Kirby Air Ride

Kirby Air Ride is a 2003 racing video game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. A spin-off of the Kirby series, the player controls Kirby or his multicolored counterparts as they compete in races. The game supports up to four players, and was the first GameCube title to support LAN play using broadband adapters and up to four GameCube systems. The game had a convoluted development cycle, starting as one of the first wave of Nintendo 64 games before undergoing numerous revisions to the basic concept, being cancelled for a time and ultimately completed for GameCube through a tight production schedule. It was the final Kirby game directed by series creator Masahiro Sakurai before his departure from HAL Laboratory. Upon its eventual release for the GameCube it saw a mixed reception from critics, who criticized its simplicity, but was a commercial success and later developed a cult following. Kirby Air Ride sold 1.35 million worldwide as of 2020. A sequel directed by Sakurai, Kirby Air Riders, was released for the Nintendo Switch 2 on November 20, 2025.