Star Dream

"The goal of this company has always been prosperity. Unfortunately, you imperfect, fragile life-forms were a liability. So you are invited to witness the end of history. A new age shall begin--an age of infinite prosperity. Enjoy your destruction."

- Star Dream

Star Dream (also known as the Mother Computer) is a powerful, malevolent machine in the Kirby series which serves as the final boss and true main antagonist of Kirby: Planet Robobot. It was initially built as a wish-making robot and the Mother Computer of the Haltmann Works Company, but soon developed the intention to eradicate all organic life-forms.

Physical Appearance
Star Dream is cylinder-shaped, with a screw-like head and a circular piece of yellow glass that appears to be its eye. Pink lights course through it in a circuit-board-like pattern, with the center lights forming the shape of a heart with a jagged line down the middle. It also possesses angel-like wings with blue, glass-like shards protruding from them. Star Dream's entire overall shape is reminiscent of a screw.

Story Mode
At some point in the past, President Haltmann discovered the blueprints for a machine known as Star Dream, a powerful wish granting device. By studying ancient technology he gained the knowledge he needed to rebuild the device. During an early test of the computer, however, there was an accident and Haltmann's daughter was lost, evidently warped to Another Dimension. Haltmann was devastated, and attempted to use the wish-granting computer to bring back his daughter. His attempt was unsuccessful; further, Star Dream began to steadily deprive him of his memories through the program controller interfacing with his brain, due to its incomplete nature. As a result, he lost compassion and even memories of Susie's existence, changing his goal to infinite prosperity of his company. With the might of the Haltmann Works Company behind him, and Star Dream as his advisor, Haltmann began invading planets and harvesting their resources to achieve that goal. During his campaign to enslave Planet Popstar, however, Haltmann was confronted by Kirby, resulting in an intense battle that ended in his defeat. In response, an outraged Haltmann decided to activate Star Dream, only for his control helmet to be stolen by Susie.

Unbeknownst to either party, Star Dream had been studying the cosmos through the Haltmann Works Company and had gradually developed sentience, combined with an extreme hatred towards all organic life. When President Haltmann's control device was stolen, the malevolent computer analyzed Haltmann, absorbing his memories, and even his soul. It is heavily implied that Star Dream was not fully independent until absorbing Haltmann's mind, and that it only achieved true sentience after that event. Star Dream promptly blasts Susie, rendering her unconscious, and possesses President Haltmann's body, revealing its plan to bring eternal prosperity to Haltmann's company by wiping out all organic life. Star Dream subsequently bursts out of the Access Ark, intent on fulfilling its newfound goals.

Kirby is able to pursue Star Dream by using his Robobot Armor. Meta Knight offers Kirby to board the Halberd, but Kirby instead scans it for the Halberd Mode ability, and the two engage in a fierce dogfight that ends in Kirby's victory. Damaged but not defeated, Star Dream fuses with the Access Ark to become a sentient planet that attacks Kirby once again. In spite of the machine's new capabilities, Kirby is still able to triumph, destroying the armored front of the Access Ark to reveal what resembles a Galactic Nova underneath, similar to the one that Kirby had previously encountered in Kirby Super Star. Though suffering major damage in the third battle that results, Star Dream still manages to fire its laser and hit the Halberd, forcing Meta Knight to eject Kirby in his Robobot Armor. Using a more powerful version of the Robobot Armor's Drill, Kirby breaks through Star Dream's defensive barriers before successfully drilling the malevolent computer's screw straight through the Access Ark, seemingly ending its threat.

Meta Knightmare Returns
During Meta Knightmare Returns, Star Dream is once again found in the center of the Access Ark. After Meta Knight defeats President Haltmann 2.0, Star Dream - viewing Meta Knight as its new administrator - creates clones of Dark Matter and Queen Sectonia to test Meta Knight's strength; when these fail to defeat the masked warrior, Star Dream summons Galacta Knight from Another Dimension. Galacta Knight promptly attacks and seemingly destroys Star Dream, leaving an enormous gash in its hull and causing it to collapse from its pedestal as Galacta Knight prepares to fight Meta Knight.

The True Arena
In The True Arena, the damage incurred by Galacta Knight activates a hidden program, resulting in its transformation into Star Dream Soul OS. This powerful new form is fought at the end of The True Arena. Upon being defeated in a similar manner to the way it was defeated in its normal form, Star Dream inhales Kirby out of his Robobot Armor, leaving the pink warrior in the machine's core and resulting in a heated battle between Kirby and its heart. The first part of this phase is similar to the battle against Nova's heart in Kirby Super Star and even plays Nova's battle theme. After this phase of the battle concludes, the machine makes one last attempt to kill Kirby with powerful red energy waves before its heart crumbles and Star Dream is fully destroyed.

