Kirby Air Ride got a tepid response from critics when it launched some 22 years ago, but the racing game nonetheless developed a cult following, and director Masahiro Sakurai is getting the chance to return for a Switch 2 sequel called Kirby Air Riders. One Nintendo exec believes the game was ahead of its time, and perhaps it's only now that the world is ready to understand Sakurai's "genius."
"It's great to see [Sakurai] come back to lead and direct a Kirby game again for the first time in a couple of decades," Bill Trinen, Nintendo of America's VP of product and player experience, tells IGN. "But I think more importantly, I've always felt that Kirby Air Ride on GameCube was a game that was ahead of its time and maybe not fully understood at the time that it came out."
