Weekly Preview | Kirby Air Ride

The circuits, intergalactic tracks and courses all look mediocre, which isn't too bad. Some of the tracks look great, namely the galaxy, space inspired tracks that look more like crazy grind rails than courses to us to wide, free air tracks such as a great lava filled crater. Whilst not something to be extremely pleased with, we must say, thankfully the tracks aren't anywhere near as boring and bland as the ships. You could say people shouldn't be buying games for great graphics but when the power is there, I see no reason, unless the gameplay really is that
good to compromise.

The gameplay isn't too great either. Whilst it looks like it would play like F-Zero it, being quite blunt just doesn't. Sadly the game isn't technical enough gameplay wise to keep any avid gamer enthralled for anything more than a couple of hours. You can't manoeuvre Kirby that much either- you can't stop him and move around if you get in a tight position. Sadly, there is none of this at all, Kirby constantly drives forward, and you don't have much control on the acceleration rate or anything, just the brakes that can be controlled by holding A. Kirby hardly goes too fast both making the game seem fairly easy and effectively shooting themselves in the foot by making it so simple.

The game is designed for children, this is an obvious point, but even children of a young age will grow to find this very tedious very fast and be just too good at it as the mechanics of the gameplay are just too easy and spoil what should be a thoroughly enjoyable game. You could put your controller pad on the floor and watch Kirby go round the track himself. This makes the game more of an interactive movie than a fully blown game that you control. A bit of acceleration and braking assisting here and there is all good and well but this takes it way too far and makes the game effectively pointless. A is used again for boosting as well as consuming enemies or foes. And in true Kirby style Kirby is then rewarded with a sample of their power, defence or weapon. Whilst munching on some enemies may prove to be a great asset in parts of the track, some may prove to be totally pointless if you are just firing balls of fire into the open track ahead.

The computer doesn't harness their unique abilities too well either and doesn't provide the Mario Kart awareness that keeps you on your toes the whole time when you're floating around the track. The weapons aren't too imaginative and are fairly limited and to make things worse, hardly any of Kirby's other abilities have been implemented into the game. There were abilities like wings but these hardly affect your opponents around you. There aren't any vastly exaggerated abilities such as the Mario Kart-esque Lightning bolt or the great Blue Shell. Because HAL haven't been too adventurous with the gameplay the game is suffering, everyone likes something fresh, even if it would have been a failure a new style would have been a brave attempt at making something new out of a genre that has so many different types of game already consisted in it.

Along with the disappointing Air Ride mode we are treated to another mode of play, the Top Ride play. This is basically the same; simple 'plays itself' style gameplay only the view has changed as you now have an birds eye view of the area in which you're racing. Again, not very good, mainly for the same reasons stated above for the Air Ride mode of play.

The multiplayer should show the games true potential much more as you're not playing patronisingly bad A.I. but your mates who can really give you a run for your money. With the promise of the LAN (Local Area Network) ability this should be made even more fun. Kirby Air Ride LAN should be great but you can rest assured that Mario Kart Double Dash!! will be even better. We doubt the LAN option will be utilized to its full potential very much on Kirby Air Ride as the sort of age audience that it would appeal to wouldn't even know what LAN stands for, never mind set up the connection.

[Anticipation Rating: 3/5]