Technologies

Kirby Air Riders Is Absolute Chaos, and I Love It That Way

It’s not Mario Kart, but this second Switch racer proves its worth with a lot of rapid absurdity.

Somewhere, at the very far limits of my reflexes, is Kirby Air Riders. It is waiting for me in its infinite weird.

You want a game that’s fast? That pinballs you around and gets to incomprehensible speeds? Go go go go go go. That’s Kirby Air Riders. It’s Mario Kart on 70 shots of espresso.

I never played the original Air Ride game for the GameCube, but it has its fans. I have, however, played a bunch of Kirby games, as well as Super Smash Bros. Masahiro Sakurai, who has shaped both franchises, is the director of this game. And it shows.

Should you get this game over Mario Kart World, the Nintendo Switch 2’s other launch-window exclusive racing game this year? Hopefully, I can help you decide. My colleague Bridget Carey thinks Air Riders flies too close to the sun, that it’s too much, too chaotic to enjoy. I am feeling the opposite: Fly into that sun, baby. The more I play, the more I crave its speed.

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

I love Mario Kart World, but there’s a valid argument that you could just stick with the already-classic Mario Kart 8 Deluxe instead, and maybe pick up Kirby Air Riders as your racing choice. Ask yourself if you love Kirby, and if you love Smash, and most importantly, if you love fast chaos.

The menus and game feel, the chaotic energy, and the rapid mix of skill and luck are very much like Super Smash Bros. The racing is sort of Mario Kart-esque, but very different, including a set of controls that could totally annoy you until you get used to them.

And in case you didn’t know, Sakurai’s work is rather weird. Like, weird, weird. I remember Kid Icarus: Uprising, a 3D shooter that he directed for the Nintendo 3DS console, which was a mix of bizarre controls, whimsical chaos and strange character design. That kind of stuff is here, for sure. But also, there’s a serious speed that reminds me of Sega racing games from my childhood, or F-Zero GX for the GameCube. Going back and playing F-Zero GX and Fast Fusion (a great, cheaper racing game), I feel that same full-energy rush as I do in Air Riders.

The Switch 2 shows off how rapidly it can juggle ultrafast gaming at smooth frame rates here, and the whole game at its most intense moments is far too fast for me to even see properly. But that’s part of the absurdity. Or, I’m growing into the speed of it. Races move quickly, battles in multiplayer modes also move quickly, power-ups that combine and produce explosions are all over the place, like Super Smash Bros gone haywire.

It takes a while to get used to those odd racing controls, though. You don’t press anything to move forward, but you press a single button to brake, drift, and charge up a boost. The physics of that ricochet-style racing feels like operating a series of slingshots, and each racing vehicle has a different subset of moves and restrictions. It feels more varied than the general sameness of Mario Kart vehicles.

There aren’t as many tracks, as far as I can see, as Mario Kart. So far, I’ve unlocked 18 tracks (both new and original Air Rider ones), and a bunch of characters and vehicles. Add to that the power-ups that can be snagged in the races, and it’s a lot of variation, but I want more. More, more, more.

There are also several modes: a straight-on race; a separate series of top-down racetracks that feel like Super Sprint or RC Pro Am (if you remember those); an incomprehensible (to me) City Trial mode that involves collecting power-ups for 5 minutes, stealing vehicles and then pairing off into a random challenge. The challenge could be a battle, a race, launching yourself into targets for points, floating for as long as you can… who knows? City Trial is the game’s party mode, and it feels like a holiday stand-in for Mario Party or Super Smash Bros.

There’s also a storyline mode that’s a string of increasing challenges plucked from all the other modes, which progresses through branching paths and stages, much like the story mode in Super Smash Bros. It’s also a way to unlock extra vehicles, stages and characters.

I’ve mostly been playing Air Riders alone, except for a few hours of online play with Nintendo and some other journalists. This game is designed for multiplayer play, either online or on the Switch in split-screen mode. Games vary from six racers in one mode, to eight in another mode, to 16 in City Trial. It’s hard to judge the online party play at the moment because no one else has had the game. As for playing at home with others, I haven’t done that either. I’m just going solo.

After over 10 hours, I still feel the addictive pull to play. And it’s so fast, chaotic and snackable that it can be smashed through in far less time than a typical Mario Kart World race. It gives me good nervous energy.

It’s also strangely forgiving of old dads like me who might not know what they’re doing. You can simply let go of the controls, and your vehicle will continue moving. Guardrails help pinball you forward even when you’re way off course. The rest is in subtle reflex strategies, floating and attacking and taking corners just right. It feels more like a battle game than a racing one.

There is also an impressive selection of menus and accessibility customizations, more than I’ve ever seen in a Nintendo game. You can re-map buttons, change the screen layout and tweak race parameters in multiple ways that I haven’t even explored yet.

