Kirby + Air = Rider(s) – This Week in Games

Welcome back, folks! Hey, so, I wanna be honest about something for a minute: I put effort into giving credit to a lot of offbeat titles—obscure RPGs or simulation games or visual novels. A lot of that was my bread-and-butter growing up, and it still is. But also, there’s a lot I didn’t play growing up. Of the major Tales of… titles of the 2000s, I only really played Symphonia and some of Vesperia. Or, like, Fantasy Life—I did play Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies (which Level-5 also made), but I never did play Fantasy Life. There are, nevertheless, gaps in my understanding of games from yesteryear; if I come off as knowledgeable, it’s because I do my best to bone up on that stuff (if I’ve made you feel validated in your appreciation of an old title, I’ll take it as a job well done). I am by no means an expert; I can only claim to do my best to do right by older stuff. With that said:

This is…

I’d never considered this much, but a video game studio usually goes through computer screens like nothing else. They have a great need for high-definition screens, after all. But once the screen develops an otherwise minor issue (say, dead pixels or ghosting), they’re probably completely useless for intensive graphical work. So what do you do with them? Well, Sega Sammy, Square Enix, and Bandai Namco found a good solution: donate them to charity. Specifically, to promote jobs for refugees.

Earlier this week, the three studios released a joint announcement wherein they announced their practice in donating screens to People Port, a support organization for refugees. People Port also helps supply electronics to children’s educational programs. So far, the three studios together have donated 3,500 screens to charity.

In addition to supplying equipment to much-needed charities, this also has the goal of assisting with recycling electronics. After all, a computer screen with some minor ghosting is likely sub-optimal for intense graphical work—but likely just fine for someone doing administrative work. And a screen that still has some use is a screen that doesn’t need to be thrown away, preventing electronic waste (hence, the donations count as a decent environmental effort, too).

It’s an angle of the game industry we don’t consider often. While game development isn’t quite the same as factory work, there’s still a ton of waste produced, from the utilized electricity to how much hardware gets cycled out. And electronics are a lot harder to recycle or dispose of.

The three companies underlined their commitment to supporting People Port, while also promising that their respective IT departments will continue to strive for sustainability when it comes to their discarded office equipment.

Shenmue III Comes to Switch 2

In a twist that likely gobsmacked longtime SEGA-fans, this past week saw the announcement that Shenmue III would bereleasing on the Switch 2. While we haven’t seen an official release date, YS NET and ININ Games have confirmed that this release will consist of an enhanced version of Shenmue III that will also release on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Steam, and Epic Game Store.

While the enhancements include several bog-standard technical improvements on the now-six-year-old game (enhanced graphics and performance, 4K compatibility), the enhancements also include options that serve to possibly improve the basic experience of the game. These include matters like “increased NPC density,” the option to skip cutscenes, streamlined menus, and changes to the stamina system. The game also promises changes to the “money barriers” that impede play.

These later changes are quite vital. There was a lot that made Shenmue III a disappointment for fans who had waited for the title for so long, but part of it was that the game felt so unplayable. Not being able to skip protagonist Ryo’s daily “waking up” animations made the game a slog, and those aforementioned “money barriers” didn’t help. While Ryo always needed to do part-time jobs to earn money in the original Shenmue games, Shenmue III made things worse with how much money Ryo needed to progress at certain points—especially since so much of your money-making was based around blind luck (read: a gambling minigame). The stamina also impeded matters: Ryo would have to “exercise” to grow stronger, so on top of having to spend ages sitting through canned cut-scenes and gambling to earn money, you’d also have to spend hours watching Ryo adopt the Horse Stance to buff his stats. Like I said, there was a lot about Shenmue III that disappointed fans.

A lot of these changes are rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, mind. Even with these enhancements curbing Shenmue III‘s repetition, it’s still a letdown to longtime fans by how little actual value happens in the game (the climax is especially deflating). What’s worse, the deep combat system (effectively Virtua Fighter) was replaced with a rather generic brawling system, hence all of the Horse Stance training; where actual skill and learning new techniques was a major component of the older Shenmue titles, Shenmue III‘s major fights just felt like stat checks, urging players to focus on grinding rather than actual mastery. But credit where it’s due: they’re taking a second swing at Shenmue III and trying to fix it. People interested in playing Shenmue might still be better off playing one of the Like A Dragon games, but if they should have the curiosity to see where Ryo’s story is going, they’ll at least have a far less miserable time of it. And who knows, if Shenmue III Enhanced Edition does well enough, it’ll probably pave the way to a (better) Shenmue IV. Wouldn’t that be nice? At any rate, while you’re waiting for Shenmue III Enhanced Edition‘s release date (or for a proper ending to Shenmue), Vargskelethor Joel has you covered!

