{"id":51317,"date":"2025-08-23T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=51317"},"modified":"2025-08-22T18:44:05","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T09:44:05","slug":"kirby-air-riders-direct-hides-clever-earthbound-easter-eggs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/kirby-air-riders-direct-hides-clever-earthbound-easter-eggs\/","title":{"rendered":"Kirby Air Riders Direct hides clever EarthBound Easter eggs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>While everyone was busy dissecting all of the gameplay elements shown in the <strong>Kirby Air Riders<\/strong> Direct, <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/kirby-air-riders-is-being-developed-by-bandai-namco-studios-developer-of-super-smash-bros-ultimate\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Bandai Namco Studios<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/masahiro-sakurai-explains-why-his-company-doesnt-hire-employees-there-is-a-conflict-between-game-development-and-business-management\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sora<\/a> apparently snuck in a few Easter eggs referencing Nintendo\u2019s classic Mother franchise. As spotted by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamespark.jp\/article\/2025\/08\/21\/156325.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Game*Spark<\/a>, during the segment where director <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/how-to-tell-if-a-kirby-game-is-designed-by-masahiro-sakurai-fans-notice-telltale-sign-in-new-kirby-air-riders\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Masahiro Sakurai<\/a> talks about local and online multiplayer, rider names similar to those of Mother characters were used as placeholders:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Kirby Air Riders Direct 8.19.2025\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QtkHiB7WKf4?start=1507&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Among the names are Susie, Paula, Jeff, Frank, and Lucas &#8211; all of whom are Mother characters. The name Susie may be a reference to \u201cSuzy\u201d, one of the characters in the first Mother game (Not to be confused with Kirby\u2019s own Susie). Paula and Jeff are part of Ness\u2019s party in EarthBound (known as \u201cMother 2: G\u012bgu no Gyakush\u016b\u201d in Japan), while Frank is a boss in the same game. Lastly, Lucas is the main protagonist of Mother 3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"922\" height=\"519\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 922px) 100vw, 922px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/20250822-513170001.jpg\" alt=\"Kirby Air Riders gameplay.\" class=\"wp-image-51321\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/20250822-513170001.jpg 922w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/20250822-513170001-380x214.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/20250822-513170001-768x432.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/20250822-513170003.jpg\" alt=\"Kirby Air Riders gameplay.\" class=\"wp-image-51322\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/20250822-513170003.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/20250822-513170003-380x214.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/20250822-513170003-768x432.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Aside from the Mother references, other placeholder names include Haruka, John, Alex, Matt, Monica, and Steven. With the exception of Haruka, the placeholders consist of English common names. While there is a possibility that names like Paula and Jeff were used because they are so common, Sakurai\u2019s history with Mother creator Shigesato Itoi and HAL Laboratory might prove otherwise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/20250822-513170002.jpg\" alt=\"Kirby Air Riders gameplay.\" class=\"wp-image-51323\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/20250822-513170002.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/20250822-513170002-380x214.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/20250822-513170002-768x432.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Kirby Air Riders is set to release on November 20, 2025 for Nintendo Switch 2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many fans still haven&#8217;t noticed some very clever references to the Mother franchise that popped up in the new Kirby Air Riders Direct.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":51320,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17,33],"class_list":["post-51317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news","tag-nintendo"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - 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