Nightmare

Nightmare is a prominent villain from the Kirby series, who was initially featured as the main antagonist of Kirby's Adventure, as well as its remake, Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land.

Background

Nightmare was a being who represents his namesake: nightmares and bad dreams. His main purpose was to infect everyone with nightmares. He has two forms: his initial form is a Power Orb which is a large dark sphere that is covered in a star pattern. His true form, known as the Nightmare Wizard, is a humanoid being wearing armor and a dark star patterned-cape over a wispy body.

In Kirby's Adventure and Nightmare in Dream Land, Nightmare had manifested at the Dream Spring in the Fountain of Dreams, with the goal of spreading bad dreams across Dream Land. King Dedede foiled his plan by stealing the Star Rod from the Dream Spring and splitting it apart. Oblivious to Dedede's motives, Kirby reunited the Star Rod, defeated Dedede, and returned the wand to the fountain. This allowed Nightmare to manifest and be set free.

With help from Dedede, Kirby proceeded to chase Nightmare down while armed with the Star Rod. In the first part of the battle, Kirby had to defeat Nightmare's Power Orb form in a midair fight before Nightmare could escape. After that form was defeated, Nightmare assumed his Nightmare Wizard form for the final battle on the moon. To damage him, Kirby had to use the Star Rod on Nightmare's body whenever it was exposed. Kirby was ultimately able to destroy Nightmare, and part of the moon was destroyed with him.

Later Games

Nightmare's only other direct appearance was in the Strato Patrol EOS sub-game that was found within Kirby Mass Attack. Nightmare acted as that mode's final boss and was battled in the same two phases as in his original appearance. An alternate version of Nightmare called Parallel Nightmare also appeared as the final boss of Super Kirby Clash.

Throughout the Kirby series, there have also been other cameos and small appearances by Nightmare:

• Kirby's Avalanche: His Power Orb form could be seen in the background of the Fountain of Dreams stage.
• Kirby: Canvas Curse: He appeared as a painting in the Paint Panic mode and is the hardest painting to complete, requiring the completion of four stages.
• Kirby: Squeak Squad: He was pictured in a collectible Graphic Piece with several other final bosses from the series.
• Kirby Super Star Ultra": He appears as a card in the Kirby Card Swipe game.
• Collectible stickers of Nightmare have also appeared in Kirby: Planet Robobot and Super Kirby Clash, and there are collectible keychains for both of his forms in Kirby: Triple Deluxe.
• Kirby Star Allies: He is depicted in Bad Boss Brothers, a celebration picture that depicts the final bosses of all of the Kirby games released at the time.

Other Appearances

Video Games

• In NES Remix 2, there are separate challenges based on each phase of the Nightmare battle from Kirby's Adventure. For the challenge based on the Power Orb battle, Bullet Bills from the Super Mario series are added as obstacles.
• In the Super Smash Bros. series, Nightmare appeared as an Assist Trophy in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS/Wii U and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. When summoned, he flies around as a Power Orb and then assumes his wizard form before flying at the screen and temporarily engulfing the playing field in darkness. He has also been represented by a trophy (using his wizard form) in the former game, and as two stages of a Primary Spirit in the latter game. The Spirit starts as an Advanced-rank Spirit of Nightmare's Power Orb and can be enhanced into a Legend-rank Spirit of Nightmare Wizard.

Other Media

• In the anime Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, Nightmare was featured as the main antagonist. He founded Nightmare Enterprises, a company that sold monsters he created to people like King Dedede. He was said to be responsible for the destruction of most of the Star Warriors and Galaxy Soldier army, with Meta Knight and his Meta Knights being the only survivors. It was also mentioned that he had one creation that rebelled against him, which was theorized to be either Kirby or Meta Knight. During the final arc of the series, Nightmare began directly attacking Kirby and Meta Knight. He ultimately entered Kirby's mind to torment him, but Kirby was able to destroy him after gaining the power of the Star Rod.
  • In the English dub of the anime, Nightmare was called eNeMeE, in reference to the word "enemy" and to the initials of Nightmare Enterprises.
  • Nightmare also appeared as the main antagonist of the pilot of the anime, where he sent various monsters after Kirby in his dreams. He appeared at the end to attack Kirby and his friends with lightning, which woke Kirby up and made him realize that he was only having a nightmare. In this appearance, his design was closer to his appearance from the games.

Trivia

• In the English localization of Nightmare in Dream Land, he is erroneously called "the Nightmares".
• In Super Kirby Clash, Parallel Nightmare is voiced by Banjo Ginga, who was the voice of the real Nightmare in the Japanese version of the Kirby anime.