Bandai Namco Reveals Next Tales of… Remaster: It’s Xillia!

Considering this year was supposed to be the Tales of… franchise‘s 30th anniversary, and Bandai Namco announcing the Tales of… remaster project, there hasn’t been quite as much Tales of… news as I’d have expected. Sure, Tales of Arise got some nifty DLC, and Tales of Symphonia got another remaster (I keep forgetting if it runs well—or fixed the weird blurring for the draw distance), but the only other remake we got out of the deal was a remaster for Tales of Graces f. And not to be ungrateful—Tales of Graces f is great! I appreciate Bandai Namco taking their time with these. But also, there’s a lot of ground to cover for the Tales of… franchise, and Tales of… fans do feel a bit slighted. But there was a lot of joy this week when Bandai Namco announced that they’d reveal the next remaster for the Tales of… series. It’s not a much-desired Tales of Abyss remaster—but it is Tales of Xillia!

Remember in the opener for the column where I pointed out that, despite how authoritative I may seem, there are still loads of gaps in my knowledge? Tales of Xillia is one of those gaps for me. I never played the PS3 original. I didn’t even have a PS3. Xillia takes place in the world of Rieze Maxia, where humans and spirits coexist. Millia Maxwell, a woman who travels with spirits, and Jude Mathis, a med student, join forces to stop the Kingdom of Rashugal from stealing the planet’s life force. They’re joined by a very colorful cast of characters that I sadly know very little about. I can’t even pretend to know much about Millia herself—though she’s very cute!

Granted, Millia is only half the formula—literally. Xillia features the Link system, where your party members can Link with each other to combine their abilities against monsters. In addition to the Link system, the Tales of Xillia remaster features several updates: the graphics are sharpened, events can be skipped, on-screen indicators guide you to your next objective, and it’s possible to toggle enemy encounters. All of the game’s DLC will also be available—with some exceptions. Certain DLC (specifically, the Idolm@ster costumes, the Star Driver costumes, and the promotional Ayumi Hamasaki costume) will be omitted, since the licenses for those likely expired ages ago. I don’t even know if anyone even remembers Star Driver (I definitely forgot all about it!). The Tales of Xillia 2 costumes are also omitted, but that one’s likely Bandai Namco being Bandai Namco.

In a message to viewers, Tales of… series producer Yusuke Tomizawa also featured a spotlight on the new promotional artwork for the game. The artwork features both protagonists, illustrated by their respective artists. Jude, on the right, is illustrated by longtime Tales of… artist (and creator of Ah! My Goddess) Kōsuke Fujishima… while Xillia, on the left, was drawn by the late Mutsumi Inomata. Inomata had also done a lot of artwork for the Tales of… games (you might recognize her work from Tales of Berseria). Tomizawa even gave a rather heartfelt thank you to the late Inomata, given that she passed away only last year. This artwork likely was one of the last things that Inomata worked on before passing, which makes this remake rather bittersweet.

In addition, Tomizawa confirms that with the Tales of… franchise‘s 30th anniversary being this December, the “Tales of… Anniversary Year” will run from this December to December 2026. So there’s more time for Bandai Namco to ring out other Tales of… remasters. With any luck, Tales of Destiny or even Tales of Abyss might get some love. In the meantime, Tales of Xillia Remastered launches this October 31, 2025, on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Nintendo Switch. Also, great news: hungry_clicker did his usual thing and whipped up some art of Millia to celebrate the announcement!

Kirby Air Riders Direct

Because Masahiro Sakurai is Masahiro Sakurai, and Nintendo knows better than to short him, we got a 45-minute-long Direct this past Tuesday for Sakurai’s latest romp with everyone’s favorite pink puffball, Kirby. Sakurai even promoted it the only way he could: with pictures of his adorable, adorable cat, Fukurashi.

Love that kitty. Anyway! I think Sakurai’s Kirby Air Riders Direct is an indicator of why Nintendo‘s Directs work so well. There is a lot of griping that happens when Nintendo dedicates a whole Direct to one game (of course, there’s a lot of griping whenever anyone at Nintendo so much as coughs). But this week also saw the start of Gamescom, another of the sixteen gajillion annual shows Geoff Keighly hosts in a year featuring “World Premiers” of AAA games. And one thing I noticed among my peers was exhaustion: more Souls-likes, more shooters.