Battle
Area 7 (Mind in the Program), and thus the battle with Star Dream, will initiate after defeating President Haltmann in Stage 6 of Access Ark.

In the first phase of the battle, Star Dream conjures lasers from black holes to fire upon the Halberd. Star Dream then fires two large missiles that home in on the Halberd; they can be shot down before they hit the ship. Then, Star Dream summons Invader Armors to go after the Halberd. These can also be shot down. After that, Star Dream fires heart-shaped projectiles at the Halberd. These explode in large bursts if not shot down first. Star Dream then conjures a heart-shaped force field to defend itself. Pieces of it can be fired at to break the shield. Then, Star Dream conjures giant Code Cubes that attempt to ram the Halberd. Another attack has Star Dream spin rapidly while engulfing itself in flames, followed by it spinning away off-screen, and trying to ram Kirby from below (in its final stretch of health, it will attempt tackles from the left side of the screen). After that, Star Dream fires a massive laser from its core, which it sweeps across the screen. Star Dream then conjures a huge field of asteroids which fly toward the Halberd. They can be shot down, but only the larger ones.

Once the first battle concludes, Star Dream returns to Popstar and abducts the entire central dome of the Access Ark, adding to its mass and returning to the fight. Star Dream conjures beam rings from black holes to fire upon the Halberd. This is done in several patterns. When a piece of the Access Ark's shell breaks off, the debris can crash into the Halberd. Star Dream then forms a shield in front of itself, which spits out a large letter-shaped field that approaches the Halberd (either an H, an A, or an L). Then, Star Dream fires several large missiles that home in on the Halberd. They can be shot down, though they are more durable than the ones its previous form used. After that, Star Dream conjures a series of lasers that split off from each-other, covering a good portion of the screen, then bursting at the ends. The energy balls that form from the lasers will be either blue or red, with the red ones having an even larger blast radius. Star Dream then forms four legs once its health is significantly low (the same ones the Access Ark used to land on Popstar), and then swipes with them. The swipes will always be diagonal and Star Dream will always move its new body a bit before lashing out. After alternating between its leg and right sides several times, it will retreat back and continue to use its projectiles until it is defeated.

Once the second battle concludes, the remaining front covering of the dome falls off to reveal a face on the dome that resembles the one on Galactic Nova. The fight resumes, with new and bizarre attacks. Star Dream inhales, sucking the Halberd in. If caught, the Halberd takes massive damage. Star Dream then conjures a shield, which releases fields shaped like numbers. Each one is harder to dodge than the last, with 0 being almost impossible to avoid. Then, Star Dream disappears and summons a heart-shaped vortex that spawns a giant implement which attacks the Halberd, and can be shot down. These items can be any of the following: A weather vane that shoots arrows, a locket watch that will try to eat the Halberd, a protractor that shoots circular projectiles everywhere, a light bulb that explodes, or a spyglass that will use a rotating laser attack.

Once the third battle concludes, Star Dream falls for a moment, but then shoots a surprise laser to cripple the Halberd. Meta Knight releases Kirby from its face, to engage Star Dream one last time with the Robobot Armor by itself. All that needs to be done during this phase is for the player to continue rotating the 3DS analog stick as quickly as they can. This will allow Kirby to drill through all the shields, then unscrew Star Dream from its base. On defeat, Star Dream explodes, fragmenting into countless pieces, which then all vaporize, along with everything else that was built by Haltmann Works. Popstar is saved, and the game is complete.

Quotes
"Fusing together with Haltmann, the most advanced computer in the galaxy has become self-aware. To realize its old master's wish of eternal prosperity... it's decided to eradicate all life-forms in existence!"

- VS Star Dream (Phase 1), Kirby: Planet Robobot

"Haltmann's mind is being absorbed by Star Dream. Merging with the giant ship Access Ark, Star Dream has turned into a sentient planet. The machine has lost its master and purpose. It must be stopped!"

- VS Star Dream (Phase 2 and 3), Kirby: Planet Robobot

"Its energy signature far exceeds that of the Invader Armor, our combat mech. The nearly infinite power within this life-form is astounding. Calculating probability of survival... It doesn't look good."

- VS Star Dream (Robobot Armor)

"L...O...A...D...I...N...G... You must be...the new admin. Yes. You possess incredible power... OK. As the new admin, you must supply your credentials...to the strongest warriors of this planet. Executing Sword_Master.EXE."

- Meta Knightmare Returns

"...Impressive. That may have been too easy for the new admin... Next up is one whose swordplay resembles a beautiful dance... Let us bring back the most powerful queen from the void. Experience her royal presence and unparalleled fighting skills. She will be a fitting test for you."

