When the Switch 2’s early software lineup was revealed, the game that confused me the most was Kirby Air Riders. I’ve never actually played the original Kirby Air Ride on the GameCube, but it was not a great seller or much of a critical darling. Not to mention, it’s a mascot racing game, just like the Switch 2’s flagship launch title, Mario Kart World. While I didn’t understand the business strategy, I still wanted to check the game out. So how did it turn out?

It doesn’t take long before it becomes clear that Kirby Air Riders and Mario Kart World are nothing alike. The first thing you’ll likely notice is the controls. In Air Riders, you move forward automatically, no button press required. Instead, the B button causes your character to drift, as well as charge up a boost. So the main thing you need to do is steer well, know when to drift into a turn, and utilize your boost.

On each course, you’ll encounter classic Kirby enemies. Pressing the B button when near them will cause make your character inhale the enemy. Then they will either spit them out into a star shaped projectile that can hit racers in front of you, or if the enemy has a special ability like holding a sword or protruding spikes, you can copy the ability. Attacking or being attacked also fills up a meter that allows your character to use their special ability.

Special abilities are the main thing that differentiates characters from one another. Kirby pulls out a large sword and wildly swings it around taking out enemies from all directions. Rick the hamster from Kirby’s Dreamland 2 gets off his vehicle and runs super fast, knocking out anyone he runs into. Lololo and Lalala from Adventure Of Lolo pull boxes out of thin air and throw them forward at other racers. There’s a bunch more, and finding the one that works best for your play style is a lot of fun,

But it’s not just your character you need to pick out. The vehicles, called machines, vary wildly from one another. There’s ones that are fast, ones that glide really well, ones that drift better than most, ones that are good for attacking, and so on. Picking a ride that fits how you want to play is probably more important than your character.

And that’s just covering the basics. Air Riders shares a lot in common with Super Smash Bros., including its director, Masahiro Sakurai. Much like Smash, it features several modes, all of which use the same mechanics, but have you using them in different ways. I’ll go over those modes in a second, but other similarities include its menu design, the way the announcer shouts the names of characters, beautiful pre-rendered cutscenes, a number on your profile that goes up as you win online races, and more. The game is basically the Smash Bros. experience, but in a racing game.

A couple of the modes are pretty standard races, but seen in different perspectives. There’s Air Ride, which is racing from a behind the back perspective. There isn’t any kind of grand prix, like you might expect from the Mario Kart series, but there are several course to choose from and you can do them both online and off. There’s also Top Ride, which shifts the camera to a top down view, evoking classics like R.C. Pro-Am. While I think I prefer the regular Air Ride mode, Top Ride is a fun alternative.

My understanding as someone who didn’t play the original Kirby Air Ride is that the City Trials mode was the one that people really gravitated towards. It’s back in the sequel and is super chaotic. You drive around a big open city with fifteen other players. As you drive around, you can switch to different machines as well as pick up upgrades to your machine’s stats. Mini events pop up, like bosses appearing or a short race around the city that all offer additional upgrades as rewards. When the time limit is reached, you are then presented with four choices of stadium events. These can be things like flying your machine into a board to score points or fighting other riders. There’s a lot going on and it’s hard to keep track of what’s happening, but I do think it’s a fun time.

Finally, there’s Road Trip, which is the story mode. You drive along a road and get interrupted by small challenge versions of all of the other modes. It’s really fun and is a great way to learn the ins and outs of how the game works. There’s also branching paths through each stage to encourage replaying, as well as really detailed cutscenes that detail what exactly is going on in the story. The story itself is nothing too special, but the cutscenes are cool and well worth it.

Kirby Air Riders manages to stand on its own in a year that already had a new Nintendo racing game. It’s fast paced and chaotic and really doesn’t feel like any other game I’ve ever played. This is one I’ll be going back to for a long while.