Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land

"Nightmare in Dream Land" redirects here. For the actual Nightmare in Dream Land, see Nightmare.

US box
PAL box
JP box
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JP logo

Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land

Title (JP)

星のカービィ夢の泉デラックス (Hoshi no Kābī Yume no Izumi Derakkusu)

- Translates to

Kirby of the Stars: The Fountain of Dreams Deluxe
星のカービィ = Kirby of the Stars, 夢の泉 = Fountain of Dreams, デラックス = Deluxe

October 25, 2002

December 2, 2002

September 26, 2003

January 27, 2004

- Re-release(s)

Virtual Console (Wii U):

April 30, 2014

July 14, 2014

July 15, 2014

October 30, 2014

Genre

Platform

Mode(s)

Single-player, Multiplayer

Rating

MSRP (launch)

$29.99^[2]

Platform(s)

Game Boy Advance, Virtual Console (Wii U)

“	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's Dream Collection Special Edition

Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land is a platformer Kirby game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance. It was released in Japan on October 25, 2002, in North America on December 2, 2002, in Europe on September 26, 2003, and in Australia on January 27, 2004. A remake of the 1993 Nintendo Entertainment System platform game Kirby's Adventure, it features updated graphics and sound, and new sub-games.

Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land has been re-released on the Wii U Virtual Console in Japan in April 2014, in Europe and Australia in July 2014, and in North America in October 2014.

Story[]

Main article: Kirby's Adventure#Story

“

The peaceful world of Dream Land is in great danger. In Dream Land, dreams had always flowed out of the wonderful Fountain of Dreams, which the Fountain of Dreams collected the hopes and dreams of all living things. It also provided all the good dreams and rest that come from deep sleep. But one day, everyone in Dream Land lost the ability to dream! Apparently, King DeDeDe had been bathing in the Fountain of Dreams! Not only that, but DeDeDe had taken the Star Rod — the source of power of the Fountain of Dreams — and broken it into pieces, giving one to each of his underlings. Now, Kirby must embark on an adventure to restore peaceful naptimes to all residents of Dream Land...”

— The Adventure Begins • Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land Instruction Booklet

“

The peaceful world of Dream Land is in great danger. In Dream Land, dreams always flowed out of the wonderful Fountain of Dreams. The Fountain of Dreams collected the hopes and dreams of all living things. It was also responsible for the sweet dreams and rest that come from deep sleep. But one day, everyone in Dream Land lost the ability to dream! King DeDeDe was bathing in the Fountain of Dreams! He had even taken the Star Rod—the source of power of the fountain's power—and broken it into pieces that he gave to his underlings. Now, Kirby must embark on an adventure... to restore peaceful naptimes to all residents of Dream Land...”

— The Fountain of Dreams • Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land

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.

After a long adventure, 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 Planet Popstar'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 Dream Land. Dedede's prior actions are then revealed to have been part of his plan to protect the Fountain from Nightmare, then Kirby and Dedede reconcile.

Gameplay[]

Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land is a traditional platformer Kirby game; the player controls Kirby, whose objective is to get to the end of each stage using Copy Abilities. 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.

For the most part, the game plays similarly to its original NES incarnation. Level designs were left mostly intact, with alterations along with some minor retooling of areas to suit the new graphical style and some new additions to the remake were incorporated.

Meta Knight, the main anti hero and 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.

Kirby's moveset includes the inhale, Star Spit, Slide, Air Gun, and floating.

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 Kirbys 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 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 of the players are grouped near the doorway.
Each player has their own lives counter and can request to borrow from others if defeated.

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

Modes[]

Main Games[]

Story Mode
Extra Game

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.

Characters[]

The following section contains transcluded content from the Database. Source: (view • edit • help)

Playable Characters[]

Enemies[]

Mid-Bosses[]

Bosses[]

Whispy Woods (Vegetable Valley)
Paint Roller (Ice Cream Island)
Mr. Shine & Mr. Bright (Butter Building)
Kracko (Grape Garden)
Heavy Mole (Yogurt Yard)
Meta Knight (Orange Ocean)
King Dedede (Rainbow Resort)
Nightmare (Fountain of Dreams)

Copy Abilities[]

Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land contains 25 Copy Abilities, all of which return from Kirby's Adventure.

