Tomorrow’s Nintendo Direct Will Be All About Kirby Air Riders; Watch It Here

By Bee Wertheimer  |  August 18, 2025 | 3:42pm
Video Games News Nintendo Direct
Tomorrow’s Nintendo Direct Will Be All About Kirby Air Riders; Watch It Here

Kirby: we love him. He’s round. He’s pink. He’s occasionally made of yarn. He’s the worst character in Melee, but that’s besides the point. The point is, he’s getting a new game.

If you haven’t heard, the successor to the beloved GameCube racer Kirby Air Ride is coming to Switch 2 sometime this year. Originally announced in an April Nintendo Direct, Kirby Air Riders is being led by the legendary Masahiro Sakurai, who hasn’t directed a game other than Smash since Kid Icarus: Uprising in 2012. This is the first Kirby title he’s heading since the original Air Ride 22 years ago, and the first he’s had any involvement in since Kirby & The Amazing Mirror (2004).

Tomorrow we’re getting a Nintendo Direct all about the new racing game. According to the official Nintendo site, the Kirby Air Riders Direct will take place August 19 at 11 a.m. Eastern Time (8 a.m. Pacific). The presentation will last for around 45 minutes, in proper Sakurai fashion (he’s got a history of presenting lengthy Super Smash Bros. Directs when new characters were announced).

In the finale of his YouTube series Masahiro Sakurai On Creating Games (an incredible resource for game developers), Sakurai mentioned that Kirby Air Riders has been in development since 2022. The game is being developed by Bandai Namco Studios and Sora Ltd.

So far no gameplay has yet been revealed for Air Riders, so the direct is sure to give us a better idea of what’s in store. Since the game is slated to come out this year, it’s likely we’ll also get an exact release date tomorrow. As reported by IGN, the timing may even suggest Kirby Air Riders will be playable at Gamescom in Cologne, since the Direct will air the day before the world’s largest games event begins.

You can watch tomorrow’s Direct below.

 
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