For comparison, the MC score of Kirby Air Ride is 61. That's quite an improvement. The first game was broadly considered ok by critics, but this looks like it's considered good.
I'll get it, but not right away.

I agree with this statement. Many people don't remember this, but the OG Air Ride wasn't considered a 'good' game at the time. Making a sequel to it is like making a sequel to Bubsy. (I say this as someone who played OG Air Ride a lot as a kid.)

The fact that it improved this much is an accomplishment on its own. Too bad there will be no sequel for this game to build upon. Maybe it could have gotten a 90+ Metacritic score. 

I have a feeling this game is gonna bomb by mondern Nintendo Standards. Like sub 4m LT. I think lots of people are curious but not confident enough for a full price purchase. Anyway good to see it's of a respectable quality, not that there was any doubt. But the reviews aren't glowing enough to reassure me.

Define to me, modern Nintendo standards ?

Cuz as was interviewed by Miyamoto, most of their games are aiming for the 2M mark to break and make their money.

It's needless to make a comparison with their bigger titles like Mario, MK, Smash, Animal Crossing, etc ... when the rest of their library for their lesser known franchise aren't judged on the same principles.

To me this looks like a really cool game from what I can tell that does racing mechanics differently than most, but definitely more of a niche title than something mainstream like Mario Kart, simply because it isn't well known with a somewhat smaller character franchise and only one fairly obscure old previous game. So yeah probably only a few million.

Also doesn't help that Nintendo priced it at $70. That's a serious wtf decision (as are many of Nintendo's decisions lately). Nintendo is missing the whole reason why companies decided games need to be $70, specifically that's for ultra realistic $100+ million budget games, that was the argument at least. Selling a game that comes off as a cute quirky little racer at $70 makes zero sense. This looks like a $40 or $50 game, and I think would have a decent chance to sell well at that price, at $70 it's gonna come off to most people as "why do I need this when I already have mario kart". Sales will be helped out by the lack of games on the Switch 2 so far, but once again Nintendo gets the pricing of yet another thing all wrong in 2025.

The lowest review comes from someone who hated the original. Why even bother reviewing a sequel to a game you hate.

Depends on why you hate it. If you hate it because it's not good, then there would be no bias. If you hate it because it's just not your cup of tea, then yeah. You probably shouldn't be the person reviewing it.

Sounds to me like this would be top tier Nintendo if Sakurai had revamped the controls rather than stubbornly sticking to the whole one button scheme. Shame since it sounds like this game is absolutely loaded with content, customization, fun modes, unlockables, and one of Nintendo’s best online functionality to date. Just needs a better control scheme to match.