During the Kirby Air Riders: Global Test Ride held on November 8 and 9 for the Switch 2, observant players noticed an intriguing detail: the demo runs on Bandai Namco Studios’ new in-house engine — SOL-AVES.
The finding emerged from the demo’s intellectual property section, which explicitly names the engine.
Earlier in 2025, game director Masahiro Sakurai confirmed that Bandai Namco Studios is handling development of Kirby Air Riders, as it did for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It now appears this project is among the first to use the studio’s new engine.
Bandai Namco registered the SOL-AVES trademark in December 2022 and received approval in September 2024. The studio is actively expanding the team working on the technology; job listings describe the engine as an “internal” platform offering “the highest level of visual expressiveness” and a “deeper gameplay experience.”
Previous reports indicated the studio was creating its own engine for large-scale projects, including open-world titles. That initiative began in 2022, and given the timing, it appears to refer to SOL-AVES.
For now, only Kirby Air Riders has been confirmed to use the new engine, but Bandai Namco says SOL-AVES will serve as the foundation for multiple games.
Source: iXBT.games