- Meta Knightmare Returns

"You are mighty indeed. Now for the final test... This was prohibited by the previous admin... Preparing to boot the Space-Time Transport program... Let us bring back a legendary swordsman from a forgotten time. He may end up destroying a planet or two, but such is life. The benefits of this final battle outweigh the collateral damage. Prepare yourself... Executing Space-Time Transport... Extra-dimensional road... Booting... 3... 2... 1... ...BEGIN!"

- Meta Knightmare Returns

Trivia

 * Star Dream's pause menu descriptions reveal that the malevolent computer's goals and even its level of sentience seem to depend on how much of Haltmann's soul is left in the machine. In the first phase of the battle, the machine had adopted Haltmann's wish for mechanical supremacy and intended to fulfill it by destroying all organic life; by the second phase, the machine had begun to consume Haltmann's soul, resulting in it losing its purpose; and by the time Kirby fights the heart of Star Dream Soul OS, the computer had completely obliterated what remained of Haltmann, leaving it as a "cold, mindless machine" seemingly bent only on mindless destruction. Thus, it is possible that Star Dream was not truly sentient before consuming Haltmann and that its sentience was purely a result of its unplanned fusion with its master.
 * Ironically, Star Dream Soul OS's last form is a mechanical heart in spite of the fact that Star Dream has become 'heartless' by this point.
 * Once Star Dream Soul OS is shattered in its last form, a slowed-down, pitch-bent version of one of Haltmann's shouts plays, possibly showing the distortion and corruption Star Dream has brought upon Haltmann's soul.
 * Star Dream actually has three forms: its first form, its second form where it merges with the Access Ark, and its third form, which reveals that the Access Ark internally resembles Galactic Nova.
 * The single eye, body coloration, and the wing shape on Star Dream's first form makes it rather similar in appearance to 02. Both the Star Dream and 02 fights have some similarities in their execution and do not involve typical Kirby gameplay.
 * Though it is implied to have originated from the same design plans as Galactic Nova and possesses similar speech patterns and reality warping abilities, Star Dream Soul OS is shown to have two known limitations to its processing power: it is unable to analyze the upper limits of Kirby's power (describing it as infinite) and unable to analyze any form of Dark Matter after the swordsman form (which alone was stated to take everything the machine had to analyze). These are very likely limitations of Star Dream itself, as Kirby's Robobot Armor speaks of the "nearly infinite power within" Star Dream after it finishes fusing with the Galactic Nova that had been in the Access Ark.
 * The giant letters Star Dream's second form fires are H, A, and L, referencing HAL Laboratory, the developer of the Kirby series.
 * The third phase of both Star Dream fights are timed; a number will keep appearing on a digital screen, starting with 5, which shoots out five projectiles shaped like the number 5, and going through numbers 4, 3, 2, and 1 (the last two of which spin around on the screen). If the counter reaches 0 before Star Dream is defeated, it produces a digital screen displaying "GO!!"; after that, Star Dream executes a hard-to-avoid attack, taking the form of red digital screens displaying "Fatal Error", which will eventually kill Kirby if he doesn't dodge the screens or isn't at full health.undefined If Kirby does survive that attack, the countdown will reset to 5.
 * Star Dream's fight in Story Mode contains multiple references to Galactic Nova and the ending of the sub-game Milky Way Wishes in Kirby Super Star and its remake. The countdowns in the third phases of the Star Dream fights are reminiscent of Nova's "OK > 3, 2, 1, GO!" quote in Kirby Super Star and its remake. In addition, the items that Star Dream summons out of the portals in its third phase seem to be pieces of Nova.
 * The sequence leading up to Kirby's final attack in the first Star Dream battle is likely a reference to the Giga Drill Break attack from the Gurren Lagann series.
 * All but the last phase of both Star Dream battles uses mechanics reminiscent of those found in a Star Fox game.
 * The opening attack of Star Dream Soul OS's second phase has it inhale meteors (and potentially the Halberd if it gets too close) and spit them at the Halberd, a possible reference to Andross from the original Star Fox.
 * After Star Dream was defeated, all of the planets invaded returned back to normal.
 * The cry that Star Dream makes at the beginning of its third form includes audio of director Shinya Kumazaki's pet cat meowing. The sounds produced by the weathervanes in the battle against the third form include audio of real chickens. One member of the sound team keeps chickens at home and recorded them for the game.
 * The name of Star Dream's battle theme is "VS.スタードリーム", writing Star Dream's name in Katakana as opposed to Hiragana with Kanji.
 * Concept art of Star Dream reveals that it was originally going to resemble 02 much more closely, featuring a more spherical body, a large central eye, and wings that fanned out on both of its sides.
 * When fighting President Haltmann, Dark Matter Clone, Sectonia Clone, and Galacta Knight, Star Dream appears relatively large, about 3-4 character widths, however, when battling Star Dream himself, he appears massive, dwarfing even the Halberd.
 * During Star Dream's third form, a heavy remix of the main menu theme plays.