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How Long Does It Take To Complete?

Perhaps more than any other Nintendo character, Kirby has had a ton of different games and spin-offs, including the a racing game called Kirby Air Ride. Now, 22 years later, it’s finally got a sequel called Kirby Air Riders.

kirby riding a one wheeled bike in kirby air riders.

Kirby Air Riders Pre-Order Guide: Release Date, Price, And More

Everything you need to know about placing your pre-order for Kirby Air Riders.

In almost every way, Kirby Air Riders is bigger and more fleshed out than the original game, making it a sequel that’s well worthy of your time. But how much time is that, exactly? Let’s dive into it.

How Long Does Road Trip Take To Beat?

Kirby is pretty nearly split into three main game modes, and the one that’s closest to a traditional story mode is Road Trip. Road Trip sees you progressing through various stages with a bunch of matches taken from the other game modes, which makes it a pretty good tutorial to get used to Air Riders’ unique mechanics.

Clearing Road Trip on normal difficulty will take you around one hour depending on your skill level, but that’s just the start. There’s a true ending to aim for which means replaying it all over again with an extended ending that brings it closer to two hours overall.

If you just want to reach the true ending, you’re looking at around three hours in Road Trip altogether, but going for all of the challenges (which are pretty easy) will likely take five or six hours.

Air Riders keeps track of how many characters you’ve used to clear Road Trip, so if you really want to go for it, you’ll need to replay it 20 more times.

How Long Does Air Ride Take To Beat?

Air Ride is the closest thing to a regular racing mode that Kirby Air Riders has. That being said, there aren’t any grand prix’s to aim for, and your progress is really only tracked through the challenges and unlocks.

With that in mind, it’s kind of up to you how much time you spend in Air Ride, but I put in around four hours getting through over 100 of the 150 challenges. 100 percenting it and unlocking anything is likely to take around five hours depending on your skill set.

How Long Does City Trial Take To Beat?

Kirby waving in Kirby Air Riders' City Trial mode.

And, of course, there’s City Trial, the mode that Kirby Air Riders is known for. City Trial has potential for unlimited playtime, but it’s also tracked through 150 challenges like the other modes. I completed just under 100 of them after five hours with the mode, and some of them get really tricky. To “beat” City Trial, I’d say you’re looking at around 10 hours or possibly even more.

What Else Is There To Do To?

Although those three modes are what I’d called the “main” options in Kirby Air Riders, there’s also another separate mode called Top Ride which also has 150 challenges, albeit some of the easier ones. That’s easily another four or five hours, but there’s also a ton of customisation pieces to unlock that could take a while, and online modes that are potentially endless.

Overall, while Kirby Air Riders can be pretty short if you don’t dig into it, anyone who’s looking to get the most out of it is easily going to find at least 30 hours to complete every challenge and see it all. Even that feels like just scratching the surface considering how much variety is on offer in City Trial.