On the one hand, this looks amazing and I’m hyped. On the other…
Did… did they remove split-screen multiplayer? And Top Ride? The last one I understand since most people didn’t really care about it (except me
) but fucking
split-screen?! Sakurai didn’t outright say it, but it’s pretty heavily implied.
Top Ride didn't even get a single mention, so i think it's safe to say it's gone... Wasn't a fan of the mode myself, but i did love this track along with it's OST.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=bt0kKaHAiyg
I'm not sure why there's so much dooming about this game right off the bat. Air Riders is five months out from release, and Sakurai ended the Direct by saying there was still a lot left to share. Frankly, I believe him.
Am I optimistic that split-screen multiplayer will stay in? No,
the press release that came afterwards clarified that you need multiple games and multiple devices for multiplayer. I don't think it's happening. It's a shame, and I really dislike it (especially with the prices of new Switch 2 games, dear god), but I can't say I'm too surprised given the slow extinction it's been going through since the sixth generation. Still sucks, and I do think it's a huge blow, but I don't think it ruins the game. There's still local multiplayer, and if someone is invested enough in Nintendo to want to play a Kirby Air Ride sequel multiplayer I'm sure they'll have another Switch 2 and copy to do it with. (They shouldn't need it, though.)
(also, apparently there are video features in the game that haven't been clarified yet? That, or I'm reading this wrong and it's just referring to any camera use with GameChat as an Air Riders feature. Assuming it's the former, it could have something to do with those little windows you could see popping up during the City Trial stuff in the Direct.)
Anyways, I don't think it's safe to rule out Top Ride yet. It was a major mode in the original game, even if it's barely remembered today, and it seems like most of this Direct was just devoted to the basics of the game and how Riders improves on the most beloved/essential modes. City Trial got a huge spotlight because everyone adores it, Air Ride got a spotlight because it's the structure the entire rest of the game is built off of and City Trial couldn't be explained without it. You can already see hints of other features throughout the gameplay, such as clear times being saved in Air Ride's victory screen and blank space where there should be nearly
half an entire roster when choosing a character, so I highly doubt this Direct covered more than the surface level and what's new.
I do hope there are more than four or five courses for Air Ride. That seems like a mighty small amount in a game with 6 racers max and that big a roster. No matter how many vehicles or characters there are, having
that few courses to race them on would get boring fast.
It's also worth noting that this is a $70 game that has been in development for
at least 5 years, possibly longer, given Sakurai explicitly mentioning
a former HAL CEO requesting it of him while he still held that title. That CEO only held the position for 3-5 years (depending on what Director vs President means, I'm honestly not sure of the difference), from 2015 until either 2018 or 2020. Sakurai probably didn't start working on it properly until the Smash DLC was all done (since he mentioned postponing full production due to obligations related to that), so assuming he started proper (non-concept) production work on Riders immediately after finishing up Smash Ultimate's DLC, he would have begun working on the game sometime in
early-to-mid 2021. That is the absolute most pessimistic estimate, and I'm tempted to believe that the game had a lengthy pre-production phase given how thought-out a lot of the new additions are, so I really do think Riders has been in the oven since before the pandemic and probably has quite a lot to offer that we don't yet know about.
TLDR; cease your doompilling, faggots. Just because everything the game had to offer wasn't immediately given away in the Direct, doesn't mean something's cut. Split-screen is probably gone though, which does indeed suck.
