Masahiro Sakurai on the making of Kirby Air Ride, why Kirby was turned into a racer

In a new video on YouTube, Masahiro Sakurai discussed the making of Kirby Air Ride and why he decided to create a racing game based on the franchise. He acted as the project’s director and a designer.

Sakurai first pointed out how more games were needed to coincide with the Kirby: Right Back at Ya anime. With a racing game, it would be quicker to develop than a traditional action game. Other titles for were also already planned, including a mainline entry for GameCube that ended up getting cancelled.

Kirby Air Ride came about with the concept that drifting is fun as it offers both risk and reward. Sakurai wanted to make it even more enjoyable by charging up your boost. Also, rather than being about perfection, “a major concept of the game was expanding the possible play types.”

Things did not go well during development. According to Sakurai, “not even a single Warp Star worked right” a year after development was delegated. Sakurai ended up returning to his role as director and “the game was rebuilt from scratch.” Believe it or not, it was finished in just 3.5 months. This was partially because assets such as courses and machines could still be used for the final release.

Another tidbit shared by Sakurai is that Kirby Air Ride had no ties to the cancelled version for the N64. The essence of these two titles were apparently quite different. With the N64 game, it was more like a snowboarding experience.

Here’s the full video on the making of Kirby Air Ride from Masahiro Sakurai:

Kirby Air Ride would end up launching for GameCube in 2003.