Kirby Air Riders - Everyone, to the Stadium!

Описание: Another facet of Masahiro Sakurai direction: frequent online events. I managed to avoid missing the first one, albeit only by less than a day. This was, in fact, the very last two-hour block I could do this, as I was busy for the remaining ones. Just in time too, because there are rewards found only in these events, and I nabbed the last one just in time.

I was able to catch the second one too (which will have its own video shortly after this one), but I missed the third due to forgetting about it—I was preoccupied playing the Mega Dimensions DLC from Pokémon Legends: Z-A.

In this event, we’ll play the City Trial mode. In Kirby Air Ride, the original game, this was considered the main mode, and though listed third in the modes, this also holds true for Kirby Air Riders based on Sakurai’s word.Up to 8 people join up in a City Trial match, and based on one’s standing at the end, they can gain between 200 points (8th place) to 300 points (1st place). Once you reach certain numbers of points, you get customization for vehicles, licenses, and other miscellaneous things.

And since this is the very first City Trial video I’ll have up, I might as well explain it, at least briefly, because it is a very complex mode that cannot be explained in detail in one paragraph: players explore a nonlinear space, consisting of an urban area and surrounding spaces (hence the name) collecting powerups (pertaining to your vehicle’s performance, like top speed, acceleration, flight time, defense, and so forth) and swapping out Air Ride machines. They can attack each other, and occasionally, certain events turn up to reward winners with more powerups. To facilitate inter-player aggression, to help clear events, or to help break boxes containing benefits, weapons sometimes drop. At the end, players take whatever machine they’re riding and powerups they’ve gained into a minigame, and how they place in that minigame determines their placement in that match. Known as “Stadiums,” they can range from falling down a shaft and collecting points as they go, a battle against each other, a race, gliding towards specific points on a wall, and more. I’ll explain as we go.

All players begin on the Compact Star, hence why you can choose your character but not your vehicle. The characters themselves can use their special abilities and attacks in the other modes during either the trail or the Stadium.

Like all other Kirby Air Riders videos of mine, this was played using motion steering.

00:51 - Match #1
City Trial
Character: Susie
Stadium: High Jump
I realized the Paper Star has incredibly low durability (understandably), though it has very high stats in flight time, handling, and acceleration, making it very good in some Stadiums but terrible in others. I wound up with the wrong Air Ride machine with the Rex Wheelie though—the Paper Star would’ve been fantastic for this, but I don’t think I could’ve prevented its destruction. Notice the division between Star-type machines and Bike-type machines in the final standings…

07:20 - Match #2
City Trial
Character: Chef Kawasaki
Stadium: Kirby Melee 1
Occasionally, you can pick up a book to get information about what to prepare for. In this case, I found out it’ll be Kirby Melee 1, which is where you score by defeating common enemies and compete for the highesr score. As far as I can tell, all vehicle types are valid for this one, but high maneuverability, attack power (which I ended with zero of in this match), and durability would be more beneficial.

14:46 - Match #3
City Trial
Character: Daroach
Stadium: Drag Race 2
We had a Short Race event here, where a portion of the stage was set aside for a race, with powerups given based on how you placed. I placed 5th out of 8, giving me a good amount of them, but the finish line led to a fall, causing me to drop a bunch too. The Stadium this time is Drag Race, a race through a straight line but with a bunch of ramps, boost pads, and such. (The events mid-trial also show one person had the edge above the others…)

21:32 - Match #4
City Trial
Character: Waddle Dee
Stadium: VS. Marx
It seems we got Steamgust Forge music here. We also got a boss battle against Marx, the villain of the Milky Way Wishes part of Kirby Super Star—in this case, the standings are based on who had dealt the most damage to him. (Same with the other boss battle Stadiums.) I spent much of the time fighting the controls though, as I still have no idea how to play this one. I still managed to avoid elimination though.

29:20 - Match #5
City Trial
Character: Susie
Stadium: Rail Panic
In this Stadium, you race across a series of grind rails and catch boost rings as you go. My time playing Sonic games helped me in this one, giving me one of the few actuallt good placements in this run. We also got a Dustup Derby here, a mid-trial event where you directly fight your opponents and get powerups based on how long you lasted.