Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land

"This remake of Kirby's Adventure included many new features, including the ability to play with up to three friends! Each player controlled his or her own Kirby, and each Kirby could grab his own separate Copy Abilities."

- Summary

Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land (called Hoshi no Kābī Yume no Izumi Derakkusu, meaning Kirby of the Stars: The Fountain of Dreams Deluxe in Japan). It is a Game Boy Advance remake of the 1993 NES platform game, Kirby's Adventure. It features updated graphics and sound, and new sub-games. Level designs were left mostly intact, but with aforementioned alterations along with some minor retooling of areas to suit the new graphical style. For the most part, the game plays similar to its original NES incarnation. The game is a platformer; the point is to get to the end of the current level through walking and jumping over obstacles and defeating enemies, but can also fly indefinitely. Due to his unique ability to float, Kirby can jump an infinite amount of times, although he cannot leave the screen from any direction except the bottom. Kirby can inhale his enemies and copy their abilities for new, stronger attacks. This is one of the staples of the series, being an included feature in nearly every Kirby game since Kirby's Adventure.

Some new additions to the remake include 4-player support, 32-bit graphics, a decrease in difficulty, hats for most abilities, the three main sub-games from the original Kirby's Adventure being replaced by new ones, certain enemies from the original being replaced with new ones, and certain changes to certain levels. In addition, there are changes in the mechanics of certain copy abilities (Needle Kirby's spikes do not retract automatically, Wheel Kirby can drive on water, Backdrop Kirby dash-and-grabs enemies instead of inhale-and-grabbing them).

Meta Knight, Kirby's rival, also makes his debut playable appearance in the sub-game Meta Knightmare after completing Extra Mode with Kirby. Meta-Knightmare is like playing Extra Mode but as Meta Knight. He has three health points, cannot save, and uses various sword techniques instead of copying abilities.

Intro
When the logos show up, one Kirby runs by, then a few more, then a bunch of them dash by. One of them trips, and gets kicked off-screen by the second to last one. This intro is very perplexing, because it shows many, many, many Kirbys, and at the time only four were known: Red Kirby, Yellow Kirby, Green Kirby and regular Kirby. Oddly, the classic intro from the NES game is missing entirely, as is the tutorial when waiting on the title screen.

Story
The game starts with Kirby taking a nap, but something's wrong. Kirby has had no dreams, a truly unusual event in Dream Land. Kirby decides to visit the Fountain of Dreams, where all dreams spring from, to see if anything bad has happened to it. Upon his arrival, he finds King Dedede bathing in its waters. He finds that Dedede has broken the Star Rod, the power source of the fountain, into seven pieces, giving six pieces to his friends and keeping one himself. Kirby decides to track down the fragments to restore peaceful sleep and order to Dream Land.

Kirby manages to defeat King Dedede at the Fountain of Dreams and replaces the Star Rod, but Nightmare appears right after. Nightmare absorbs the powers from the Fountain and flies into the sky. King Dedede inhales Kirby and sends him after Nightmare, where they battle on Pop Star's moon. Kirby manages to defeat Nightmare, and the explosion ends up making a large circular hole in the moon, making it crescent-shaped. Kirby returns to the Fountain of Dreams and places the Star Rod back in there, and everything returns to normal with the dreams back in Dreamland. Dedede's prior actions were then revealed to be part of his plan to protect the Fountain from Nightmare, and Kirby and Dedede reconcile.

Gameplay
For the most part, the game plays similar to its original NES incarnation. As with most Kirby games, this game is a platformer; the point is to get Kirby to the end of the current level through walking, jumping over obstacles and defeating enemies.

Kirby's main method of attack is to inhale enemies or certain object and spit them at other enemies.

Each stage is broken up into small sections ending in a door leading to the next section. At the end of each level (roughly 5 or 6 stages) is a boss fight which Kirby must win to get a piece of the Star Rod back.

Sub-Games
Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land contains three new sub-games replacing the ones from Kirby's Adventure. Many of these games have Kirby competing with differently colored "Kirbys".

Bomb Rally
Kirby uses a frying pan to hit a bomb to the other Kirby. Each time one misses, the bomb explodes and that Kirby is out (replaced by Bubbles). The last Kirby left wins.

Kirby's Air Grind
Kirby grinds on rails using the Warp Star to gain speed and race, but slows down if he tries to grind on rough black rails. The sub-game's name is similar to the racing video game Kirby Air Ride, which came out a year later.

Samurai Kirby
Although having the title of Quick Draw from Kirby's Adventure, it is an updated version of Samurai Kirby from Kirby Super Star. The same enemies in the original sub-game are fought, but Kirby will only use the fan as his weapon.

Arena
Arena is only available in Story Mode. Kirby can enter every Arena as often as he wishes, and the primary motivation for completing it is to acquire Copy Abilities not available inside Museums and a Maxim Tomato after defeating every mid-boss.

