The best characters in Kirby Air Riders’ City Trial
For those playing Kirby Air Riders, we’re going over the best characters in the game’s City Trial.
In many ways, Kirby Air Riders is a racing game. But in just as many ways, it kind of isn’t – City Trial is arguably its premier game mode, and it’s more about combat and collecting than it is racing. If you’ve never played this mode before, you’re tasked with exploring Skyah, a City Trial-unique location, and gathering stat boosts to power up for the final battle. The final battle in question is different each game, and you can pick from a selection of four based on your currently equipped machine and its upgrades. As is the case with all competitive games, some characters are better than others. And as you might expect, the best rider for City Trial may just be a certain masked knight.
Best characters for City Trial
Indeed, Meta Knight is likely the strongest character in Kirby Air Riders – for City Trial, that is. I’ve spent dozens of hours playing online, and Meta Knight is by far and away the most common choice. It’s easy to see why, too: for one, he has an auto-attack, which means he’ll automatically attack nearby enemies, boxes, and obstacles without having to perform a quick spin. He’s also got a special that drastically increases his flight distance, which helps him reach floating islands easier. From what I can tell, most Meta Knight players head straight to Skyah’s caves to break open the crystals – there are actually upgrades inside every time, which is a good way to power up your machine early on in the game. Once you’ve got enough Glide boosts, you can use Meta Knight’s special (and a Warp Star, Paper Star, Jet Star, or Winged Star) to reach the garden in the sky above Skyah. There are plenty of upgrades here too, and some City Trial matches will have floating islands visible in the distance. These generally require more Glide and Top Speed boosts, but Meta Knight can get there relatively easily thanks to his special.
The specific vehicle you’ll want to use for City Trial depends on the match you play at the end. Generally speaking, Tank Star, Rex Wheelie, and Formula Star feel the worst for me to use. Wagon Star, Battle Chariot, and Transform Star are all solid picks – Winged Star and Paper Star are nearly a requirement for glide and high jump challenges, too. Sometimes, City Trial will either straight up tell you what the challenge at the end will be, and if that’s the case, it’s best to pick your vehicle based on that information.
Meta Knight isn’t the only useful character, however. Starman also has a special that grants him a ton of height, though he doesn’t have an auto-attack. That means you’ll need to perform quick spins to break open crates and such. And it’s totally okay to play as a rider who doesn’t have a flight special – I see a whole lot of King Dedede and Rick as well, who are stronger on the ground.
If I were to pick a worst character in the game, I might go with Scarfy – it’s extremely frail, and unlike Marx, it isn’t very good at offense unless it turns angry. But I’m not a professional by any means, and some other players say that Bandana Waddle Dee, Kirby (ironically), and Lololo & Lalala are near the bottom. Still, Kirby Air Riders has the rest of forever to develop even more refined strategies and tiers.
Who’s your go-to character in Kirby Air Riders? Feel free to let us know in the comments down below, and if you have any of your own City Trial tips to share, feel free to leave those too. You can learn more about Kirby Air Riders over at the official website.
