Surprise: Nintendo's big 2025 game appears to be on track (and it's a Kirby game)

Masahiro Sakurai's recent work schedule was not quite what it seemed. PLUS: A new Nintendo game director, a shake-up at the studio making the next BioShock, and a Black Myth sequel

Kirby Air Riders. Screenshot: Bandai Namco, Nintendo

Nintendo’s marquee 2025 holiday video game release slot is going to Kirby Air Riders, a game that just weeks ago seemed—from the outside, at least—like it could slip from a vaguely promised 2025 release to some time next year.

The “vehicular action” game will be out for Switch 2 on November 20, as announced at the end of a meticulously detailed 47 ½-minute video presentation hosed by the game’s director, famed Smash Bros. lead creator Masahiro Sakurai.

That Sakurai is overseeing the game’s creation came as no surprise. Nintendo said as much in April during the brief trailer that revealed the game.

Nor was there much unexpected regarding Air Riders’ showcased contents.

As with the Sakurai-directed 2003 GameCube game Kirby Air Ride, the Switch 2’s Air Riders is partially a multiplayer racing game featuring characters in the cute and chaotic world of Kirby.

As its “main event” (Sakurai’s words) Air Riders features a new version of the “City Trial” mode that won over players of the GameCube original. In Air Riders’ version, “City Trial” challenges players to hastily explore a floating city called Skyah, find and collect power-ups to customize their glider-riding characters’ strengths, then battle in a stadium contest.

The surprise about all of this was that the game was even close to completion. There’s been some sleight of hand to what Sakurai publicly appeared to be doing in recent years—and even recent months—compared to what’s really been going on. Sakurai began explaining the trick last fall.