Game | | Kirby's Air Ride | Format | | Gamecube | Publisher: | | Nintendo | Release date: | | Out now |
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OK so where can I start? Kirby is a semi old skool favourite for Nintendo, in particular, a favourite for the younger generation of gamers. So when I was given this game to review I wasn't exactly overawed by the prospects. I thought I would be perhaps a little to old skool for this game, even though my label is The Kid. I have also managed to avoid other Kirby games like the plague for this reason - but there was no escaping this one. 'How bad can it be' I thought. In one word... very! It's a racer but with the added factor of not being able to accelerate, or brake. Mmmmm. As I played it for the first time I did enjoy the experience - for at least half an hour. After that time I had played all the seven courses on offer and amassed an extra four vehicles. The last vehicle being a motor bike which admittedly increases the games appeal quite substantially. It looks pretty, is reasonably quick and the motion of the game is very fluid. There are three modes. The standard racing 'season', an old fashioned super sprint race affair with an overhead view and the city trial. The standard racing mode offers very little after half an hour or so due to the game being so basic. With technology as it is today why on earth make a one-button racer? You drive along, eat the object in front of you and either fire the object to hit another racer or morph into that specific being, and then you just repeat that process. The overhead view is, as I said, like the old fashioned super sprint games that worked so well on my old Blockadore 64. So not really the cutting edge game that I'm after. The city trial is sort of like battle mode on Mario Kart, but bigger and less fun. This is perhaps my favourite of the three but that really isn't saying much! The principles of this mode are the same as the main mode but with scope to improve your ship vastly, and you've opponents to fight it out with. This is obviously a game which is best played with a few mates as the one player aspects will become tiresome. But I could still not recommend this game for the multi-player options. The only way I could recommend you spending your hard-earned cash on this game is if you are buying it for a younger sibling who is no older than eight. Have no doubts children will love this game, unfortunately I am almost fully grown up - I have to shave twice a week for pitty's sake! 4/10 The Kid | 
