Every fact on this page applies to update v458752, the one version tested. Other versions may behave differently.
No emulator needed: Kirby Air Riders runs natively on the Apple chip. How nxnative compares with emulators
Running through nxnative
How Kirby Air Riders runs
Kirby Air Riders plays on the Mac at 57 to 60 fps in races, with sound, tested on an M4 Pro Mac with 48 GB through the title, attract mode, menus, a lesson and full Air Ride races to the results screen. No iPhone or iPad app has been built yet.
How it runs
Air Ride races run from the start to the results screen on Floria Fields and other courses (the course is picked at random). After the first race, the game holds 57 to 60 fps. The first race is less smooth while the Mac compiles graphics as it goes.
The 3D picture renders at 1536x864. Lessons play short movies of the real game, and the movies seen so far play.
Memory came to about 10 GB during a race.
Bring update v458752
Tested with update v458752, display version 1.3.3, packed from the game's .nup file, which holds the base game and the update. Packing took about 6 minutes. The base game on its own has not been run.
Controls
The Packed app starts in the 3D touch layout.
- The title comes up about 40 seconds after the game starts. Attract mode takes over shortly after, so a press can land in it instead of the title.
- On the first start, the Lessons popup opens: A, A goes into Lessons, and A, A into the first one.
- From a save that has seen the menu: A at the title, A for Air Ride in the main menu, A for Race, then Plus on the character screen and Plus on the take-off screen. The race starts about 30 seconds later.
- The machine moves by itself; left and right on the left stick steer.
Good to know
- A first full Mac build of the game's graphics programs took about 25 minutes on the tested Mac.
Known issues
- No iPhone or iPad app has been built or tested yet.
- Tested with scripted input only; nobody has yet played it by hand in a window on this build.
- City Trial played by hand, Road Trip, online play and the base game without the update are untested.
- The first race compiles graphics as it goes, so it is less smooth than later ones.
- A crash was seen once in dozens of runs, while another game was using the same GPU.
Packing command
Run this in your nxnative folder on the Build Mac. Replace the game path with your .nup file or the folder of the game's files. It builds a Mac app, the only kind tested so far; leave out --platform mac-app for an iPhone and iPad app, which is untested.
python3 scripts/build_ipa_from_nsp.py ~/Games/kirby-air-riders --platform mac-appFAQ
Does Kirby Air Riders work with nxnative?
Yes. Kirby Air Riders is tested with nxnative on update v458752 and runs at 60 fps.
Which iPhone, iPad or Mac do I need to play Kirby Air Riders?
Kirby Air Riders is a Nintendo Switch 2 Game. So far it has been tested on the Mac only, which needs Apple silicon; an iPhone and iPad app can be packed but is untested. Packing needs a Mac with macOS 26.6 or later and Xcode 27.2.
Is Kirby Air Riders included?
No. Neither this site nor nxnative includes any game. You Pack Kirby Air Riders from your own copy of the game.
Does online play work in Kirby Air Riders?
Online play in Kirby Air Riders is not confirmed to work, so do not count on it.
