12 Kirby Air Riders beginner’s tips to help you win it all

Kirby Air Riders is an extremely unique racing game, as the meat of the game isn’t its actual racing game mode, but the City Trial mode that shoves you onto a huge island to collect buffs and items before you have to complete a minigame challenge. This game is chaotic, as your vehicles (called “machines”) can get fast and out of control very quickly — but that’s part of the charm.

For those who haven’t played the original GameCube title, the wild controls and chaos may come as a shock, but don’t worry, we’re here to help. Below, we list some beginner’s tips for Kirby Air Riders that should be useful to both new players and veterans who played the original game.

Pick up all the machines in Road Trip

If you come across a machine in the new story-based Road Trip mode, grab it. You’ll need the full set of 22 in order to unlock a ton of different features, and if you pass on a vehicle, you’ll be able to grab it in the new game plus. However, you may have to replay Road Trip a few times if you don’t pick them up as you see them, since some machines only appear in certain branched paths.

Test out all the different vehicles

Everything is different from the original game. The trusty ol’ Shadow Star isn’t the best machine anymore, so you should definitely try giving each vehicle a spin before you decide on your favorite. As expected, some are better than others when it comes to racing, gliding, or beating up your enemies, so you’ll want to be an expert on what’s the best to pick.

Also, complete some lessons

With the above being said, this game handles and plays a little bit differently than the original Kirby Air Ride, so it’s worth playing through some lessons and getting a feel for the gameplay. The Road Trip mode is also great for learning some basics, since you’ll be tasked with completing such a variation of stadiums and tracks.

Fuss around with your settings

There are so many settings to fiddle around with in this game to make your experience more comfortable. If you have trouble with motion sickness, then you can add a reticle or a frame around the screen to help with that. You can remap your buttons (all two of them!). You can turn on motion controls! You can customize what shows up on your HUD. It’s very customizable and worth fiddling around with.

For reference, I usually get motion sick from games, though the original Kirby Air Ride didn’t make me feel queasy. This game started to a little bit, but once I turned on the reticle in the center of the screen, all that queasiness went away. Nice!

Always do weird stuff

See a bomb in Road Trip? Run into it. Got a field full of trees in City Trial? Smash into all of them. There are typically checklist achievements behind all of these types of interactions, so you’ll definitely want to do every wacky thing you can.

Image: Bandai Namco Studios, Sora Ltd./Nintendo via Polygon

Look for hints in City Trial, but beware of tricks

Sometimes some ominous text will show up on the screen during your City Trial run, giving you a hint to what the Stadium at the end could be, but sometimes… it’s a scam! Keep your eye out for typos or trickster-y text here, as those types of announcements will be lies.

Spin on your rivals coming up behind you

If you can feel an opponent riding your star trail about to pass you, spin on them to dish out damage and push them away. Dealing damage will give you a little boost, too.

Keep your eye out for special rare boxes

In City Trial, you’ll want to specifically keep your eye out for these regal rare boxes, which will get pointed out to you by a golden box marker on your map. They often have a ton of buffing items and even a legendary air ride piece, too, if you’re lucky.

Image: Bandai Namco Studios, Sora Ltd./Nintendo via Polygon

You’ll need to play a bit of everything to unlock all the characters and colors

Various characters (and alternate colors) are locked behind checklists for the various game modes. Almost every character has at least two unlock methods, so you can ignore some of the game modes, if you’re not a stickler for completion. For example, if you want to unlock Star Man, you’ll need to complete a specific checkbox in either Top Ride or City Trial. Completing the second of the two achievements will unlock Star Man’s alternate color scheme.

There’s also specific City Trial Stadiums locked behind checkboxes for Road Trip, so make sure to complete that story multiple times, too.

Let the checklists guide you

If you’re trying to go for a specific checkbox, like beating a specific City Trial Stadium with a specific vehicle or racing on a specific map, press the Plus button while on the respective checkbox. This will automatically take you to the game mode you need to be in, with the required settings (if there are any) set up.

Notably, for checkboxes that require a specific Stadium to be played, you can just play the Stadium itself and skip the city portion of the City Trial. However, you will have to do the Stadium with no buffs, so some challenges may be too hard to do this with just the unbuffed vehicle.

Faster doesn’t automatically mean better in City Trial

You might be tempted to make an ultimate race machine, loading your vehicle up with speed-based stats, but being the fastest isn’t always the best. A lot of the Stadium challenges get a bit harder if your vehicle is too fast, especially if you have to aim at specific targets, whether it’s pushing down buttons in an area, or flying through hoops.

Use it or lose it — your special gauge doesn’t stay full forever!

After your special ability gauge fills up, it’ll sit for a second, and then begin to deplete, whether you choose to use it or not. If you’re in a good place to blast past some enemies or release a powerful attack, you should definitely use it before it’s too late. There are times when it may not be ideal to speed off, so consider carefully before you press Y.