Masahiro Sakurai Explains Why Kirby Air Ride Did Not Feature Dolby Surround Audio

Have you ever wondered why Kirby Air Ride never featured Dolby Surround audio? According to Masahiro Sakurai, this screen is the reason.

During its E3 2003 showcase, Kirby's first (and what later became his only) Nintendo GameCube title was seen by attendees with Dolby Surround audio, however, the feature strangely went absent from the game's final version. Thanks to Masahiro Sakurai, we now finally have an answer as to why this is the case.

On a live stream hosted by Hamster Corporation to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Arcade Archives, Masahiro Sakurai sat down with Platinum Games director and Bayonetta creator Hideki Kamiya for a discussion. During their conversation, the two briefly talked about how they would personally improve the Arcade Archives series.

Sakurai recommended that Hamster Corporation should attempt to cut down on the amount of time it takes players to get into a game, which caused him to draw comparisons to his experience working on Kirby Air Ride and why he believes saving time is important.

According to Sakurai, the only reason why Kirby Air Ride did not feature Dolby Surround audio like many other games at the time was because he wanted to save players a few seconds. If Dolby Surround audio were to be included, players would have had to sit through another logo before being able to play the game.

In his own words, Sakurai said the following: “I feel very sorry for making the user wait. If you take one second from each user, that means you’ll be taking 10,000 seconds from 10,000 people. The more this repeats over the years, the more time you will cause players to lose.”

If you want to see the full conversation for yourself, have a look at the video below (The conversation starts at around 3:50:00)!

Do you wish Kirby Air Ride featured Dolby Surround audio? What do you think of Sakurai's philosophy? Let us know in the comments!

[Source - Hamster Corporation]