City Trial

City Trial is one of the three game modes in the game Kirby Air Ride. It involves a group of two to four Kirbys riding their Air Ride Machines through an immense island city, gathering various power-ups called Patches and better Air Ride Machines for a competition in a Stadium event. The city is divided up into various sectors, each connected by a series of rails that can be ridden for quick transport between them. After a certain amount of time is spent exploring the city, 3–7 minutes depending on the options set beforehand (default is 5 minutes), a Stadium match begins, where the players can put their new, upgraded machines up against the other players in one of several different challenges.

All players begin on a Compact Star, an Air Ride Machine exclusive to this game mode with lackluster stats. However, strewn about the city are Air Ride Machines of every type that the players can find and ride. An important note is that when getting on a new machine, if a Player has collected more than 20 power-ups, the Machine will drop them until it has 20 (these can then be picked back up, though).

Besides the actual main City Trial mode, there are also two other options for play. First is the Stadium mode, which allows players to skip the City portion and compete in a stadium event immediately. None of the players are given the option of gathering power-ups in the city, but everyone is allowed to choose their vehicle. Second is the Free Run mode, which omits the timer and the stadium portion. It begins a match with a choice of vehicle. All the vehicles not chosen are placed in the city's underground (save for Meta Knight and King Dedede). There are no CPUs in Free Run, nor are there any Boxes. There is one Air Ride Machine that is exclusive to Free Run in City Trial, and that is the Flight Warp Star.

Mechanics

Boxes

Boxes are scattered around the city. The player may simply bump or quickspin them to break them and reveal items. Three different colored boxes are found in the city, giving a different type of item when broken.

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  Blue Boxes: Blue boxes give out either a power-up patch, a power-down patch, or Food. A blue box may contain at most 4 items, in any combination of patches and or food. All patches can be found in blue boxes, but very rarely, and most likely during Events.

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  Green Boxes: Green boxes contain Quick Fix items such as the Attack Up or Invincibility Candy, and the Special Offense Items such as Hyper Spin or Timer Bombs. All of these items vary and have different effects when touched, either helping or hindering the player.

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  Red Boxes: Red boxes usually contain a random Copy Panel for the player to use when touched, but occasionally contain a Legendary Machine part (either of Hydra or Dragoon).
  • For more information on finding legendary machine parts, see Legendary Air Ride Machines.

Food

Picking up different foods will recover the current Machine's HP by a fixed amount.

* Only appears in the Japanese version
** Only appears in international versions

Events

Main article: Events

Many things happen during City Trial, usually appearing about every 2–5 minutes. Because of this, only one or two events happen in each match.

Some of the events can be detrimental to the players, while others prove to be helpful. The Events that occur are selected randomly, and it is incredibly rare that the same event occurs twice in one match.

Stadium

Once Kirby has spent enough time in the city, he will compete in a Stadium event.

Areas

Green Canvas

Green Canvas appears along with Whispy Woods. It is small and it has two areas: overground and underground. In the overground, all of the trees are destroyable except for Whispy. If the players attack Whispy enough times, he'll eventually close one of his eyes and shed a tear, and will not react to further hits. From the surface, the underground area can be accessed through one of the two pitfalls around the place. Beneath the woods is a small network of tunnels, with pads that will propel a player up and back to ground level, and a model of what appears to be the city. The underground area can also be accessed if the player breaks a hole in a wall in the basement.

Electric Lounge

This lounge is located to the south in the center of the city if the player uses the map for direction. The Electric Lounge is made up of 4 floors. The first floor is green and has 3 panels that lead the player up into the second floor. Two panels in this level lead the player directly to the top. The second floor is blue, with a big hole in the center that leads the player back down into the first floor. There is a panel that leads the player to the third floor. It also has a rail station that leads the player into other parts of the city. The third floor is yellow, also with a hole in the center. It has one panel that leads into the last, red floor, on the top of the Electric Lounge. Seen to one corner of the lounge is a hole, that leads the player back to the center floor. Each floor (excluding the first one) also has boosters on the northern side, that can help the player fly back towards other parts of the city. The Electric Lounge rail system connects Green Canvas and City Wharf.

City Wharf

This place is located between two beaches. The wharf is located east of the city, to the right of the underground area and in between the Electric Lounge and Castle Hall. There are no quirks and turns in the wharf, unlike the Electric Lounge or Green Canvas; it's simply a gray road area that leads into the heart of the city, or out to the sea.

Castle Hall

Castle Hall is located on the northeastern part of the map, north of the City Wharf. Inside the Castle hall is a large room, with a rail station and a large closed chamber. On occasion, the chamber will open up, revealing patches or food for the player to take. The patches will disappear over time if the player isn't fast enough. Outside, the Castle Hall is white. If the player manages to go to the very top of the Castle Hall, there will be a flower on it. However, this is minor as this flower serves no purpose whatsoever. The Castle Hall's rail system connects Heat Top and City Wharf.

Heat Top

Heat Top is a hot area, with a smoking volcano in it. Dragons fly out of the lava, which will damage the machine if the player collides with them. 3 breakable walls are found in the base of the volcano. Two of them lead into a small chamber of 2 to 5 random patches and food, while one leads inside the volcano. It should be noted that the chambers locations and which wall leads inside of the volcano are randomized for each play through. There is another way to take, which is spiraling across the volcano until reaching the top of it. The player can see a rail leading inside the volcano and a bridge, which leads to the smoky volcano. If the player goes into the smoky volcano, he/she will end up in the highest place in the city, which is the Garden in the Sky.

