vehicles are randomly scattered throughout the city, allowing the player to switch vehicles at any time in the game. Players can even collect rare machine pieces to fuse together into a "Legendary Air Ride Machine," either the Dragoon or the Hydra. This mode also features random events such as falling meteors, UFOs, Dyna Blade, rail station fires, bouncing items, fake power-ups, a strange pillar, a thief, all the boxes containing the same items, dense fog, and more. When time expires, players face off in a small competition that tests how well your machine ended up, which can vary between a drag race, a brawl, a contest to destroy the most enemies, a gliding game, and even a lap on one of the Air Ride courses.


Development

''Kirby Air Ride'' was initially known interchangeably as ''Kirby Bowl 64'' or ''Kirby Ball 64'' (''Kirby Ball'' is the Japanese name for ''
Kirby's Dream Course ''Kirby's Dream Course'' is a 1994 miniature golf video game developed by HAL Laboratory and Nintendo EAD and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). A spin-off of the '' Kirby'' series and the first released fo ...
''), and later as ''Kirby's Air Ride''. It began development during the early days of the
Nintendo 64 The (N64) is a home video game console developed by Nintendo. The successor to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, it was released on June 23, 1996, in Japan, on September 29, 1996, in North America, and on March 1, 1997, in Europe and ...
video game console. Much of the development was spearheaded by
Masahiro Sakurai is a Japanese video game director and game designer best known as the creator of the '' Kirby'' and '' Super Smash Bros.'' series. Apart from his work on those series, he also led the design of '' Meteos'' in 2005 and directed '' Kid Icarus: U ...
, the creator of Kirby. It was one of only two playable demos shown at the Nintendo 64's unveiling at the 1995 Shoshinkai show (the other being '' Super Mario 64''). At this point the game consisted of two sub-games. One was somewhat similar to ''
Marble Madness ''Marble Madness'' is an arcade game, arcade video game designed by Mark Cerny and published by Atari Games in 1984. It is a platform game in which the player must guide a marble through six courses, populated with obstacles and enemies, within ...
'', as players would control a ball-shaped Kirby to either race across an obstacle course (in single player) or knock competing players off the playing field (in multiplayer), similar to ''Kirby's Dream Course''. The other more closely resembled the final game: a snowboarding race in which Kirby collects stars for points. It went through many changes during its elongated development period (the version shown at the 1996 E3 resembled a skateboarding sim) before eventually being canceled. Producer Shigeru Miyamoto said in an early 1998 interview that the project had been temporarily halted so that Nintendo could focus efforts on finishing ''
1080° Snowboarding is a snowboarding video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64 in 1998. In the game, the player controls one of five snowboarders from a third-person perspective, using a combination of buttons to jump and perform tricks ...
'' and rework the ''Kirby's Air Ride'' concept. The game resurfaced on the GameCube in the form of a short video preview in March 2003 at the annual DICE summit in
Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
, at which point it received its final title. This preview received a mainly negative reception due to slow speeds and poor graphics, factors which the Nintendo 64 prototype had also been criticized for. ''Kirby Air Ride'' was first seen in playable form at E3 in May later that year. The demo contained five playable tracks and three different game modes. The reception to this playable demo was more positive than the video preview.
Masahiro Sakurai is a Japanese video game director and game designer best known as the creator of the '' Kirby'' and '' Super Smash Bros.'' series. Apart from his work on those series, he also led the design of '' Meteos'' in 2005 and directed '' Kid Icarus: U ...
, the
game designer Game design is the art of applying design and aesthetics to create a game for entertainment or for educational, exercise, or experimental purposes. Increasingly, elements and principles of game design are also applied to other interactions, in ...
behind most of the early games in the ''Kirby'' series, resigned from his position at HAL Laboratory shortly after the game's release, citing that he was tiring of the constant pressure from the industry to keep creating sequels.


Music

The soundtrack was composed by Jun Ishikawa, Shogo Sakai, Hirokazu Ando, and Tadashi Ikegami. The latter three of those composers also worked on '' Super Smash Bros. Melee'', while Jun Ishikawa has been a regular composer for the ''Kirby'' series since its debut. ''Kirby Air Ride'' also features songs from the Japanese version of '' Kirby: Right Back at Ya!'', composed by Akira Miyagawa; the game was advertised at the end of some episodes, and a two-part special featuring vehicles from the game aired alongside the game's launch.


Reception

''Kirby Air Ride'' sold 422,311 copies in Japan and 750,000 in the United States. Upon its release, the game received mixed reviews according to the
review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
website
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
. Most websites and magazines praised its clean presentation, music, and the originality of the City Trial mode while criticizing its gameplay as being overly simple. ''Kirby Air Ride''s similarity to other titles released for the GameCube around the same time (most notably ''
F-Zero GX ''F-Zero GX'' is a 2003 racing video game developed by Amusement Vision and published by Nintendo for the GameCube console. It runs on an enhanced version of the engine used in ''Super Monkey Ball''. ''F-Zero AX'', the arcade counterpart of ''G ...
'' and '' Mario Kart: Double Dash'', both of which were also made by Nintendo) resulted in it being categorized as a rather throwaway title. In Japan, ''
Famitsu formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the f ...
'' gave it a score of two eights and two nines for a total of 34 out of 40.


References


External links


''Kirby Air Ride''
at
Nintendo.com is a Japanese multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produced handmade playing cards ...

archives
of th
original
at the
Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
) * {{Portal bar, Video games 2003 video games Cancelled Nintendo 64 games HAL Laboratory games GameCube games GameCube-only games Kirby (series) video games Racing video games Multiplayer and single-player video games Video games about size change Video games developed in Japan Video games scored by Shogo Sakai Video games scored by Jun Ishikawa Video games scored by Hirokazu Ando Video games scored by Tadashi Ikegami Video games directed by Masahiro Sakurai