What Would A Nintendo Battle Royale Game Look Like?
Written by: AJ Ryan
It’s no secret how popular the battle royale genre has been in the past year. With millions of people watching and playing games like PlayerUnknown’s BattleGrounds and Fortnite Battle Royale at any given time, along with both games recently being ported to mobile devices, this genre has exploded in popularity. It’s interesting, then, that the Nintendo Switch system, which has sold extremely well in its first year (and is still going strong), does not have any battle royale games. I imagine we’ll eventually see PlayerUnknown’s BattleGrounds or Fortnite Battle Royale on the Switch, but what could Nintendo contribute to the battle royale genre? I would argue that the answer to this question has been right in front of us for years.
Enter Kirby Air Ride. Released in 2003 for the Nintendo GameCube, Kirby Air Ride has up to four players racing on vehicles in three distinct game modes. Air Ride, which features fast-paced racing. Top Ride, which has players racing on smaller courses from a top-down perspective. And City Trial, a mode where four players are dropped into a large city, have 5 minutes to collect better vehicles and powerups, and where they’ll ultimately battle it out in a final showdown with their collected vehicles and powerups. Does this sound familiar? It should, because I believe it’s the beginnings of a great Battle Royale game.
How could Nintendo bring Kirby Air Ride’s City Trial mode to the Nintendo Switch as a battle royale game? A City Trial Battle Royale, if you will? This is a question that would take way more than one person and one article to answer, but I’ll give it a shot. Nintendo would obviously need to accommodate more than four players and have both online and offline play. Interestingly enough, Kirby Air Ride on GameCube originally supported LAN play using broadband adapters, so Nintendo has already laid the groundwork for City Trial gameplay over a network. City Trial has two distinct phases: the powerup phase and the minigame phase. Given that Kirby has always been about accessibility, and that there’s no way for players to lose during the powerup phase, it’d be nice to have a battle royale game where everyone can participate in the final showdown.
As for what I’d change about City Trial to turn it into City Trial Battle Royale, I’d like to see everything made bigger. Keep the framework of the city, but make it bigger. Keep the player count reasonable, but make it bigger to accommodate around 16 players. Keep the random Dynabird raid battle in the city, but add more raids and bigger rewards. I can’t understate how solid of a framework City Trial already is for the battle royale genre. I’d personally pay full price for a straight port of just Kirby Air Ride’s City Trial with online, but I know Nintendo could do so much more here.
Kirby Air Ride was ahead of its time. Some Nintendo fans didn’t appreciate the game back in the day because it was not a “traditional” Kirby game. What didn’t help was that a “traditional” Kirby game was announced and demoed for the GameCube, but was delayed for years before releasing as Kirby’s Return to Dreamland on the Nintendo Wii. But if there’s one thing I learned about Kirby along with reading and writing Kirby articles for More Than Friends this month, it’s that Kirby is the best video game character to break the mold and star in some of the most inventive games in the industry.
Kirby City Trial Battle Royale 2019; Come on Nintendo, it’s a catchy name and you know Kirby’s always up for a battle!
What do you think a Nintendo Battle Royale game would look like? Share your thoughts in the comments below OR join the conversation on Twitter @mtfproduction
