Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land

Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land is a Game Boy Advance game that is a remake of the Nintendo Entertainment System game, Kirby's Adventure. It was released in 2002 in Japan and North America and in 2003 in Europe and Australia.

Gameplay
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 minigames 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 Nightmare!" after completing Extra Mode with Kirby. Meta-Knightmare is like playing Extra Mode but as Meta Knight. He has 3 health points, cannot save, and uses various sword techniques instead of copying abilities.

Levels
The game is divided into eight levels, the first seven of which contain multiple stages, and the 8th having the final boss. Defeating the boss in each area unlocks the next area. The areas are Vegetable Valley, Ice Cream Island, Butter Building, Grape Garden, Yogurt Yard, Orange Ocean, Rainbow Resort, and The Fountain of Dreams. The first seven levels have at least one of the following:


 * Museum - this area allows Kirby to copy abilities for free.
 * Colosseum - this area requires Kirby to fight a mini-boss. The reward is a M-Tomato and whatever ability his boss possessed.
 * Warp Star Room - this room allows Kirby to travel between levels quickly.
 * Sub-Game Room - this room allows Kirby to play one of the three default Sub-Games. Unlike other rooms, these will automatically barricade once played.

Sub-Games
Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land has a few Sub-Games, which can be played in the main game for extra lives or from the main menu. Very simple. When the exclamation mark appears, hit A as fast as you can. If you do it fast enough, you win the round. This is the only mini-game to return from Kirby's Adventure, although its graphical design is styled after the Kirby Super Star Sub-Game Samurai Kirby.
 * Quick Draw

You press the A button to serve a lit bomb, which serves as the ball in this game. There are three other Kirbies. Each Kirby hits the bomb to the previous or to the next Kirby. When it comes to you, you can hit it to the next Kirby, (Press A) or to the previous Kirby (Press A to change your direction, then hit the ball with A again). Failing to hit the bomb results in it exploding in your face. The object is to be the last Kirby standing.
 * Bomb Rally

Race to the finish against three other Kirbies. You are all on Warp Stars. Hold A to stay on the track and avoid the black bars by releasing A (which slow you down (however, if you get off and back on the rail close enough to the rail you will get a boost). This mini game is similar to Kirby Air Ride.
 * Kirby's Air Grind

Beating the main game unlocks Boss Endurance, where you fight all of the games bosses one at a time, with no pauses or health refills. If you get 100% in the main game, you unlock Extra Mode. Extra Mode is regular gameplay, only you have three health bars instead of six.

Boss Endurance
This sub-game has Kirby attempt defeating all eight bosses in a row without any health pick-ups or additional lives. By defeating a boss, Kirby is taken to the next boss battle.

Bosses
The bosses are listed here, in the order you fight them (In both the game and the Boss Endurance sub-game):
 * 1. Whispy Woods
 * A tree who spits wind and drops apples on your head. He stays still the whole battle.


 * 2. Paint Roller
 * Draws enemies on his sketch pad, which come to life and attack you.


 * 3. Mr. Shine and Mr. Bright
 * Mr. Bright is the moon, and uses a boomerang-type weapon to battle you. Mr. Shine is the sun, capable of shooting fireballs at you.  Both bosses share the same health bar, each having only half of a bar.  They alternate fighting with one in sky and one on the ground.  When in the sky they assist each other by using an extremely powerful technique.  Mr. Bright attacks with a barrage of stars which can be sucked up to give the Cutter ability, Mr. Shine sends a ray of sunlight which spawns two stars which give the Fire ability. You must defeat both to advance, after one dies the other fights and the defeated boss still uses his sky attack.


 * 4. Kracko
 * A cloud with a huge eyeball in the middle and spikes around him. He can zap you with lightning, charge you, or shoot out Hi-Jump enemies at you.


 * 5. Heavy Mole
 * A metal machine that digs and digs, frequently shooting out red and orange bullets. The red bullets contain the Sleep power, which makes you vulnerable to crush in between walls. The orange bullets, however, contain the Hammer power, enabling you to smack Heavy Mole with it and flatten the destructible environment.


 * 6. Meta Knight
 * This masked knight is shrouded in mystery. He'll challenge you to a duel with swords. Beat him, and you may find that he's not so different from Kirby at all...


 * 7. King Dedede
 * This immense penguin-like character tries to crush you with his hammer.


 * 8. Nightmare
 * He appears in two forms, an orb and a wizard-like creature. The orb is a ball of nightmares shoots stars at you. It is purple, black, and blue with white stars on it. The later form shoots out stars, too. To hit him, wait until he opens up his cloak and shoot at the blurry, static-looking, white-glowing part of his body.

Graphics
Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land uses colorful two-dimensional graphics, making it the first game in the series to use 32-bit graphics. The graphics of this game are unlike any previously-seen Kirby game. The pose often used for Kirby's inhaling ability has been altered to match the pose from the anime (or vice-versa), which debuted alongside Nightmare in Dream Land. The sprites from this game have been reused for Kirby & The Amazing Mirror, Kirby: Squeak Squad, and Kirby Super Star Ultra. However, there has also been some criticism for the omission of certain materials that pushed the NES to its limit, and replaced by what is often considered lazy for the Game Boy Advance. For instance, the rotating pseudo-3D towers in Butter Building were removed. In addition, the difficulty is significantly lower.

Sound
In Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land, as is such with many other Game Boy Advance games, when characters talk, words appear on the screen and no voice actors are required, however some voice acting is still used in the game when Kirby has the Mike ability. In Nightmare, there are over 30 musical melodies and over 270 sounds, and all can be accessed from the options menu. Many of these sounds are recycled from other Kirby games.

Trivia

 * Same as in Kirby's Adventure, the first letter of the seven main areas of the game are identical to the first letter of the names of the seven colors of a rainbow, but in reverse order (Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, and Red). Also, six of the areas have names that include the name of a type of food (Vegetable, Ice Cream, Butter, Grape, Yogurt, and Orange).
 * If you wait about 10-15 seconds on the title screen, a scene is shown that tells the story about why Kirby must go stop King Dedede and how he must return the Star Rod. It also shows King Dedede bathing in the Fountain of Dreams.
 * Although the back of the game's box claims that characters from the Kirby anime appear in the game (i.e. Tiff and Tuff), no such characters actually appear in the game itself. This likely only done to promote the anime, which was airing at the time of release.
 * Nightmare in Dreamland was the first game in the series to feature the new branding based on the overseas localization of the Kirby anime. Every US boxart since then has featured Kirby with an angry expression on his face, as opposed to the respective Japanese artwork where he looks either happy or surprised. European versions vary between the happy and the angry artworks. The changes most likely are done to make the games more appealing to non-Japanese audiences.
 * The "Fireball" ability was renamed to "Burning" in this version of the game.
 * A turtle mini-boss in Kirby's Adventure had its graphics changed, but otherwise acts the same; it is now recognized as an elephant mini-boss named "Phan Phan".
 * In the last stage of Rainbow Resort, the enemies are no longer black and white as in Kirby's Adventure.