Kirby's Air Ride has an interesting past. It began life as a
Nintendo 64 launch title, screenshots of the game were shown in 1996, and advertisements hyped the game as
Coming Soon! Alas, it died a quiet death.
Information about the game was sketchy at the time, but based on released materials it seems the game was to focus on
Nintendo's hero
Kirby. He was to ride a
Warp Star around
Dream Land in a
racing game, possibly against competitors (a la
Mario Kart 64) or possibly to accomplish goals (similar to
Diddy Kong Racing, perhaps).
The game was cancelled in late 1997 after the development team couldn't make the game worth playing. That is, interviews with the team revealed that nobody could decide exactly what the premise of the game was supposed to be. All they could agree on was that Kirby was to ride around levels on a Warp Star. As of October 2002 there are pictures of the N64 interation of the game in action at http://www.classicgaming.com/kirby/games/airride/screens.html. It sounds to me like they created a heck of a mini-game, if nothing else. And Kirby looked damn cute riding around on that star!
In early 2003 Nintendo surprised everyone when the title appeared back on the release list, but this time for the Nintendo GameCube. Under development by HAL Laboratories, KAR is shaping up to be a single button racer. The A button performs most every action in the game, and Kirby can, of course, copy the abilities of his foes. This 4-player racer does not yet have a release date.