In Kirby's Air Ride, players rode around on stars, jumped around everywhere else, and avoided obstacles. In this respect, the action appeared to be different from what had been seen in previous Kirby games. But like its predecessors (with the possible exception of the Kirby's Adventure series), this Kirby offering seemed to plan on featuring characters who were tossed into the gameplay at the last minute. One can look at this phenomenon in two ways: Either the Kirby characters were versatile enough to translate from game to game, or (more cynically), Nintendo was banking on brand identification to bolster sales.

While Air Ride looked interesting, it never came out - as Kirby's Air Ride, that is.

WHAT HAPPENED?

Kirby's Air Ride who? Elements of this game were shuffled into the 1080 Snowboarding deck and never heard from again as Kirby's Air Ride. Delays had been announced, but a final cancellation was never formalized by the big N. A new Kirby game, called Kirby 64, was seen on video at the 1999 E3 convention. And then that game officially turned up as Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards in February 2000. Kirby 64 was a fairly scored action game.