Last year's E3 was Nintendo's chance to showcase all of their legacy titles for their fairly new system. Games like Metroid Prime and Wind Waker confused and thrilled all sorts of gamers. Nintendo plucked from the cream of their crop to bring back the classics in full-blown 3D. This year was a completely different story. Mario Kart: Double Dash took the cake at this year's exhibition, but the rest of Nintendo's titles weren't quite as heavily touted. The combination of a total lack of press releases and hard-to-get details on gameplay left me to my own devices to figure things out. From what I gather, it would seem that this year is Nintendo's attempt to bring back a lot of second-string characters.
Of these characters, some of them stick out like a sore thumb. One of these characters, Kirby, has thrilled audiences since his debut on the original Nintendo Entertainment System. He's appeared on every single system Nintendo has offered up. With unique titles like Kirby's Tilt and Tumble, Kirby's Dream Course and Kirby's Pinball Land his varied forms have left gamers craving more and more of the little creampuff. This year's offering is questionable, as it was a scrapped project from days long past.
Kirby Air Ride was originally announced in the mid '90s as Kirby Ball 64 for the Nintendo 64. The idea got canned when the sales of the system began sloping. The release of the GameCube brought new life to the idea, and Kirby Air Ride was resurrected to be part of the lineup at this year's E3. The oversimplified gameplay took a backseat to racing titles like F-Zero and Mario Kart: Double Dash, but it seems like it would be a great game to include in a later four-pack.
The game is the very definition of basic. You hop on your little flying star, and almost every button does the same thing. They are almost all tied to the brakes. There is no accelerator button. This is a big departure from most racing games, where the accelerator is an integral part of the system. By removing the need to hold down a button almost the entire time you're racing, Nintendo has basically stomped on the ideas held most dear to racing gamers.
While it seems odd that Nintendo chose to basically ignore the entire range of buttons on the control pad, I think it's a great step toward their roots. The original NES controller only had four buttons, and only two of those provided game controls most of the time. This makes Kirby Air Ride a game targeted at Nintendo's oldest market: kids.
With all the complex and violent games that were shown off this year, Nintendo was probably the only company that realizes that there's an entire new generation of gamers growing up right this minute. A game like Kirby Air Ride lets anyone grab a controller and play. There are power-ups, sure, but you can play without them. There are booster arrows on the course that require button presses to activate, but you can ignore those as well if you want.
What it comes down to is that the game looks like Kirby, but doesn't really feel like Kirby. The inclusion of his vacuuming abilities is limited to snagging enemies that give you unique power-ups (fire, lightning, etc.) that you can use to knock your competitors off course. It seems that the screenshots provided by Nintendo reveal a little more complexity, as overhead-view levels and what looks like a mini-game are shown.
As I previously stated, this doesn't seem like a full-fledged game from what I saw in the demo, it seems like it should be part of a game pack with other titles. It seems almost as if it was meant to be a mini-game to another Kirby adventure. Regardless, I think it will be a welcome addition to the GameCube lineup if the inclusion of mini-games and other viewpoints are added. Despite the fact that I feel it's a kid's game, I think the multiplayer will be enjoyable for short periods of time and I can see myself and other gamers renting it. I think we all love to get back to basics every now and then.
