According to series creator and director Masahiro Sakurai, he was initially only in an advisory role for the development of Kirby Air Ride, as he was overseeing multiple projects meant to tie in with the franchise's anime adaptation, Kirby: Right Back at Ya! He preferred to "leave that work to the people responsible for it", and largely gave feedback on the game's presentation to help it "nail that Kirby 'feel'". However, the game suffered from protracted development, as none of the vehicles functioned properly after a full year of work, prompting lead programmer Kouichi Watanabe to ask Sakurai to direct the game. He claimed that the game was rebuilt "from scratch" within just three and a half months, attributing this to the game's visual assets already being finished, the loyalty of the rest of the team, and the rewritten code making it easier for him to give each vehicle unique characteristics through minor adjustments. Sakurai felt that the nature of his involvement resulted in him viewing Kirby Air Ride as "one of [his] creative works," unlike other Kirby games from that period. He left HAL Laboratory after its development finished and would not direct another Kirby game until the 2025 sequel Kirby Air Riders.