Well-known Nintendo game developer Masahiro Sakurai has gone over several details about the design process and philosophy behind GameCube racing titleKirby Air Ride. Although many of the games that Sakurai continues to delve into on his YouTube channel are many years old, theKirby Air Ridedesigner has revealed new insight about Nintendo classics through his retrospectives.
Masahiro Sakurai approached the design and philosophy ofKirby Air Ridewith racing as opposed to the traditionalKirbyformula to minimize development time according to the series creator.Kirby Air Rideon GameCube is a departure from other titles in theKirbyfranchise, which are typically platformer games. Although Sakurai is acclaimed for his role with theSuper Smash Bros.series, his work on games likeKid Icarus: Uprising,Meteos, and manyKirbytitles has also been celebrated across four months ofYouTube channel content.
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According to Masahiro Sakurai, his work withKirby Air Rideracingwas very hands-on as he was directly involved with most aspects of the game like graphics, sound, feedback, and more. Sakurai emphasized the necessity forKirby Air Rideto encapsulate the feeling of drifting around corners as theKirbycreator felt that it was the most appropriate aspect of racing for the game’s essence. Sakurai also confirmed that there were severalKirbytitles in development under his supervision during this cycle likeKirby: Nightmare in Dream Land,Kirby and The Amazing Mirror, and a canceledKirbygame that he doesn’t discuss much, making it a busy time for the IP.
Confirming thatKirby Air Rideshares few similarities with the canceled N64 Air Ride, Masahiro Sakurai stated that the earlier title was intended to be more like a snowboarding game rather than the drift-focused racing of theKirbyracer. Humbly expressing thatKirby Air Ride’s checklist conceptually beatXbox’s achievementsand PS3’s trophies to the punch by a few years, Sakurai emphasized the need for bridging the gap between casual and hardcore players as the game also offered various play types. Some of these play types are carried over from an original version ofKirby Air Ridewhich had about a year of development time, while the version that got published took less than four months.
Because much of Masahiro Sakurai’sKirby Air Ridevideo focuses on the game essence that was retained from one version of the game before its release to the next, a lot of what was lost in the process remains unknown.TheKirbycreatordoes take some time to highlight some vehicles that transitioned from the original client handling completely differently from others which may hint at what the racing title could’ve been without the change in direction.
Kirby Air Rideis available for the Nintendo GameCube.
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