Backdrop	Ball	Beam	Burning	Crash
Cutter	Fire	Freeze	Hammer	Hi-Jump
Ice	Laser	Light	Mike	Needle
Parasol	Sleep	Spark	Star Rod	Stone
Sword	Throw	Tornado	UFO	Wheel

Items and Objects[]

The following section contains transcluded content from the Database. Source: (view • edit • help)

Star Rod • Warp Star

Levels[]

Vegetable Valley	Ice Cream Island	Butter Building	Grape Garden
Yogurt Yard	Orange Ocean	Rainbow Resort	The Fountain of Dreams

List of Differences from Kirby's Adventure[]

KA Vegetable Valley — *Kirby's Adventure*

KNiDL Vegetable Valley — *Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land*

The game features multiplayer, compatible with up to four people.
The animation where Kirby is being drawn accompanied with the "Drawing Song" was replaced by a new one of 120 Kirbys running and flying across the HAL Laboratory and Nintendo logos.
The user interface has been redesigned, being generally simplified and taking up less space, aiding the game due to its lower resolution.
Kirby now has voice acting provided by Makiko Ohmoto, though his voice clips are limited.
It is now possible to hover by tapping A as well as holding up on the Control Pad.
Kirby no longer heals after collecting a piece of the Star Rod.
Some stages have had their layouts changed slightly.
- Most notably, the rotating towers in Butter Building have been removed, and replaced by a fog that gradually clears over time.
Bounder, Spiny and Rolling Turtle are replaced by Gip, Needlous, and Phan Phan, respectively, but act the same way.
Copy Abilities now provide hats for Kirby.
Fireball has been renamed to Burning, matching its Japanese name.
Fire's breath was made a consistent stream of flames rather than a wavering spray of fireballs.
Needle's spikes retract upon releasing the B Button.
Wheel can now drive on water.
Backdrop now dash grabs enemies like the Suplex ability, rather than inhaling them like Throw.
Scarfy no longer explodes upon defeat (except when angry, but this explosion does not deal damage).
The pause descriptions of each Copy Ability have been changed.
The Dream Spring is now consistently referred to as the Fountain of Dreams.
Invincible Candy is now longer dropped by Meta Knight; they instead simply fall to their locations.
Many bosses and mid-bosses have been made larger, but slower to compensate.
Crane Fever and Egg Catcher have been replaced with Bomb Rally and Kirby's Air Grind, respectively, while Quick Draw was changed to be more closely based on Samurai Kirby.
Certain changes were made to the music, with the whole soundtrack being rearranged with the Game Boy Advance's sound chip, which can use synthesized sounds. Other changes include:
- The File Select screen has its own music.
- The "Green Greens" arrangement that plays in Stage 6 of Rainbow Resort and the credits is now in the proper key.
- The Vegetable Valley and Butter Building intros are shorter.
- "Room Guarder" plays when fighting the Meta-Knights instead of the boss theme.
- "Fountain of Dreams" plays when fighting King Dedede instead of the boss theme.
- The Ice Cream Island theme plays in Stage 2 of Vegetable Valley instead of the underground theme.
- King Dedede's theme plays in the Mid-Boss Tower instead of the Egg Catcher theme.
- The Butter Building arrangement is based on the arrangement used in Kirby's Avalanche onward, removing part of the intro.
- The music that plays in the Arena is slightly faster.
The opening and ending are retranslated.
It is now possible to save in Extra Game.
- Instead, the new mode Meta Knightmare does not allow the player to save and must be done in a single sitting.
V.S. Boss! has now been renamed to Boss Endurance.
The window in the level intro no longer has a drop shadow or the game's logo in the bottom right corner.
Some of the level intros have been changed.
The player starts with 2 lives remaining instead of 4.
The HAL Room in Stage 2 of Vegetable Valley can no longer be accessed due to differences in programming.

