The Kirby Air Riders Global Test Ride is currently taking place this weekend, and it looks like the game engine it’s running on might have been uncovered.
It’s Bandai Namco’s new in-house engine SOL-AVES. Thanks to some detective work, the engine’s logo has been spotted in the game demo’s Intellectual Property Notices. We’ve taken a look ourselves and can confirm it’s listed. The trademark for this engine was filed in “late 2024”, but it’s apparently been in the making since around 2019, and was initially revealed in 2022.
Recruitment and training for the engine is supposedly ongoing, and its first major public test appears to be this new title by legendary game director Masahiro Sakurai. Below you can see new engineers testing it out. This new game engine has also previously shown up on Bandai Namco’s official website in job listings.
“Bandai Namco Studios develops its own in-house game engine. As part of their training, new engineers had the opportunity to try out our in-house developed game engine! During the training, after learning the basic operations, the participants created a simple game. The ease of use of the in-house game engine has been very well received.”
In the past, Bandai Namco has made use of video game engines such as Unity and Unreal Engine for major releases.
