Kirby franchise strategy guide/Bosses/Nightmare

Nightmare (ナイトメア naitomea), also known as the Cloaked Nightmare according to the Star Rod trophy in Super Smash Bros. Melee, is a fictional character in the Kirby series of video games. He was the ultimate villain of Kirby's Adventure, the franchise's sole Nintendo Entertainment System game, and was the final boss Kirby had to fight.

In the games
The game's story revolves around Nightmare invading the Fountain of Dreams. As a result of this, King Dedede splits up the Star Rod into seven pieces and gives them to his sub-bosses, preventing Nightmare from using it to spread bad dreams. Unfortunately, without the Star Rod, the people of Dream Land have dreamless sleep, so Kirby goes on an adventure to reclaim the pieces of the Star Rod and put it back together. Kirby does not know of what's really going on until after he defeats Dedede in battle and places the Star Rod back in the Dream Fountain. As a result, Nightmare tries to get the Star Rod, but Kirby uses it to fight Nightmare.

Nightmare's first form, the Nightmare Power Orb, is fought in midair as a ball shooting star-shaped missiles at Kirby, similar in style to Kaboola (the blimp from Kirby's Dream Land). If Kirby and the Power Orb fight long enough they will find themselves at the ground. Basically, although the battle starts in the sky, Kirby and the Power Orb slowly move downward as they fight. After Kirby defeats this first form, the battle moves to the moon, where the second half of the battle commences. There, Nightmare takes on his second and regular form, Nightmare Wizard, which resembles a vampire (or possibly a wraith or genie). Curiously, Nightmare seems to have less defense in his regular form, as it takes fewer hits to defeat him this time than in the previous phase. However, Nightmare makes up for this by only being vulnerable while he is attacking, and even then only in the lower half of his body. He attacks by shooting stars, coming upside down and trying to crash down on Kirby, or using his tornado attack, and can even teleport around (interestingly, some other final boss monsters in the Kirby series that can teleport include Dark Mind and Marx). Upon taking enough hits from the Star Rod, Nightmare dissolves into nothingness, thus ensuring that "tonight, Dream Land will sleep well".

With the exception of a non-fightable cameo appearance of his ball form in Kirby's Avalanche, Nightmare did not appear in another new Kirby game afterward. In fact, many elements from Kirby's Adventure found their way into Kirby Super Star on the Super NES, but Nightmare himself did not. One particular boss battle, that with Marx in the "Milky Way Wishes" portion of the game, even used the same setting as the final battle from Kirby's Adventure. Nightmare's only other appearance was in Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land, the Game Boy Advance remake of Kirby's Adventure. A character named Dark Mind, who appears in Kirby and the Amazing Mirror resembles Nightmare and another Kirby villain named Dark Matter as if they were fused together. Nightmare was also later seen in a picture found in one of the treasure chests in Kirby: Squeak Squad. That picture is of a group of the major bosses in various Kirby platform games, which includes King Dedede, Dark Matter, Dark Mind, Marx, and Nightmare himself.

In the anime
Likely due to the fact the anime coincided with the release of the Kirby's Adventure remake, Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land, it was decided that Nightmare be the main villain for the series, Kirby: Right Back at Ya!.

In the series, he runs the evil Holy NightMare Co. In the English dub, he runs 'NightMare Enterprises', or 'NME' for short ('NME' is pronounced 'enemy'). In addition, Nightmare's name is changed to eNeMeE.(Once again, eNeMeE is pronounced 'enemy'.)

The anime version of Nightmare already dominates much of the universe from the series' beginning. He uses his ability to create an endless number of creatures known as demon beasts to conquer civilations. He also sells them to unsuspecting customers for a profit, via the Internet.

His only opposition are the Star Warriors and Galaxy Soldier Army, but he defeated all but a few of them before the show begins.

Early in the series, it is revealed that Nightmare isn't always successful in creating new demon beasts. On rare occasions, they disobey him. The stone sage Kabu tells the siblings Tiff and Tuff about a time when one of Nightmare's creations turned against him. It is very strongly implied that this rebel was Kirby (although some fans believe it may be Meta Knight, there is little evidence beyond speculation).

Nightmare appears only as a shadowy figure in the background for much of the series, masterminding various plots against Kirby. However, much of the time he doesn't seem serious about defeating the young Star Warrior (The most logical explanation is that like many villains, he is very over-confidient). His full form isn't revealed in the final episode, and never is.

As told in one of Nightmare's lines later in the series, he is a dream just as his name implies. He seems to be an embodiment of life's fear and suffering, and so he strives to bring more pain in order to increase his power- and will always exist as long as people hold fear in their hearts.

