Design Journal #2 – Feature Hack: Racing Games

     For this second design journal post, I can think of no game I'd rather talk about than the original Kirby Air Ride for the Nintendo GameCube, a classic staple of my childhood that still holds up now, even just revisiting it single-player.

    Masahiro Sakurai of Super Smash Bros. fame was credited as "General Director" for the development of Kirby Air Ride, and while I don't really know what that specific title entails or how it differs from a "normal" director, Kirby Air Ride definitely exhibits a lot of Sakurai's signature design sensibilities. It is a racing game, but it's not just a racing game. It's split across three game modes, all supporting one to four players:

• The eponymous Air Ride, the game's most standard racing mode, featuring nine courses and a total of 14 vehicles, plus two separate characters who function more or less as a fifteenth and sixteenth vehicle option. The only vehicle available at the start is the Warp Star, with the other fifteen options needing to be unlocked through the game's "Checklist" system, which I'll get into in a bit.
• Top Ride, a second racing mode taking place in small, single-screen tracks shown from a top-down perspective. This mode has only seven courses and two vehicles to pick from, with vehicle selection functioning as a choice of turning controls for each player rather than a full set of vehicles with differing stat lines and gimmicks.
• City Trial, a sort of timed "battle royale" match set in a large city-themed map which doubles as a sort of "preparation phase" for the "Stadium" games (sort of minigames, but not quite) which round off one game of City Trial. These Stadium games include single-lap races in one of the nine Air Ride courses, combat challenges, precision and distance flying challenges, and more. The core thrust of the City Trial game mode is collecting a good vehicle and set of stat power-ups to give yourself an advantage in the coming Stadium match, clashing with opponents and engaging in (or avoiding) the various random events that happen in the city over the course of a 3~7 minute game. Each player starts on a weak, City Trial-exclusive vehicle called the Compact Star, and vehicles of the other 14 types from the Air Ride mode will spawn and despawn across the map over the course of a game for players to swap over to. In addition, there are two ultra-powerful "legendary" vehicles also exclusive to City Trial that can be unlocked and ridden through special means. City Trial also features two sub-modes:
• Free Run, essentially a "practice mode" in which a player can freely explore the City Trial map on a vehicle of their choosing (with a garage to switch between available vehicles) without needing to worry about collecting power ups or dealing with events or enemies. This sub-mode features an exclusive vehicle specifically to practice gliding with, and the two legendary vehicles, as well as the two extra playable characters from the Air Ride mode, can also be unlocked for use in Free Run.
• Stadium Mode, which allows players to jump straight into a stadium game of their choosing. The preparation phase is skipped, meaning nobody can collect power ups, but each player can choose any vehicle they like and play using its base stat parameters.

    In addition to these three game modes, Kirby Air Ride also utilizes a "Checklist" model for unlockables and achievements that Sakurai has used in many of his titles. Each of the three game modes features its own Checklist; a 12×10-square grid on which each square represents a sort of mini-objective for the player to complete, for a total of 360 achievement objectives split perfectly evenly across the three game modes. Not all of these objectives have unlockables tied to them directly, but completing an objective allows you to see the descriptions of the objectives in adjacent squares. The objectives themselves are also often geared to encourage the player to explore the breadth of the game's options, requiring that they accomplish specific tasks while riding certain vehicles to experience how those vehicles perform under certain pressures and can be used to overcome certain challenges.

    City Trial is, for many people, kind of the biggest draw of the game, since it's the most unique of its variety of offerings, and, as someone who largely feels that way, myself, I can certainly see why. It expands on the racing game formula by giving you another way to play using that player character control set, and taps into the inherent joy of zipping around a big open space with a fun, elegant movement kit that encourages you to engage with your environment. Actually, the topic of City Trial brings me to the feature I would add to the game, or would love to see added in a hypothetical "Kirby Air Ride 3" (the upcoming Switch 2 sequel, Kirby Air Riders, does not appear to have added this based on what has been showcased about the game): multiple City Trial maps.

    There doesn't need to be a huge amount! I realize adding new game areas of that size, and to such a chaotic game mode, is a significant undertaking on the part of all team members involved. I'm thinking a total of three sounds pretty reasonable—five if I'm allowing myself to be completely self-indulgent and greedy—but even just adding a second map, maybe as a high-profile unlockable, would be super cool, and help spice up the game mode with some fresh scenery.

    I'll close this off with my one sentence pitch for expanding Kirby Air Ride's City Trial map selection: "Additional maps would strengthen the fun and longevity of Kirby Air Ride's most iconic game mode by multiplying the opportunities for exploration, discovery, and emergent play scenarios and amplifying the hectic, playful creativity and quick thinking that make this game mode so beloved."