Today, Masahiro Sakurai hosted a 45-minute Nintendo Direct solely dedicated to his latest project, Kirby Air Riders. And he opened the presentation by invoking another game, admitting that Kirby Air Riders is "basically Mario Kart".

Nintendo confirms Kirby Air Riders will launch on 20 November 2025 for Switch 2, with Masahiro Sakurai directing and new features including 16-player City Trial, extra riders, and copy abilities for all characters.

Masahiro Sakurai revealed during the Kirby Air Riders Nintendo Direct that Bandai Namco and his own studio worked in tandem on the game.

As for the game itself, it's a follow-up to Kirby Air Ride - a racing spin-off for the titular character that released on GameCube over 20 years ago - and sees characters riding on magical stars around courses, sucking up enemies for special abilities, and speed boosting around colourful courses.

During today's Nintendo Direct dedicated to Kirby Air Riders, Masahiro Sakurai revealed that for the purpose of gameplay balance, every character in Kirby Air Riders will have the same copy abilities as Kirby. As he explains it:

Masahiro Sakurai's detailed rundown of Kirby Air Riders finally brought us the news that we wanted with a deep dive into the game's City Trial mode. Yes, the best mode from the GameCube original is returning for the Switch 2 sequel, and it looks just as high-octane and bonkers as we would have hoped.

With how ubiquitous designer Masahiro Sakurai has become at Nintendo thanks to Kirby and Super Smash Bros., it’s hard to believe that his formal company is