Kirby Air Ride is a fascinating racing game for the GameCube. The vehicles move slightly above the ground, like F-Zero machines, and the controls are very unique. There are three totally different modes (Air Ride, Top Ride, and City Trial), and each one is packed with 120 challenges for you to beat. These challenges are like racing a course within a certain time, or collecting/swallowing a number of things within one race. Flying is an important thing in the game, and every stage gives you at least one chance to fly in the air. There are a lot of things in this game that make it like no other racing game. You guessed it, this Review is on a 0-4 star scale.

Graphics: ***
 
The graphics in this game are mostly good. Both Celestial Valley and Nebula Belt are very beautiful-looking, and Machine Passage also has high graphic quality. However, the city in City Trial looks fake, Top Ride may need some improvement (although the Light stage is pretty good in graphics), and some enemies may not look too good. The graphics are, overall, good enough.

Sound/Music: ****

The sound and music is of very high quality. From the Sky Sands alternate theme, to the Checker Knights music, to the Magma Flows alternate music, there are tons of great songs in the game. The sound effects are very good too, and very clear. The music and sound in this game is excellent, in my opinion.

Difficulty: **

This is a very hard section to grade, because nearly all the challenges in the game, for all three modes, vary in difficulty. Some are very easy, some are medium difficulty, some are very hard. Since the difficulty varies from challenge to challenge, an average, two-star rating, is best to give.

Control: ****

The controls in this game are very unique, and in this case, that's an excellent thing. You don't have to hit A to accelerate; most machines except two accelerate automatically. A is used to swallow enemies for powers to use and to "boost" around corners (slowing down around corners, which charges up energy, and if you release the A Button when the energy meter is full, you'll get a mini-boost. One machine has a very powerful boost). The controls in Top Ride are the same acceleration-wise, but someimes rounding corners is a little harder. But not enough to take away half as star, since Top Ride is very easy anyway.

Characters: 1/2

There are not many playable characters in this game, only Kirby, King Dedede, and Meta-Knight. There are many enemies, but I don't know if all of them actually have names. Anyway, there isn't much variety here, but there is a lot of variety in the...

Vehicles: ****

Very unique, I must say. There is a very wide variety of vehicles, when it comes to control. Instead of just having vehicles being different because of speed, these vehicles are different because of both control and speed. Two vehicles need a boost to actually move the vehicle. One has super-high acceleration and max speed, but needs a boost to actually turn. One is super-slow, but has a very powerful boost. Two "vehicles" (King Dedede and Meta-Knight) combine two powers you can get from enemies, but cannot swallow other enemies. One has very good stats but cannot boost. Do you see how unique these vehicles are? I would have to say it has the best vehicle selection of any game I've played.

Items: ***1/2

In the three modes, there are several different items, and many of them are very creative. In Air Ride, there are powers you can swallow from enemies. I won't describe any of them but some of them, like the Plasma power, are awesome. In Top Ride, there are even better and more creative items. Some can literally change the stage, like the Lantern item. With another item, you can boost constantly by holding down A for half a second. Top Ride would have the best item selection. City Trial has the same items as Air Ride, and more. There are patches that raise a stat of your vehicle, like Speed or Offense. There are also "other items" like Bombs and Big Spiked Balls. The item selection here is creative, and deserves a great score.

Levels:
Air Ride: ***1/2
Top Ride: *1/2
City Trial: ***1/2

For this category, I'll be rating the levels from all three modes. First, Air Ride. The level design here, except for two of them, is excellent, I have to say. The stages are so complex. Look at Checker Knights, for example. That stage combines so many elements of a race track, too many to name. Magma Flows, Beanstalk Park, and Machine Passage are other awesome examples, because these three stages have several different paths, making each lap different if you don't take the same path for each lap. There are so many different elements and many hidden paths to find in each stage (except for two), this game has some of the best tracks you'll find. What prevents the four star rating? Fantasy Meadows and Nebula Belt. These two stages are way two basic. Fantasy Meadows is just an oval, nothing special about it. Nebula Belt, the only unlockable stage, is not worth it, despite the awesome graphics. It's basically a straightway, a big U-turn, another straightway, an S-turn, yet another straightway, and finally another big U-turn before the goal. It's basic enough. No hidden paths, rails, or anything. All it has which is unique are ? Blocks, like in Mario Kart. But most of the stages are very awesome and complex, and very good, as well.

