We actually have Sakurai's wife to thank for the menu. I believe she's been designing Smash's menus since Melee!

"Sakurai loves the UI in his games so much he married the woman that makes them."
- Dunkey 2025.

its a little thing, but i also appreciate and even find it funny how much sakurai wants us to feel less bad about losses and competition. like "nooo youre not an E rank, you're a red rank. look at all the gummies and global win power you collected. time trials and meant to be personal challenges for yourself, not against the world". not a bad mindset at all for a chaotic party game like this, theres always a strong sense of progression and excitement to play more

I swear kirby fans never go hungry in this franchise.

Insanely Common Sakurai W

Id like to chime in on the simple button topic, when I played mario kart world with my mother, she always struggled trying to remember what buttons other then B did. She never drifted and always forgot what button to push to use items, she had fun playing with me but I felt sad seeing her have a tough time just trying to remember what buttons do.

Come air riders and I told her she doesnt have to hold the A button down to move, she was confused since she always played racing games where you hold down the whole time. I just said A helps with doing hard turns, it took her a bit to fully grasp that. But afterwards she got the hang of just using A on turns, but then she started also instinctively pressed A near an enemy, and learned she can defeat enemies like that. Also learned about copy abilities and how they worked with the A button. She even beat me in 1 air ride race. (She thought I let her win on purpose dispite the fact her enemy killing gave her a huge lead.) And has been having a blast since.

So in my opinion, the game having this very restricted control style is actually a super good thing, its so much easier to memorize that "want to do something? Try pressing A" then trying to remember if inhale is on X or Y, or that copy ability moves have to be done with L. Its much more intuitive then one would think.

I love every single aspect of this game to pieces. I have only but one simple request. And it is this: I would like a randomized hat button. I do not want to choose, I want a random hat. That is all.

I spent a weekend with the boys two weeks ago and brought this game as well as many others. I was like "I'll play a round or two with anyone willing to join." We played for like five hours.

The lore reveals in this game are all the more important because it’s the first time Sakurai has worked on a Kirby game since the original Kirby Air Ride and he’s the creator of Kirby. The lore for the franchise is being written by the original creator for the first time in years.

Something that's in the tutorial but most people seem to forget, if you hold down on the control stick while holding the boost button, you stop on a dime. I see a lot of people saying that the game is too fast or they're overshooting boxes or the machine slides too much don't seem to remember that they can stop a lot faster by holding back while braking. Even in city trial where you have a bunch of power ups, you can stop on a dime.

“I just wish I could attack as an independent action and whenever I want.”
The humble ‘shake controls’ option in the accessibility menu:

Kirby Air Ride never got its proper due.

And now, it has.

i think something about the button being used for multiple things is that the tap is registered entirely differently from holding it down. if you keep an eye on your speed while you tap the button you'll notice you don't actually brake. it takes longer than a few-frame tap for the game to register it as a drift.

Kirby Air Riders is my game of the year. Been playing almost daily since launch

The worst thing this game did was releasing so late in the year that it couldn’t instantly win best racing game at The Game Awards.

my jaw is genuinely hanging open seeing this footage for the first time. what the complete hell, this is NUTS, i gotta get this!!

Bruh. Allowing 99 laps is crazy.

It's funny to me because on the one hand I totally understand the complaints about how the quick spin can't be mapped to a button, but on the other hand, having grown up with the original, I can't imagine doing it any other way. Flicking the stick feels like the most natural way to perform the quick spin to me. I feel like there'd be some sort of feedback disconnect if I could perform the move with a simple button press.

"Makes you hate your friends less when they nail you" - Arlo, 15:35~

Sakurai is weirdly minimalist when it comes to air riders controls given how he’s such a maximalist everywhere else.