Development[]

Development on Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land began in summer 2001. It was conceived as a companion game to the Kirby: Right Back at Ya! anime, as during the show's production, there were previously no Kirby games in development.^[3] This seems to be why the game's box art, promotional art, and commercials use the anime's graphics. General director Masahiro Sakurai initially resisted the idea of making a remake, instead suggesting a straight port of an SFC/SNES game or a completely original game. The port idea was abandoned because of a fear that a quick rerelease would be viewed by platers as "stale." The Game Boy Advance has a different button layout to the SFC/SNES controller's as well, which would have complicated a port.^[3] Whatever game they made would need to be produced quickly to coincide with the release of Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, so instead of creating a new spin-off title as discussed, the team chose to remake an older title. Kirby's Adventure was ideal because it could introduce less-experienced players to the series without overwhelming them with mechanics.^[3]

According to programmer Eitaro Nakamura, the development staff struggled to get four-player co-op working sufficiently. It did not work properly until "one or two months" before its deadline.^[4] Nakamura has called this feature the most difficult part of the game's development.^[3]

Using the Kirby Super Star sprite data as a reference, designer Teruhiko Suzuki expanded upon animations by drawing many frames—so many, in fact, that Sakurai got upset with him multiple times. He told Suzuki to focus on responsive movement over detailed animations, as players care more about the former than the latter. Having too many frames impedes control and makes movement look sluggish.^[3]

The team drove to Makiko Ohmoto's home to record voice samples for Kirby. They felt having a pixelated character speak frequently would be unnatural and typecast him a certain way. Most of the recordings went unused, save for two damage clips and three Mike clips.^[3]

Due to memory and time constraints, several ideas were scrapped. Suzuki created a fourth sub-game and unique Kirby Dance moves for every Copy Ability, but these exceeded the cartridge's space. New Copy Abilities were planned but ultimately discarded.^[3] The Burning and Freeze Copy Abilities were initially merged with Fire and Ice, as they were in Kirby Super Star. When Sakurai declared that these abilities would not be implemented separately, Suzuki pleaded that they be included. He agreed to work through the weekend to finish them, which met Sakurai's approval.^[3]

Music[]

Main article: Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land/Music

Glitches[]

Main article: Glitch#Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land

Reception[]

	This section is currently under construction

Transcript[]

Main article: Kirby's Adventure and Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land/Transcript

Staff[]

Main article: List of Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land Staff

Trivia[]

Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land is the only Kirby remake to not use or include the name of the original game, which, in this case, is Kirby's Adventure.
Advertisements as well as the international box art for Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land used artwork and animation from Kirby: Right Back at Ya! (possibly of the same animation studio), which premiered in North America the same year.
- The North American commercial features a parody of the song "Secret Agent Man" by Johnny Rivers, which was sung by Ted Lewis, who was also the voice of both King Dedede and Escargoon in the English dub of the aforementioned anime.
When Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land is turned on, no less than 120 Kirbys rush across the title screen. This intro was designed to be attention-grabbing without taking up much of the game's memory.^[3]
Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land was the first Kirby game for a handheld system that allowed the hero to dash. Fittingly, it is a remake of the game that introduced Kirby's dash ability.
The first letters of each level (except for the Fountain of Dreams) spell out VIBGYOR, the acronym for the colors of the rainbow (backwards). This trait is directly carried over from the original NES version.
Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land is the final game that Shinichi Shimomura (a longtime level designer for the Kirby series and the director of Kirby's Dream Land 2, Kirby's Dream Land 3, and Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards) contributed to before his sudden and unexplained disappearance from the public eye; Shimomura served as co-director of Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land alongside series creator Masahiro Sakurai.
This was the first Kirby title whose international release reappropriated the logo for Kirby: Right Back at Ya! rather than using the logo that had been in place from Kirby's Dream Land to Kirby Tilt 'n' Tumble. Later games would reuse the Kirby: Right Back at Ya! logo, sometimes altering its color scheme to fit a certain design until Kirby's Extra Epic Yarn. Starting with Kirby and the Forgotten Land, the logo has been redesigned once again.
Oddly, when a boss is defeated, there is a sound of crowd cheering. Most other games do not have this, except in an arena stage that takes place in a stadium.
- It is possible that the sound producers misheard the crashing sound effect from the boss defeat sequence in older Kirby games or placed the sound effect used in arena stages.
This is the first game that shows Kirby with an angry expression on the North American box art release (and for the European release as well).
Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land was the first 2D platformer to feature 4-player link play, according to Nakamura.^[3]
Nakamura's mother purchased a copy of Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land on launch day and informed him over a phone call. This was his favorite memory from the project.^[3]
Various music in the game was reused in Kirby: Canvas Curse as "Classic Songs" that play when the Old School sound setting, unlocked in Medal Swap, is active.