One of Nightmare's only employees we see is Customer Service (known in the English dub as the Nightmare Enterprises Salesman). He is likely also a demon beast Nightmare created, and is solely responsible for handling the company's sales (and sometimes advertising.) Customer Service speaks very politely in the original version, but doesn't pass up a chance to subtly insult customers like King Dedede. In the dub, his persona is more that of the stereotypical used car salesman. Nightmare Enterprises Salesman, when initialed, become NES, which may be a reference to Kirby's Adventure.

Both characters are voiced by Banjō Ginga in the original version. In the dub, Nightmare is voiced by Andrew Rannells, and is often criticized for not being an accurate portrayal of the character. Dan Green voices Nightmare Enterprise Salesman, and is often considered one of the better voices in the dub.

Nightmare Enterprises
Nightmare Enterprises, or for short NME (a play on enemy). known in the Japanese version as Holy Nightmare Corporation (ホーリーナイトメア社), or HNM for short, is a fictional corporation that appears in the Kirby: Right Back at Ya! anime. It is found in Nightmare's Fortress and led by Nightmare (eNeMe in the English dub of the anime).

Nightmare created the company tens of thousands of years ago as a front for the armies of demon beasts (monsters in the English dub) that he uses to conquer planets. NME already has control of much of the universe at the series' beginning. He also profits by selling his demon beasts to customers like King Dedede.

In addition to various demon beasts, NME also produces a plethora of mundane items- such as clothing- and it even has its own TV network, Nightmare Network. However, all profit goes to the same evil purpose.

The company's base of operations was finally destroyed when Kirby and the rest of the Halberd crew blew up the entire fortress from the inside in the final episodes.

Nightmare's Fortress
Nightmare's Fortress is a planet-sized fictional space station that serves as the company's base of operations. Its appearance is first shown in the show's closing episodes (released in America as the direct-to-video film Kirby: Fright to the Finish).

Nightmare's Fortress appears to be a gigantic, dark blue, U.F.O.-like spaceship with huge, glowing structures covering the surface. The inside is a maze-like mass of metal corridors and massive trenches as well as trolleys like those found in the Halberd. A red orb on the front of the fortress could be a reference to the computer HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey, as the company that produces the Kirby series did take its name from the film. It is more likely that it is a reference to the Kirby series villain Dark Matter, although it never actually appeared in the final version of the anime (as it only appears in the pilot).

The fortress itself is controlled from its command center at the very heart of the base, which is also used to deliver the monsters to customers like King Dedede himself via the monster transporter located inside it as well as control all other aspects of the company and fortress.It is accessible from an elevator, and is also the very same room where he often speaks with the shadowed Nightmare in. The command center is found inside a metallic tower with a top connected by tons of metal cables, plus it includes that same elevator used to access that very room the Salesguy speaks to Dedede from.

Another part of the fortress is Nightmare's private room, containing only a giant chess board suspended in space. That is the place place where Nightmare creates nightmares and all of his demon beasts- including Kirby. It is first seen in the episode "Kirby's Duel Role".

Another portion of the fortress is the Demon Beast Training School, revealing in episode 94, Escaped Demon Beast Phanphan, aired in the US as The Cowardly Creature. There, various monsters are split up between four classes (the flower class, star class, moon class, and snow class) where they train and compete against each other to be the best. It is led by an assortment of evil clown-like creatures and resembles a circus in some ways.

The Fortress resembles the Mecheye level in Milky Way Wishes to the exception of the red eye in the middle.

Destrayas
Destrayers (sometimes known as Destrayas) serve as protection for Nightmare's Fortress. They are massive disk-shaped ships that attack by firing orbs from their bottoms or lasers from their fronts. Their attacks are very powerful, and one was even able to chip off a piece of Kirby's Warpstar. The first of the Destrayers showed up in the two-part episode "Crisis of the Warpstar", aired in the USA as "Air-Ride-in-Style".

Air Riders
Air Riders also protect Nightmare's Fortress. They are alien creatures riding on four different Air Ride machines (Formula Star, Rocket Star, Winged Star, and Shadow Star (Devil Star in the original Japanese.)) and carrying different weapons. They are stored inside Destrayers and fly into action when needed. The weapons they carry include batons, flamethrowers, gold maces, endless supplies of tops, and missile launchers (which look like their flamethrowers but shoot missiles instead of flames). In the original version, the Air Ride Machines they ride on are said to be what Nightmare stole from the Star Warriors that were all but leveled by his monster armies. According to Kabu, Nightmare had been stealing these Air Ride Machines throughout the universe. For every Air Rider that Kirby defeats, he gets to ride on its Air Ride Machine until it is destroyed.

The letters shown in the beginning of the names for the Air Ride Machines are placed on each of the Air Riders' foreheads. The letters show what Air Ride Machines they ride on. The "F" symbolizes that that rider rides the Formula Star, the "R" symbolizes that it rides the Rocket Star, the "W" symbolizes that it rides the Winged Star, and the "S" (in the Japanese version, the letter is a "D") symbolizes that it rides the Shadow Star (or Devil Star).