A Kirby Air Riders fan has created an online database to share custom Machines

Kirby Air Riders has long been celebrated online for its creativity and player expression, particularly through its robust My Machine feature. The game gives players an impressive amount of freedom to design and customize Air Ride Machines, resulting in everything from creations inspired by pop culture, original concepts, and even other Nintendo franchises.

However, despite how heavily this creative aspect is championed by the community, the game has a noticeable shortcoming with the feature: there are not many ways in which creation and sharing intertwine.

In Kirby Air Riders, Machines created through My Machine can be uploaded online, but they cannot be searched for by name. If a player wants to track down a specific creation made by someone else, they are left with two less-than-ideal options to find them: endlessly browse the Machine Market until you get lucky or manually input sharing codes that you found. There is no intuitive way to browse specific custom Machine designs in-game.

Without an in-game database that allows for naming, extra categorization, or even proper searching, discovering Machines you are looking for can quickly become frustrating. The internet isn't always search friendly, and nowadays, users on social media are not putting information in their captions. These limitation have made it difficult for the community to fully celebrate and archive its creativity, but now, thanks to a dedicated fan, that problem has finally been solved.

College student Rick Caballero has created an online database dedicated entirely to sharing custom Machines from Kirby Air Riders, and it is exactly what the community has been asking for!

Kirby Ride Registry gives fans a centralized place to upload, browse, and search for custom Machines with ease. Whether you are looking for creations inspired by specific franchises, characters, or even unique design ideas, Registry makes discovering new Machines simple and enjoyable. Best of all, the site is intuitive, easy to navigate, and remarkably efficient. It really is everything players could have hoped for from an unofficial companion to the game.

To upload a custom Machine, all players need is a screenshot taken directly from their Nintendo Switch 2, and that's it. There are no complicated forms, no lengthy setup process, and no mandatory account creations. Players simply take screenshots from either of the in-game Machine information screens and exports them on the front page of Kirby Ride Registry using the "Add Your Machine" button (as seen below on the right side).

Upload the screenshot, and give your Machine a title. Specify what type of Star the Machine is and add some tags. Once submitted, the website’s automated systems take care of the rest. The entire process to upload a Machine takes literal seconds, making it incredibly accessible even for players who just want to share a single creation (or even something someone else made)!

Over Instagram, Rick Caballero was kind enough to share additional details with me about how the site works behind the scenes. At the heart of the registry is its upload system, which relies on OCR (Optical Character Recognition). This technology allows the website to read and interpret the information displayed in My Machine screenshots and convert them into usable data for the database.

Combined with a flexible tagging system, this approach allows uploaders to properly name and categorize their Machines. Other players can then search the database by franchise, Star-type, character, theme, and so on, making it far easier to find exactly what they are looking for. Most importantly, the creative control remains with the uploader, who decides how their Machine is titled before it enters the database. You can be bland or super specific with your uploads.

For those who want to support Rick’s efforts and help ensure the future of Kirby Ride Registry is secure, donations are available through the website, which redirects to a PayPal link. Websites are obviously not cheap to run, and Rick will be using the funds to keep the database active. Community support will help keep the project running and allow it to grow!

Thank you, Rick, for your incredible contribution to the Kirby Air Riders community!