Kirby Air Ride

In Kirby Air Ride, a player controls a vehicle, many of which are taken from previous games about Kirby, such as, for example, the Main Star ( Eng. Warp Star ). Players can take control of both Kirby himself and his color versions to compete in races and participate in mini-games.

Simple operation is the main feature of Kirby Air Ride . Unlike most games, moving forward does not require pressing the enter button. In other games where the control button is used only to control the vehicle, in this game it performs all the actions - braking, charging to increase speed, sucking in enemies and using their abilities ^[4] . Sliding is also one of the features of games, since the player can control the height of the ship while in the air ^[5] .

Each of the three modes contains a “checklist” associated with it. These are 12x10 grids that contain 120 squares, each of which is initially empty. Each cell contains hidden goals and specific goals, upon reaching which new content is opened, such as new cars, objects and courses, new characters and music tracks for the sound test. When the goal is completed, the area on the map will be filled, announcing the passage of the race. In practice, this system of detecting unknown goals is compensated by several goals that are relatively easy to accomplish, for example, "finish the race in 3 minutes" or "race on each course" and other goals necessary only in passing the game for a while. Each completed goal opens up new goals and so on until the game is complete.

Playable Characters

• Kirby is the only game character available at the start of the game. He is the only one who can ride various vehicles and the only one who can inhale enemies and use their abilities. It is represented by various color variations.
• Meta Knight is a rival of Kirby, a subsequently opened character. He doesn’t drive a car, but uses wings to soar above the ground. Management resembles Winged Kirby and Swordsman Kirby , automatically uses a sword when approaching enemies and other racers. Although it has a high speed in the game, it cannot be charged.
• King Dee Dee is also a subsequently unlocked character. Rides on a vehicle that looks like a unicycle. Management is exactly the same as for a bicycle, in addition, he can automatically attack with his hammer like Meta Knight.

Game Modes

Aerial Riding

Air Ride - The player selects the vehicle and riders of up to three computer or live players through the split-screen mode or local network and tries to get to the finish line before anyone else. There are two ways to play in this mode:

Circles ( English Laps ) - the default mode. in which the player must complete a certain number of laps around the course to complete the race. The number of laps can be from 1 to 99 or set by default depending on the course.

Time ( Time ) - the player is given a certain amount of time and the player who has traveled a long distance wins the race.

In both modes, Kirby can swallow enemies and use their abilities against their rivals. They can both slow down the riders and damage their health.

In addition to the racing mode, Air Ride also has a Time Attack mode when one player rides around a track for three laps ^[6] . Finally, the player can participate in the Free Run mode ( English Free Run ) - an endless race in order to achieve the lowest possible elapsed time ^[7] .

Top Riding

Top Ride ( Eng. Top Ride ) - a racing mode that provides easier paths along the tracks. Due to the reduction of the track, the number of laps increases. Top Ride provides only two cars to choose from - red Free Star ( eng. Free Star ), controlled by tilting the stick of control and blue Steered Star ( eng. Steer Star ) controlled by turning clockwise or counterclockwise (respectively, moving to the right or left) ^{[8 ]} .

Like Air Riding , Top Riding also has a Time Attack and Free Riding modes. A total of seven courses based on seven different topics: Grass , Sand , Sky , Fire , Light , Water and Metal .

City Trial

City Trial ( City Trial ) - a large mode in which the player must drive around the city with several locations, such as a forest, caves and a volcano, with the ability to upgrade the vehicle to increase maximum speed, defense, attacks and much more. Numerous vehicles with air suspension are scattered around the city, which allow the player to switch to them at any time. Players can collect even rare cars called "Legendary Machines" ( Eng. Legendary Machines ), made in different styles - UFOs, Dyna Blade, railway fire station, bouncing objects and much more. After the time, the players participate in a small competition in which the condition of the car and the race passed are checked. Determined by the criteria - the length of the race, collision, a contest in which you need to destroy a larger number of enemies, as well as location with a slip on the vehicle ^[9] .

Kirby Air Ride (formerly known as Kirby Bowl 64 ( Rus. “Kirby Ball 64” ) or Kirby Ball 64 ( Rus. “Kirby Ball 64” ) was originally presented for the Nintendo 64 game console ^[10] . The game was shown in two playable demo on the show ' Shoshinkai' (now Nintendo Space World ) (along with Super Mario 64 ) ^{[1] [11]} . The first demo showed a level similar to Marble Madness , where players controlled the ball in uniform Kirby, to either pass through an obstacle (in single-player mode), or to knock competing players off the playing field (in multiplayer mode) ^[12] . In the second demo, which was already more like the final product, a snowboard race was shown, in which Kirby collects stars to earn points. ^[11] Subsequently, after experiencing many changes due to the long development period, the game was canceled and was again shown for Nintendo GameCube in the form a short video in March 2003 at the annual DICE Summit in Las Vegas, after which the game got its final name. The video received negative criticism due to low speed and poor graphics, and subsequently the game was canceled ^[13] .

Kirby Air Ride was first shown at E3 in May of that year. The demo version contained five playable tracks and three game modes. The reaction was more positive than previous versions.

This is the last game in the Kirby game series , where Masahiro Sakurai was also an employee of the HAL Laboratory . This is due to the fact that he publicly criticized Nintendo in the circumstances associated with the development of the game, in particular, he experienced the pressure of the publisher, requiring more games ^{[14] [15]} . He will later return to the HAL Laboratory to help develop the Super Smash Bros. game . Brawl

The music for the game was written by four composers - Jun Ishikawa, Hirokazu Ando , Shogo Sakai and Tadashi Ikegami - these same composers wrote music for the game Super Smash Bros. Melee

Kirby's Air Ride also has some songs from the Japanese version of the anime Kirby: Right Back at Ya! (the game was advertised at the end of some episodes).

A total of 422,311 copies of the game were sold in Japan and 750,000 copies in the United States ^{[36] [37]} . Following the release, Kirby Air Ride received mixed reviews from most websites and magazines. Many praise the game for a clean presentation and the original City Trial mode, but criticize it for its low complexity. She has an average score of 65.58% on Game Rankings ^[31] . The similarity of Air Ride with other games then released on the Nintendo GameCube (such as F-Zero GX and Mario Kart: Double Dash‼ ) made this game a one-time product ^[23] . The Japanese edition of Famitsu rated the game 34 points out of 40 ^[32] .