It’s not clear why these games should matter to us outside of the vague idea that they’re new and have better graphics. And even then, more and more people are getting tired of the graphics race. There will always be people who just want the absolute bleeding edge of graphics (I hang out with them on Discord); I say, let ’em have it. Some folks really like flexing about a game’s performance. Devil take the rest. But here’s Sakurai, promoting the sequel to a fan-favorite title that’s been 20 years in the making. He contextualizes the game, explains how it works, introduces people to the ins and outs of its mechanics, and gives quick vertical slices of how it plays. The user interface is big and readable, supplied, as usual, by his wife, Michiko Sakurai, whose UI design has become iconic of her husband’s titles—you know a Sakurai game from those big letters. As a side note, I feel like there’s definite scholarly work that could come out from someone breaking down Sakurai’s game UI and how those convey information. The interface is minimalist, but melded with the visual effects and explains everything at a glance. Similarly, the game’s mechanics are simple at first glance, but betray tons of depth. Kirby is there. You’re given reasons to care about a game. A face associated with the game does more than wax empty pleasantries about how advanced it is or how proud they are and instead demonstrates why their game is fun.

Much like with Tales of Xillia, I never actually played the original Kirby Air Ride. I had a friend in middle school who did (hi, Kevin!), but I got a GameCube quite late into its run, so I missed out on a lot of those major first-party titles. I was surprised to learn that the conceit of Kirby Air Ride was that it was a one-button racing game! Acceleration is automatic; you only press a button to charge up for boosting—which also hits the brakes, slowing you down. You can also brake while drifting, giving you a speed boost as you come out of a turn. In English: Sakurai and company made a racing game that’s literally all about snaking, and they did it with one button. There’s also a nifty Excitebike-style mechanic where you can angle your machine during a jump; landing flat also nets you a boost while you land, but because certain machines have better flight capabilities, it might be in your interest to angle yourself higher and take advantage of the glide. Meanwhile, you can attack (or inhale) nearby enemies on the track to earn Kirby’s Copy Abilities, which can speed you up during a race. I’m stunned at how simple this all is, but how crazy-deep and intricate this system is.

At any rate, Kirby Air Riders ups the ante in several ways. First off: they added a second button. (Unfortunately.) This facilitates the Copy Abilities, especially since some of them in Kirby Air Ride meant hitting your Boost brakes. So now you can use Burn without slowing yourself down. But also, there are now Specials you can do once you’ve charged enough energy, which can mess with the other racers while boosting yourself. Also, there are new racing machines (like the tanks that give you actual Tank Controls™ in a racing game—it looks way more fun than it sounds), along with way more playable characters. To wit, all of Kirby’s close friends are playable: King Dedede and Meta Knight return, and can even ride different machines now, and they’re joined by “Bandana Waddle Dee.” (Can we just call him “Bandana Dee?” “Bandana Waddle Dee” sounds like his dad.) Also joining are characters from some of the Kirby games Sakurai wasn’t involved with; this includes fan favorites like Magolor from Return to Dreamland and the adorable Suzie from Planet Robobot. Chef Kawasaki is back (RIP, Maddie Blaustein). Longtime fans will be happy to see the return of the charmingly dopey Gooey from the Kirby’s Dream Land games; we’re going to ignore the implications for what this means regarding Dark Matter. Amusingly, we’re also getting the one-eyed Waddle Doo, the mushroom-capped Cappy—and the high-jumping Starman, whom Sakurai hopes will become a new fan-favorite (judging by the recent fanart, he already has). Also, now everyone besides Kirby can “copy” abilities (it’s called “capturing” for them), donning the little Copy hats as they throw the Cutters or turn into giant steel balls.

Sakurai showed off one of the tracks, an ocean stage. Again, never having played Kirby Air Ride, I’m rather floored at how wild the courses are and how much they feel like a controllable rollercoaster. It also showed off how the races are balanced: unlike other racing games, you’re not attacking to slow down your opponents—your attacks are to boost your own speed. Players also got to see the intricacies of City Trial, a fan-favorite mode from the original Kirby Air Ride. It’s a fun concept: you and your friends are plopped into a wide city, where you have five minutes to quickly collect as many stat-altering power-ups as you can. Once time is up, you’re whisked off to a course. While the original Air Ride randomized the challenges (and you can preserve this in Air Riders), Sakurai similarly updated City Trial with new wrinkles. Now randomized events can happen while you’re collecting items or seeking better machines, from sudden death matches to quick races, all with power-ups on the line. We also got to see a barrage of spiky Gordos devastating the city. Challenges are voted on by players once the time is up, unless the game decides to choose for everyone upon loading into the city. It’s also possible to get hints on what challenges you might get dropped into next… but the game tends to lie at times. (I enjoy that bit of deviousness.) Also, up to 8 people can play City Trails at once over local wireless.

