Kirby Air Riders release date announced in a massive Nintendo Direct

Nintendo just wrapped up its Kirby Air Riders Direct, a bumper 45-minute presentation that had director Masahiro Sakurai go through just about every aspect of the game. 

The presentation was characteristically in-depth for Sakurai, and it ended with the big announcement everyone was excited for: Kirby Air Riders will be released on November 20, 2025. 

That’s a bit later than anyone expected – many were expecting a September or October release date – but given it’s a week before Thanksgiving and Black Friday, it makes sense why Nintendo would’ve picked that particular date. Kirby is, after all, quite a family friendly IP, and Air Riders looks like prime gifting material. 

As for everything else that was covered in the Direct, it definitely looks like Sakurai and his company Sora, alongside primary developer Bandai Namco, have put their all into Kirby Air Riders. The game introduces dozens of new vehicles and characters to play as, much more than the original game on GameCube, and a very in-depth racing and combat system. 

One of the biggest new features is that every character – both Kirby and all of his friends and enemies – can use copy abilities, allowing just about anyone to pick up a sword cap or a fire tiara and start knocking out enemies. Characters also aren’t tied to specific vehicles anymore, either, and each character has their own racing style, combat moves, and special attacks, so you can come up with countless combinations. 

As expected, the City Trial game mode is back too, with the game mode getting bigger and more chaotic than its GameCube predecessor. You’ll speed around a massive island to find powerups to make your vehicle faster, stronger, and more capable for five minutes, then be thrown into a minigame from a selection of games — it could be a straight race, it could be a gliding challenge, it could be a combat challenge. It looks absolutely incredible, and you should definitely check out the full Direct to get a better sense for the game. 

The ending also teased a mysterious dark character on a motorcycle, in something that looks more akin to a Final Fantasy game than Kirby. Who knows what that’s about, but we’re a few months away from finding out. 

Kirby Air Riders will be available exclusively on Nintendo Switch 2 when it launches on November 20, 2025.