Inside the volcano is a completely different environment. The inside is completely icy, with a tunnel that leads further or a pad that will launch the player into the Garden in the Sky the same manner as going into the actual volcano. If the player takes the rail, they will go through the icy tunnel, and then into a tunnel with dirt in it. If the player continues further, they can see the underground of the city. If the player goes into the underground of the city, he/she may not return back where they came from.

Garden in the Sky

There's a giant flying platform in the sky. It can be accessed by using the Heat Top launch pad or by flying up there. This area allows people to see the rest of the city, thus giving the advantage of flying to anywhere in the city easily. This place is also a reliable place to get to the U.F.O. during the U.F.O. event.

Dilapidated Houses

One section of the city is filled with giant, metal blocks, presumably old shacks. These blocks can be broken, though it's somewhat difficult to do so without an ample amount of Offense Patches or speed. By breaking all of the houses in one City Trial, a checklist box will be checked off, unlocking a Hydra piece. Rarely, a Legendary Air Ride Machine piece can be found while destroying the homes, and sometimes random items will drop from them as well. Other than that, the area serves no other purpose besides unlocking the piece, but it can be used to lose racers early in the game.

Checklist Tasks

Like the ones in Air Ride and Top Ride, the Checklist in City Trial has a total of 120 tasks.
The following table lists every Checklist task that unlocks something (indicated in-game by being colored orange upon completion). There are 44 of these tasks.

General

There are 3 tasks that record progress from completing other Checklist tasks.

City Trial

There are 63 tasks that record progress from City Trial. They have a variety of requirements.

Environmental tasks require the player to interact with parts of the city environment. There are 15 of these tasks.

Combat tasks require the player to damage or KO rivals. There are 6 of these tasks.

Player tasks require that all of the players do a particular task. There are 3 of these tasks.

Vehicle destruction tasks require the player to destroy a particular vehicle while riding on another particular vehicle. There are 8 of these tasks.

Food tasks require the player to eat a certain amount of a type of food in one race. There are 4 of these tasks.

Patch tasks require that the player collects a certain number of patches. There are 14 of these tasks.

Event tasks require that the player experience or interact with an event in the city. There are 8 of these tasks.

Misc tasks are not part of a large group of similar tasks. There are 5 of these tasks.

Stadium

There are 50 tasks that record progress from Stadium mode, and must be fulfilled by completing certain objectives in the corresponding Stadium. Only Drag Race 1, Destruction Derby 1, and Target Flight are available by default, meaning Drag Races 2 and 3, Destruction Derby 2, Air Glider, High Jump, Single Races 1-8, Kirby Melee 1, and VS. King Dedede are unlocked by playing it at the end of the City Trial.

Free Run

There are 4 tasks that record progress from Free Run.

Music

The following section contains transcluded content from the Database. Source: (view • edit • help)

City Trial
Theme in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate aysAxCa4dfQ Kirby's Dream Collection soundtrack 70zZybChuEg City Trial - Theme TlUFOYNkyyg City Trial - City Backside CI2RzrKQeqA City Trial is a game mode in Kirby Air Ride, in which Kirby has to navigate an enormous island-city on Air Ride Machines and power them up to compete in a Stadium Event.

Trivia

• At the very top of Castle Hall and at the highest point of Heat Top are a pink flower and a white flower, respectively. Neither of them serve any purpose other than decoration.
• The invisible barriers surrounding the city do not extend all the way to the top, and can be bypassed if a player gains enough speed and altitude.
• Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS features a similar mode called Smash Run. When revealing this mode, Masahiro Sakurai himself stated that it took inspiration from Kirby Air Ride’s City Trial.
• In 2018, a unique speedrunning category known as "5 Hot Dog%" rose to some prominence, during which players attempt to collect 5 hot dogs in as little time as possible during a round of City Trial.^[1]

References

Kirby Air Ride
Playable characters Blue Kirby • Brown Kirby • King Dedede • Green Kirby • Kirby • Meta Knight • Purple Kirby • Red Kirby • White Kirby • Yellow Kirby Enemies Balloon Bomber • Bronto Burt • Broom Hatter • Caller • Cappy • Chilly • Dale • Flappy • Gordo • Heat Phanphan • Noddy • Pichicri • Plasma Wisp • Scarfy • Sword Knight • Waddle Dee • Walky • Wheelie Air Ride courses Fantasy Meadows • Celestial Valley • Sky Sands • Frozen Hillside • Magma Flows • Beanstalk Park • Machine Passage • Checker Knights • Nebula Belt Top Ride courses Grass • Sand • Sky • Fire • Light • Water • Metal Stadiums Drag Race • Destruction Derby • Air Glider • High Jump • Target Flight • Single Race • Kirby Melee • VS. King Dedede Air Ride Machines Warp Star • Slick Star • Winged Star • Formula Star • Shadow Star • Swerve Star • Rocket Star • Wagon Star • Turbo Star • Jet Star • Bulk Star • Flight Warp Star • Compact Star • Dragoon • Hydra • Free Star (Top Ride) • Steer Star (Top Ride) Wheelie Bikes Wheelie Bike • Rex Wheelie • Wheelie Scooter Copy Abilities Bomb • Fire • Freeze • Needle • Mike • Plasma • Sleep • Sword • Tornado • Wheel • Wing Items Blue Box • Green Box • Patch • Red Box • Star Block Common Environment • 1UP • Apple • Chicken • Food • Invincibility Candy • Maxim Tomato • Energy Drink • Star Block