Kirby Air Riders does something no mainline Kirby game has done before: it leans hard on spoken narration and fully voiced announcers across many languages. That shift makes the choice of voice actors much more visible than a few grunts and shouts tucked behind action.
English narrator: Todd Haberkorn
The English story narrator in Kirby Air Riders is Todd Haberkorn. He provides the voiceover for the long introduction movie that explains how the world of Kirby Air Riders came to be, and he narrates the Road Trip single-player mode’s cutscenes.
Haberkorn himself publicly confirmed that he is the English narrator for the game, and Kirby Air Riders is also listed in his recent game credits as “Narrator (English dub).” Fans who recognize his work elsewhere will hear the same clear, slightly theatrical delivery he uses for roles like Allen Walker in D.Gray-man and Death the Kid in Soul Eater.
Within Kirby Air Riders, his performance sits closer to audiobook-style narration than to an excitable sports commentator. The script in the Road Trip intro runs longer than any previous Kirby opening, and Haberkorn is tasked with threading together worldbuilding, tone setting, and a sense of motion around the racing focus of the game.
English announcer: Patrick Seitz
The English “Announcer A” voice—heard during tutorials, races, and in-course callouts—is Patrick Seitz. Players quickly picked up on the similarity between this announcer and Seitz’s better-known performances as larger-than-life, “manly” characters. That match is not a coincidence: the English cast listings and dedicated dubbing databases identify Seitz as the announcer.
Seitz is widely recognized for voicing characters like Dio Brando in the English version of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure and Franky in One Piece. Kirby Air Riders uses that same commanding presence, but funneled into racing calls, event introductions, and reactive lines that punctuate gameplay rather than drive the story.
This announcer is distinct from the Road Trip narrator. In English, the narrator and announcer are separate roles, voiced by Haberkorn and Seitz respectively, so switching between cutscenes and races also means switching between two different vocal “anchors.”
Japanese announcers: Banjo Ginga and Makiko Omoto
For players using the Japanese voice setting, Kirby Air Riders features two announcers:
| Role | Label in game | Voice actor | Notable Kirby connection |
|---|---|---|---|
| Male Japanese announcer | Japanese A | Banjo Ginga | Previously voiced the N.M.E. Sales Guy in the Kirby: Right Back at Ya! anime |
| Female Japanese announcer | Japanese B | Makiko Omoto | Longtime Japanese voice of Kirby |
Director Masahiro Sakurai highlighted these Japanese announcers in a Kirby Air Riders Direct presentation. Makiko Omoto, who has defined Kirby’s voice for decades, now doubles as one of the racing announcers, adding a direct throughline from past games to this new, more talkative entry.
How announcers work in Kirby Air Riders
Kirby Air Riders supports up to 12 language options for announcers and narrators. Each language offers:
- One masculine voice option
- One feminine voice option
That structure produces a total of 24 announcer/narrator voice options across the game. The supported languages include:
- English
- Japanese
- French
- German
- Spanish (Spain)
- Spanish (Latin America)
- Italian
- Dutch
- Portuguese
- Korean
- Traditional Chinese
- Simplified Chinese
Each of these languages follows the same pattern: a pair of announcer voices and corresponding Road Trip narration voices, split along “A/B” (often mapped to masculine/feminine) rather than character names.
How to change announcer and narrator voices
Kirby Air Riders exposes announcer and narrator settings inside its main options menu. To switch voices:
- Open the main menu.
- Move to the
Optionstab. - Select the
Soundscategory. - Choose the announcer voice and the narrator voice you prefer.
In gameplay terms, the game treats these as two different roles:
- Announcer: the voice you hear during races, City Trial, Stadium Challenges, and most in-game events.
- Narrator: the voice that delivers Road Trip cutscenes and the extended introductory movie.
Because announcer and narrator are separate toggles, you can, for example, keep Patrick Seitz as your English announcer while selecting a different-language narrator, or pair Haberkorn’s narration with a non-English in-race announcer.
Brazilian Portuguese voices and localization notes
For players in Brazil, Kirby Air Riders represents a step forward: it is the first Kirby game to receive full voiceover in Brazilian Portuguese, rather than limiting localization to menus and text. The Brazilian Portuguese version is produced in São Paulo by the studio Rockets Audio, with direction by Marco Nepomuceno and post-production by Raphael Gazal.
The Brazilian cast for announcers and narrators includes:
| Portuguese role | Original seiyū | Brazilian Portuguese voice actor |
|---|---|---|
| Anunciador A (announcer, masculine) | Banjō Ginga | Fernando Mendonça |
| Narrador A (narrator, masculine) | — | Carlos Seidl |
| Anunciadora B (announcer, feminine) | Makiko Ōmoto | Bruna Matta |
| Narradora B (narrator, feminine) | — | Alessandra Araújo |
Beyond casting, the Brazilian localization follows terminology from Nintendo of America’s English scripts rather than earlier Brazilian Kirby media, but it preserves the familiar Brazilianized pronunciation of key names from the Kirby anime. For example:
- “Rei Dedede” is spoken as “Rei Dededê,” matching the television dub.
- “Kawasaki” in “Mestre-cuca Kawasaki” keeps the “Kavazaki” pronunciation used previously.
Road Trip’s narration is also fully dubbed into Brazilian Portuguese, and, as with other languages, the game lets you choose the announcer and narrator independently in the settings.
Where the narrator and announcers fit into Kirby’s broader shift
Kirby Air Riders is built as a global, online-focused racing game for Nintendo Switch 2, and its voice work reflects that reach. Earlier Kirby titles relied on short vocal effects and minimal dialogue; here, the design assumes that spoken lines are a primary part of the presentation, not background color.
Three structural choices stand out:
- A prominent English narrator (Todd Haberkorn) carrying long-form exposition rather than leaving story beats entirely to text and visual pantomime.
- High-profile English announcer casting (Patrick Seitz) that taps into the same pool of actors used for anime dubs and big-budget games, aligning Kirby’s racing spin-off with broader expectations for competitive titles.
- A symmetric announcer system across 12 languages, with parallel male/female options, letting players pick voices that match their preferences rather than being locked into a single default per region.
The result is a Kirby game where the voices are as recognizable as the character designs and music cues. For players already familiar with Haberkorn and Seitz, that recognition kicks in almost immediately—whether through Dio-like flourishes in the announcer’s delivery or through the distinct timbre of Haberkorn’s narration wrapping the Road Trip campaign.
For anyone trying to match names to voices, the short version is simple: Todd Haberkorn narrates the English story; Patrick Seitz calls the action as English Announcer A; Banjo Ginga and Makiko Omoto lead the Japanese booth; and every supported language gets a pair of announcers and narrators you can mix and match from the options menu.