Next, Top Ride. The levels here aren't so good. Okay, Sky and Metal are okay, but other stages, such as Grass, are just a waste. Light is an improved version of Grass, so let's keep that stage and throw the Grass stage out. The other stages are medium or below average in rank. There are some obstacles on each stage, each of them being unique. But otherwise, this mode's stages need more effort put into them. And there aren't as many tracks as Air Ride either.
 
Finally, City Trial. This stage's one main area is incredibly complex and deserves a great rating. Look below in the gameplay section to find what the City Trial mode is about. Anyway, like I said, this arena is incredibly complex. It is a huge island, with things including many buildings you can land on (but not go in), a big volcano, a small golf course, and a huge underground system. It's very big. If only it were a bit more complex, maybe having a second island. The arenas in some of the mini-games, like Kirby Melee 2, are great. That arena for Kirby Melee 2 is awesome. The setting is a courtyard, with several floors, and an indoor area on the first floor. However, some of the other arenas are not that good. Overall, the "levels" of City Trial are very good, much like Air Ride.

Gameplay: I will split this up into the three diffrernt modes.

Air Ride: *1/2
 
This mode is not what you think it is. It's not as good as it could be. Basically, it's just 2-4 players, human or CPU, racing against each other. No grand prix, no tournament, no nothing. It's just racing without any depth to it.  The challenges in this game or great, though, as it's a very challenging mode.

Top Ride: *

A mini-racing mode. It's not so good, I'll tell ya. It's just 5-7 short laps usually. There are many different items to collect, but overall, it's just boring at times. Again, no grand prix or tournament to liven the mode up, just 2-4 human or CPU players racing.

City Trial: ***1/2

This mode is a lot better than the other two, refreshingly. First off, in the city, you ride around on any machine (you start out on the Compact Star, but you can change machines by getting off of them and getting on another). You collect patches to raise a stat on your machine, and you also have a health meter (one of the stats). If it's completely empty, you'll lose your machine and have to get another one. You can attack other machines with items (like Mario Kart's Battle Mode) or by using a spin attack while you are improving your machine. The city is very big, and, one of the better things, has many different "events" that happen. Some of them include meteors falling, Dyna Blade appearing, and the rail stations catching on fire. When the time (3-7 minutes) is up, you'll go into a random Stadium Mini-Game. Some of them are really good, like Kirby Melee (destroy as many enemies within the time limit) and Destruction Derby (KO as many machines as you can within the time limit). However, why is High Jump a mini-game when Air Glider is incredibly similar? In other words, High Jump is useless to put in there. Other than that little problem (very little in fact) this mode is awesome.

Replayability: ****

It will take a very long time to complete evry single challenge in the game. A very long while. In fact, I haven't completed them all. Even if you do complete every challenge, you can still get high scores in each mode of the game. This game has near-excellent replayability.

Fun Factor!: ***1/2

Yes, this is a really fun game at times, I have to say. Most people will find City Trial the most fun of all the modes, because of its variety. Some other things in the game (even in City Trial) can be frustrating, like trying hard to get a hard challenge completed in any of the modes. But, overall, this game is fun.

Overall: ***1/2

Yes, this is a good game. A very unique game, too. It's not perfect, as it has flaws, but it shouldn't prevent you from buying it. It is a good buy, and a good game. Any racing fans should get this game, as a lot of fun comes with it. Overall, this a good (or great) game for you to get.

Want to review a game yourself? Email me!
Go back to Lemmy's Reviews.
Go back to my main page.