I don’t have a horse in this race (hehehe), but knowing some of the complaints folks have with Mario Kart World, Kirby Air Riders is looking like a much more solid racer. I still want to play Mario Kart World (Moo Moo is not so easily dethroned). But I’m rather floored by Kirby Air Riders‘ offerings. To wit: it’s possible to load into another randomized race immediately after winning a race, even if other racers are finishing up. I know that one was a particular bugbear for MKW fans. Also, Kirby Air Riders is only $70. We also have a release date for the game: November 20.

Gamescom 2025 News

Gamescom was also this week! While a lot of the news involves non-Japanese games, a few bits of news stood out. It behooves me to comment on them a bit.

I’ve talked about Goddess of Victory: NIKKE a few times: coming from SHIFT-UP (whom you might remember as the creators of Stellar Blade, it’s a mobile game that plays like Sunset Riders with way more Live2D butts jiggling in your face. (There is also a lot of genuinely moving character writing, but people aren’t exactly drawing fan art of Rapi’s tragic backstory.) NIKKE‘s post-apocalyptic setting makes collabs somewhat problematic; NieR: Automata was a no-brainer, and it’s easily the best collab it’s ever had. But the Neon Genesis Evangelion famously underperformed, and I’m still scratching my head at why they figured Re:Zero was a good fit with NIKKE. Anyway, it seems our upcoming Halloween event in NIKKE is, of all things, a Resident Evil collaboration!

This isn’t the weirdest idea; there are plenty of gun-toting women in Resident Evil. Jill Valentine is confirmed to star in the event, albeit with her Resident Evil Remake design, not the classic Julia Voth look. I’m easy with that, but it makes me wonder what kind of alternate outfit they’d give her. The Resident Evil III: Nemesis outfit is her default look, but if I had my druthers, they’d also make an outfit of Jill’s Resident Evil 5 look. We’ll have to see how that looks will turn out if and when CAPCOM remakes RE5.

I’d also have expected Rebecca Chambers, Sherry Birkin, Sheva Alomar, or even Ashley Graham as the second guest, but I was overthinking it: all evidence points to Ada Wong. Fair enough! The event also focuses on the ACPU team, NIKKE‘s unit of goofy police officers: Poli, the bushy-haired half-pint police officer (who might be part dog), Officer Miranda (who’s like Amelia Bedelia in a skimpy cop costume and twintails), and Quiry (who is terminally near-sighted). So expect some side of Police Academy-academy shenanigans with your B.O.W. exterminating. A “Jill Sandwich” reference is all but guaranteed.

I know there’s a lot of grief over Monster Hunter Wilds because of its poor performance on PC—and I think that’s merited. But in the meantime, CAPCOM announced another collaboration between Monster Hunter and Final Fantasy XIV! Not only do hunters get Chocobo mounts, but a fight against Omega Planetes was teased! I can only imagine the kind of outfits you’ll get from him. Similarly, a Monster Hunter Wilds collab was teased for Final Fantasy XIV, including the Warrior of Light riding Seikret and fighting a wyvern. Monster Hunter Wilds gets its event first in late September, while Final Fantasy XIV‘s share of the event starts in early October.

Speaking of double-sided crossovers: we’re also getting some fun collabs between Pac-Man and Sonic the Hedgehog! Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds has announced that Pac-Man will be joining the roster as a DLC character, complete with his racing vehicle and stage. Meanwhile, Sonic will also be available as a DLC character in the upcoming Pac-Man World 2 Re-PAC. That latter one makes a difference; I know a lot of Pac-Man World fans were a bit iffy on the idea of Pac-Man World 2 getting remade, if only because the sequel is looked upon as being a bit weaker than the original. Hopefully, Sonic injects a bit of much-needed variety.

Let’s wrap up with some quick tidbits

That’ll do it for this week! As a reminder: this Saturday, August 23, I’ll be taking part in EntropyEmporium’s Power Rangers roleplay stream at 1:00 PM PST! We’re doing this for the Access Sport charity in the United Kingdom! I hope to see folks there! I’ve never actually appeared in a stream before at all, so I’m a bit nervous (especially since my computer camera is set up right to reveal my bed). Be good to each other. I’ll see you in seven.

This Week In Games! is written from idyllic Portland by Jean-Karlo Lemus. When not collaborating with Anime News Network, Jean-Karlo can be found playing Japanese RPGs, eating popcorn, watching v-tubers, and tokusatsu. You can keep up with him at @ventcard.bsky.social.