Kirby Air Riders Menu Takes Cues From the Super Smash Bros Desk, and Its Nintendo Direct Debut Might Be Nintendo’s Best-Looking UI Yet
Bored of the bland pointer? A new update lets you choose which character becomes your cursor, putting personality at the tip of every click.
Yes, I am about to talk about a video game menu. And yes, Kirby Air Riders just made a main menu reveal feel like a mic drop. The game is still about a month out, but after the new Nintendo Direct, its menu is already a contender for greatest-of-all-time status.
That tracks if you know Masahiro Sakurai. His games always treat UI like a feature, not an afterthought. He has a long track record of sharp, playful menu design, often with his wife, Michiko Sakurai, leading the UI since the very first Super Smash Bros. He didn’t say whether she’s steering the interface on this one, but the vibe is extremely in line with her past work.
The desk-diorama menu, broken down
- Your cursor is a tiny desk toy: a little Kirby figure you move around.
- Every sub-menu is a physical sign sitting on a desk, like you are picking options off a playful workspace.
- When you minimize menus, they tuck into the UI like folder bookmarks, so you can hop around without losing your place.
- The Checklist and challenges live on a clipboard you can pop up from most screens to track progress on the fly.
- Info screens show up as text projected on a clear acrylic board, keeping the whole desk illusion intact.
- Online modes are represented by a smartphone laying on the desk, a neat little nod to how we actually play online now.
Who is behind the look
Sakurai rolled this out during a lengthy Kirby Air Riders Nintendo Direct. He didn’t confirm who helmed UI this time, but given that Michiko Sakurai has led UI design on his titles since the original Smash, the physical, tactile approach fits right in with their usual attention to detail.
Amiibo touches
The menu itself has Amiibo hooks. Scan a Kirby Amiibo and you can change the pose of your tiny Kirby cursor. Use other Amiibo and the little desk figure swaps from Kirby to the character you are actually using. They even showed Bandana Waddle Dee as an example.
Early access before launch
There are two beta weekends coming in November that let you take Kirby Air Riders for a spin before release. You will get an early preview of three tracks and three modes, including City Trial, in the Switch 2 racing game.
Why this works
It is playful without being noisy, clever without getting in your way, and full of little tactile ideas that make even a settings page feel like part of the world. If the rest of the game lands like this menu does, we are in for something special.