Air Riders is a wonderfully unusual one. Still, it’s a game that feels a step below an absolute must-have, especially since it costs $70, a price that’s too high by at least $20. But for me, right now, it’s 100% the cult hit midnight movie of Nintendo’s Switch 2 Year One library.

And do my kids want to start playing too? Heck yes, they do. That’s a good sign that this game’s doing things right. Now, excuse me, my hamster needs to ride a giant battle chariot in the next race through waterfalls again.

Technologies

Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt Trade Blows in Latest AI Slop Video, and Hollywood Won’t Stand for It

While some Hollywood icons are feeling doom and gloom over the AI-generated clip, labor unions are fighting back with legal threats.

Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise are trading blows in a viral AI-generated clip on social media, sparking backlash from the film industry. Chinese company ByteDance’s new video generation model, Seedance 2.0, allowed people to create fictional videos of real likenesses with short prompts. Irish filmmaker Ruairi Robinson used two lines to generate the clip of Pitt and Cruise fighting.

If ByteDance sounds familiar to you, it’s because the company also owns TikTok internationally, though it recently sold its US ownership of the social media and video-sharing platform to US companies. Oracle, MGX and Silver Lake each hold a 15% stake.

The actors in this latest viral AI slop video still don’t look like perfect re-creations — close-up shots of the fake Brad Pitt’s face, especially, have an «uncanny valley,» dreamlike AI look where the cuts blend into his flesh a little too smoothly. However, a CNET survey from earlier Tuesday showed that while 94% of US adults believe they encounter AI slop on social media, just 44% say they’re confident they can tell real videos from AI-generated ones.

One of the most inflammatory parts of the Pitt-Cruise video is the dialogue, as the computerized facsimiles of the actors fight over a supposed assassination plot regarding Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender who maintained ties to rich and powerful people worldwide. The two actors’ likenesses became a vehicle to push conspiracy theories that have been picking up steam as the millions of pages of redacted emails, receipts and other documents that make up the Epstein files continue to trickle out of the US Department of Justice.

Hollywood is fighting back as AI-generated content consumes and spits out actor likenesses and copyrighted content alike. Major studios and their labor forces alike have united to push back against the precedent set by the viral AI video.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Motion Picture Association demanded that ByteDance «immediately cease its infringing activity» through Seedance. SAG-AFTRA, the labor union that represents Hollywood performers, released a statement on Friday saying it «stands with the studios» in condemning the Seedance video generation model.

The Screen Actors Guild specifically pointed to Seedance’s unauthorized use of members’ faces, likenesses and voices as a threat that could put actors out of work.

«Seedance 2.0 disregards law, ethics, industry standards and basic principles of consent,» the actors’ guild said in its statement.

Representatives for the MPA and SAG-AFTRA didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Similar videos generated by Seedance have depicted Star Wars characters dueling with lightsabers as well as Marvel superheroes Spider-Man and Captain America brawling. Disney issued a cease-and-desist order to ByteDance on Friday in response to these videos, which it alleges constitute copyright infringement, according to the BBC.

A representative for ByteDance didn’t immediately respond to CNET’s request for comment, but issued a statement to the BBC saying it is «taking steps to strengthen current safeguards as we work to prevent the unauthorized use of intellectual property and likeness by users.»

Following the viral incident, ByteDance updated its tool to prevent people from uploading images of real people for AI-generated content, but it remains to be seen how effective that policy will be. Certainly, it won’t curb the output of videos depicting fictional masked or anthropomorphic characters like Spider-Man or Mickey Mouse.

As AI models continue to create mediocre copies of cultural icons, this won’t be the first — or last — legal battleground for AI video generation.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for Feb. 18, #983

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for Feb. 18 #983.

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s NYT Connections puzzle was great fun for me, as I’m the co-author of two pop-culture encyclopedias, one about the 1970s, and 1980s and the other about the 1990s. Two of the categories are retro-themed! Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Farrah hair.

Green group hint: Totally tubular!

Blue group hint: Bock-bock!

Purple group hint: Can refer to a dairy product or a cosmetic.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Retro hair directives.

Green group: Retro slang for cool.

Blue group: Chicken descriptors.

Purple group: ____ cream.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is retro hair directives. The four answers are crimp, curl, feather and tease.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is retro slang for cool. The four answers are bad, fly, rad and wicked.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is chicken descriptors. The four answers are bantam, crested, free-range and leghorn.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is ____ cream. The four answers are heavy, shaving, sour and topical.

Technologies

Today’s Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for Feb. 18, #1705

Here are hints and the answer for today’s Wordle for Feb. 18, No. 1,705.

Looking for the most recent Wordle answer? Click here for today’s Wordle hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Wordle answer is a word I thought I’d seen in Wordle before, but I guess not. The letters aren’t super common, so it may take a few guesses. If you need a new starter word, check out our list of which letters show up the most in English words. If you need hints and the answer, read on.