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Kirby Air Ride
built 214 days ago
Kirby Air Ride is a fun game with three different games in it. The games are; Top Ride, Air Ride and City Trial. In Top Ride you go around mini courses and try to finish all the laps first. The controls are a little weird but you get the hang of it after a couple of tries. Air Ride is the old fashioned racing game. Beside the fact you are a Kirby and you ride on different types of stars. You can suck up monsters that float around the track to get powers.
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Kirby Air Ride is a pretty strange game. At first, the racing mechanics appear mind-bogglingly simple, and the visuals sickeningly cute, but after digging a little deeper, a decent arcade-style racing title is uncovered. KAR marks a larger moment... for the GameCube as it is the first U.S. title to support LAN multiplayer gameplay via the use of the until-now unused broadband network adaptor. Does this mean that Nintendo is about to take its games online? Not quite, but this is a definite stride in the right direction.
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Kirby Air Ride has three game modes to choose from: Air Ride, Top Ride, and City Trial. Air Ride is the bulk of the game; you select a star (or some other vehicle) and a course and race in a traditional 3d racer style. The courses are full of neat shortcuts, rails to ride, and enemies to eat and steal abilities from. Top Ride is a great party game, while not completely lacking in single player fun. It's a racer in the style of Super Sprint or Super Off Road, with the 1-button control scheme, and plenty of neat obstacles and shortcuts. Last but not least City Trial is an interesting addition, creative and fun.
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Originally conceived as a Nintendo 64 title, Kirby Air Ride finds new life on GameCube as a racing game where players guide the pink puffball atop a floating star. As in the platform games, Kirby can absorb the magical powers of inhaled enemies, granting him new attacks and abilities to use on competing racers. Players must decide which powers to save and which to discard while zipping along the various outdoor courses populating the game. Kirby will float across rolling green hills, on a rail through space, and more while trying to attain a first-place finish after three laps. Controls have been simplified to a single button used for braking and sliding in tandem with the analog Control Stick. Up to four players can compete simultaneously on a split-screen in traditional races or in special tournament battle arenas, where the goal is to knock rivals out of contention using a variety of power-ups.
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All three modes of play in Kirby Air Ride (KAR) are based around the racing element of the boost turn. Once "A is held down, your craft will begin to slow down, but boost power will be stored. After "A" is released, an energy boost will give your craft a boost of speed. Mario Kart 64's sliding boost turn is similar to this. U-turns are now something to take advantage of.
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Kirby Air Ride was originally announced in the mid '90s as Kirby Ball 64 for the Nintendo 64. The idea got canned when the sales of the system began sloping. The release of the GameCube brought new life to the idea, and Kirby Air Ride was resurrected to be part of the lineup at this year's E3. The oversimplified gameplay took a backseat to racing titles like F-Zero and Mario Kart: Double Dash, but it seems like it would be a great game to include in a later four-pack.
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Kirby Air Ride