Platform: Nintendo Switch 2

A colourful cartoon racer filled with Nintendo characters — what is this, Mario Kart ? Almost amazingly, no: despite surface similarities, Kirby Air Riders is far more than a reskin of the plumber's speedy side hustle, it's a delightfully weird, borderline esoteric take on the genre that packs surprises around every sharply-taken corner.

Some background — Kirby Air Riders is a follow-up to the largely forgotten Kirby Air Ride , originally released on the GameCube back in 2003. A whopping 22 years between entries might mark this as little more than an exercise in trademark extension, but it's actually more of a passion project for director Masahiro Sakurai. If that name rings a bell, that's because he's also the director of the decidedly less-niche

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