Kirby Air Ride was supposed to come out for the Nintendo 64. Instead, with N64 sales lagging and a foot in the grave the game was tossed into limbo only to resurface as a GameCube title. While a Kirby racing game isn't a bad idea, and Air Ride at times is a lot of fun to play, it's not as good as I expected. Is it another Nintendo first party flop or a game that has staying power? It depends on what you're looking for.

Is KAR fun to play? Yes, but to a degree. After five minutes I regretted the purchase because at first glance KAR appeared too simple and low on speed, and I was half right. It's definitely easy to play because you only have to use two buttons, the left analog stick and the A button. The stick steers your craft and tilts it up and down while A accelerates, attacks, and sucks up enemies. While it sounds easy it took me a little while to adjust to using one button to execute three functions. In addition, turning is a real pain, requiring you to tilt the analog stick while pressing A to boost. This causes you to drift around corners, but it's annoying when I continuously bumped into walls and the track, allowing my opponents to speed by. Things for the most part were fine after I got the hang of it, but there were still times, out of frustration, I abandoned what I was supposed to do in favor of just sliding around corners and hoping for the best. What's worse, when your launched into the air you have to remember to keep the nose of your Air Ride machine up or you'll nosedive into the dirt; something that is easily forgotten at intense moments.

With all my gripes though, I slowly found myself being sucked into it. Air Ride has this hypnotic pull that thrives off the "Just one more race" philosophy. After five minutes I regretted the purchase, but after ten I was having fun. Air Ride seems slow at first but once you acquire other machines, utilize boosts and take advantage of power ups the game becomes quite speedy, and attacking enemies only adds to the enjoyment. Scattered along the track are creatures you can suck up and use against your foes and each has different abilities. Eating one will give Kirby a sword and his famous Link-like cap, while others turn him into a bird or a spiny puffball. Each transformation is very cute but brutal during races, and it's fun knocking opponents (especially if they're your friends) around and costing them the race. Adding to this are Air Ride's graphics, which, while not the most detailed are adequate and fun to look at, complimented by the game's lightning fast frame rate. The score also adds to the experience, and is classic HAL, fun and fantasy-like tracks that evoke a happiness to them, and playing games is supposed to be a happy experience, right?

The game features three modes: Air Ride, Top Ride and City Trial. Air Ride is the standard mode of play, a deceptively fast-paced battle around several colorful courses where you attack your enemies and steal their abilities as you race to the finish line. Top Ride's a 2D racing mode similar to old NES games where you can see the entire track and have to guide your car around it. Top Ride's visuals are a lot more detailed but the game play's not as fast as Air Ride's and not as fun. Slowly hooking my machine around turns was fun for a few minutes but I wanted more Air Ride mode, and quickly hit PAUSE and escaped.

City Trial is supposed to be the heart of Air Ride. You race around a city collecting power-ups and parts for your Air Ride machine while attacking opponents and stealing theirs, which sounds fun but often times actually locating the other racers is a chore because the city's so darned big, and when time runs out you participate in mini games that aren't much fun and then you're thrown back into the city. Like Top Ride, I grew tired of City Trial and went back to Air Ride, a shame because this is what's supposed to make KAR what it is, and it's terribly boring.

On the plus there are tons of stuff you can unlock by completing races and various requirements, and KAR supports LAN play but only for four players (you can also play four player split screen)! Sadly, online play has been left out.

It looks like everyone's favorite puffball's going to be mired in mediocrity this console generation. KAR isn't good and it isn't bad. It just kinda...is, which is very upsetting given the long time some of you have been waiting for it. It's not the speed that bothers me, it's the lack of depth and boring modes of play that kept it from being a keeper, and the moments when Kirby jumps off the machines and runs around left me yearning for an original 3D plat former, which would've tasted a lot better given the hotter racers coming out this holiday season.

Our Final ScoreBad

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