Boss Endurance
Boss Endurance mode is unlocked by beating the game once.

Meta Knightmare
The player can play through the entire game as Meta Knight, but can't save.

Goal Game
The goal game is carried over from Kirby's Adventure. Kirby jumps on a spring platform. The goal is to press the A button when the platform is at its lowest - this sends Kirby to the top level and nets a 1UP. Otherwise the player scores between 5,000 to 100 points depending on how close the timing is to perfect. Kirby's Return to Dream Land's goal game uses the same mechanic.

Multiplayer
The game supports multi-player, with up to four players. Each player plays as a member of Kirby's species. Player 1 is Kirby, Player 2 is a yellow Kirby, Player 3 is a red Kirby, and Player 4 is a green Kirby.

For Story Mode and Boss Endurance, there is a cooperative mode. No player characters have any differentiation in their abilities, nor do their copy abilities (because of this, one may be confused if multiple Kirbies have an ability like Needle or Ice, and thus their skin colors will be uniform if they have those abilities).

In Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land's Co-op mode, there are some basic rules:
 * All four players start on the highest level that all four players have completed.
 * All players automatically enter the first door that any one of the players enters.
 * No one can enter the doorway unless all four players are grouped near the doorway.
 * It is also possible to call other players for help.

For all three sub-games, there is a competitive mode.

Bosses

 * 1) Whispy Woods (Vegetable Valley)
 * 2) Paint Roller (Ice Cream Island)
 * 3) Mr. Shine & Mr. Bright (Butter Building)
 * 4) Kracko (Grape Garden)
 * 5) Heavy Mole (Yogurt Yard)
 * 6) Meta Knight (Orange Ocean)
 * 7) King Dedede (Rainbow Resort)
 * 8) Nightmare (Fountain of Dreams and Pop Star's moon)

List of Differences From Kirby's Adventure

 * Some new additions to the remake include 4-player support (as opposed to the single-player experience of the original), 32-bit graphics (as opposed to 8-bit), a decrease in difficulty, hats for most abilities (a feature introduced in Kirby Super Star), the three main sub-games from the original Kirby's Adventure being replaced by new ones, certain enemies from the original being replaced with new ones (Phan Phan replaced Rolling Turtle, Needlous replaced Togezo, and Gip replaced Bounder) and certain changes to certain levels. In addition, there are changes in the mechanics of certain copy abilities (Needle Kirby's spikes do not retract automatically, Wheel Kirby can drive on water, Backdrop Kirby dash-and-grabs enemies like Suplex rather than inhale-and-grabbing them). Several enemies (including bosses) also now have designs based on their appearances in Kirby Super Star (such as Rocky having a headband).


 * There are also some differences in what music is played during certain situations: a remix of the Kirby 64 mid-boss music now plays when fighting the the Meta-Knights instead of the normal boss music, which is also replaced in the fight against King Dedede by a remix of the Fountain of Dreams music from Super Smash Bros. Melee. Additionally, on stage 7-2, the Arena music no longer plays, but rather, a version of King Dedede's theme plays.


 * After beating Extra Mode, the player will unlock "Meta Knightmare!" a sub-game that lets you go through the game (minus the fight with Nightmare) as Meta Knight, with Extra Mode's three bars of vitality as a challenge, and with Meta Knight's sword, as he cannot inhale enemies. Also, the player cannot save in this sub-game, so he/she must play all in one go. Strangely enough, Meta Knight encounters himself but does not end up fighting Nightmare. This game mode is also timed and the greatest speed is saved. This idea was greatly expanded in Meta Knightmare Ultra, which then gave Meta Knight his own solo storyline.


 * However, on top of all the upgrades are some gameplay and aesthetic downgrades. The graphics, while vibrant, were different at the time to the established Kirby style - the imagery seems to be very twisty and distant compared to the other games in the series, and the backgrounds are now static and are never animated. Hidden doors are more easily noticed as they are marked with certain objects, such as ventilation shafts, holes, and (most commonly) darkened areas. Several instances that pushed the NES hardware to its capabilities were strangely removed, such as Butter Building's rotating towers (which makes the Wheel ability far less useful around there). While the Ball and Hi-Jump abilities were upgraded, most abilities like Fire and Cutter were given some lag time due to the new frames of animation. While Tornado Kirby in the NES version remains invincable during the end of his animation while attacking an enemy, Tornado Kirby in the GBA version will get damaged while his animation is ending while attacking an enemy. Most of the bosses and all of the mid-bosses were made larger, but they are now somewhat clumsy and are not as threatening and precise as their NES counterparts. Outside of possibly Meta Knightmare, the game was generally made more easier and forgiving (as was common with Nintendo's other Game Boy Advance ports).

Trivia

 * Nightmare in Dream Land was promoted in commercials in the animation style of Kirby: Right Back At Ya!.
 * Furthermore, most character designs in the anime are based on their appearance in Nightmare in Dream Land.