Today, Masahiro Sakurai hosted a 45-minute Nintendo Direct solely dedicated to his latest project, Kirby Air Riders. And he opened the presentation by invoking another game, admitting that Kirby Air Riders is "basically Mario Kart".

Perhaps the single most lovable little dude in video game history (he's flawless and I won't hear otherwise) is speeding onto Switch 2 in November with Kirby Air Riders, a surprising follow-up to a cult classic Nintendo GameCube game from 20 years ago.

With how ubiquitous designer Masahiro Sakurai has become at Nintendo thanks to Kirby and Super Smash Bros., it’s hard to believe that his formal company is