Kirby…one of the Nintendo characters we don't hear about as often as Mario, Link or even Pikachu for example, occasionally his name pops up but not for a considerable amount of time. Now the pink blob takes the limelight once more and it looks like it could turn Kirby into a famous star…or he could be left riding one.

From the creators of the Smash. Bros games, renowned for their crazy 4 player addictive antics comes Kirby's Air Ride. This time, Kirby returns to have some 4 player racing fun, but this racing game is like no other racing games you've ever played, so don't expect it to be the next real racer like GT4. One feature of this crazy game is its simplistic control system. Simply press and hold A to accelerate, B to brake and slide and the Control stick for movement. This control system allows the game to be easily picked up and played.

Kirby's air ride features the pink blobs riding around on Warp Stars Shaped in Stars, Arwing, Pokemon ships and many more. As you can guess, it's your job to steer the Kirby's round each well designed course which from the screen shots we can see are set in Space, around Canyons and more. Since the characters you play are all Kirby's, Nintendo have made each Kirby special. They now each have their own colour and abilities. If you've seen the screens then you'll know that Link from the Zelda games will be one of the abilities, well these can be earned by stealing them off other character by using Kirby's Vacuum Mouth.

Kirby's Air ride Graphics aren't exactly stunning which is what most gamers have come to expect form today's standards. They aren't blocky or lacking detail but they aren't the best we've seen. However it isn't graphics that matter and they aren't below average. They are similar to those seen in Smash Bros Melee itself if not improved slightly so they shouldn't disappoint.

Gameplay modes feature the standard one player Air Ride mode similar to the one player in most Racing games where racing in a…race, a City Battle mode made for one player where you battle it out with weapons and of course, Multi-player modes. People may think that they won't touch the 4 player heights of Mario Kart: Double Dash, but there's a chance that this could be a Nintendo glory title if the new multiplayer innovations MK: DD introduce don't go down too well. As you can guess, the 4 players will consist of 4 players racing round one of the games tracks, but I expect we'll see battle modes introduced too.

Unfortunately, Kirby's Air Ride doesn't seem like something to boast about at the moment, it's only just been released in Japan and it's only been in production for a few months. However, its been doing well in Japan recently managing to score a good 34/40 in Famitsu and reaching Number 2 in the Japanese Charts, so at least the Japanese are enjoying it. But will it do so well over here? Depends on the gamer. Fans of Mario Kart and Super Monkey Ball may want to look into this game. Kirby's Air ride might not be overly popular at the minute but give it time, it could be a GameCube Essential and it's not the first time Nintendo have surprised us.