Kirby: Air Ride

[calbhach]

Would it be OK if I posted a Kirby: Air Ride review? ^^;

[Wiggins]

Sure! Just follow the rules!

[calbhach]

Okay ^^ I'll prbably have it up later today, cause I have to get it off of another comp and I don't want to do it right now

[calbhach]

Game Title: Kirby: Air Ride
Distributor: HAL Laboratory, Inc / Nintendo
Rating: E
Genre: Racing

Overview:

Kirby: Air Ride is an inventive racing game that only uses the A button and the control stick! The game has three different “modes”. These modes are kind of like three completely different games unto themselves. The first is Air Ride, the second is Top Ride, and the third is City Trial. Up to four players can play in each mode.

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All three modes have a “Checklist”. When you complete something on the checklist (let’s say for instance that you defeated over 300 enemies) it will either fill in with a green or and orange block. The green block means that you completed that one thing without getting an item, or a stage, or something like that. The orange block means that you did get something for having completed the task.

Sometimes in the Checklist you will finish a task and a purple block will appear in the lower left-hand corner. If you go to it, it will say, “Use one Block to check an item off the checklist. You can use this to check off one of the things on your checklist that you find really hard and can’t seem to get right.

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Each mode has its own set of settings. Change them to anything that you like, just be careful! The way that it gets changed might make gameplay harder. As you pass over each one of the options read the details at the bottom of the screen before changing them.

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Each mode will also have a How To Play video. It’s very informative, so pay close attention!

Plot Summary:

Air Ride: The objective of this game is to race around the track and take first place in a vehicle called a Warp Star. Warp Stars are kind of like vehicles. There are many different kinds of “Stars”. You just have to find the one that works best for you. Some of them slip and slide around and some of them will barely move from left to right. The difference between this and the other modes below is the fact that there are enemies scattered all over the field that you can suck up using the A button and take their abilities. Like the green birds that fly around. If you suck it up, you will be able to fly and if you take a spiked enemy, spikes will come out of your head (that’s disturbing I know) and protect you.

Top Ride: I thought this was a very cool mode. The reason it is called Top Mode is because the camera is shot from above the course. There are two camera modes, one is called Fixed and the other in Normal. In the fixed version, the camera shows the whole course on one screen and in normal mode, the camera is down close to your character. Each course is very small and some can even be lapped in under 5 seconds. The only thing to do here is just ride around the course and get to the finish line before everyone else.

City Mode: The idea of City mode is to gather many items to power up your Warp Star and then (after time runs out) you use this new star in the Stadium mode (See the Stadium section below) that is randomly chosen.

In City mode, many different things will take place. Things like fog will suddenly come out of nowhere and nearly blind you or a guy named Tac will take some of the items off the course. These events will sometime help you…but sometimes they will hinder your progress. Some things are difficult to see the meaning of, such as a large UFO suddenly appearing out of thin air. Just try to use every one of these things to your benefit.

Stadium:

This is a very interesting mode. In it, there are many different games to chose from, like Air Glider where you have to fly as far as you can to get the most points, or Kirby Melee where you must defeat many enemies in the time allotted. Some of the Warp Stars work well, and some don’t. Like the Winged Star works for Air Glider and just about anything will work in Kirby Melee as long as you know how to use the Star properly.

Things that are similar in each of the modes:

Regular Gameplay: In regular gameplay, you race around the track a certain amount of times until you’ve come to the end of the last lap.

Time Attack: In Time Attack, everything is that same as regular gameplay except for the fact that you are timed.

Free Run: In free run, there aren’t any items, there aren’t and enemies and there aren’t any CPUs/Player 2-3-4. Also, there is no set amount of time or laps. You can just ride on for as long as you want.

Music: 6.7

The music is very cute, a bit repetitive, but it has some classic Kirby themes.

Graphics: 7

Handling: 5.9

I didn’t really like the way that the game handled. It only used the control stick and the A button. With the A button, you have to be able to use it to stop, slide around corners AND toss weapons like bombs. For instance, you can’t slide around a corner without letting your weapon go.

Objectionable Content Summary:
Violence: None
Sexual Content: None
Explicit Language: None (they don’t talk so why should there be any ^^)
Religious/Occult Content: None

Reviewer's Notes:

There is no grand prix mode of any sort and I thought this was a little bit strange. City Trial mode seemed to be what took its place. Although I like to have grand prix in racing games, the City Trial mode was new and interesting. Once I got playing it I really enjoyed it.

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This game is certainly a good one for everyone to play.

Reviewer's Rating: 7.5

[Wiggins]

Nice Calbach! Now... what system is this for?

[calbhach]

Gamecube ^^

[jedisonic]

I played it at a friends house.. it seemed really simplistic, ya know?

[calbhach]

Yeah but it was a great game ^^ Like I said in the review...addictive O.O LOL

[Tidus20]

I didn't really like that game when I played it.