Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land

Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land is a portable remake of Kirby's Adventure, with the obvious updates (including the graphics, now matching the more recent games) and several new changes.

Sub-Pages#

Prerelease Info Unused Enemy PalettesMost enemies have four different palettes, but several of them go unseen.

HAL Room#

The HAL Room from Kirby's Adventure in 1-2-1 (room 09) is still present, but because the game works very differently internally, the method to access it from the original game won't work.

To access the HAL Room, Kirby has to go to the right of the Warp Star, then the player has to turn on and turn off the two codes:

The Warp Star will then take off and crash ahead of the screen, allowing Kirby to move forward to the HAL Room.

It remains unchanged from Kirby's Adventure, the only difference being the lack of a Broom Hatter on the L. Kirby will also not be able to run after the Warp Star crashes.

Debug Rooms#

Use the GameShark code below:

then enter Level 1 Stage 1 to see it. (Tested on VisualBoyAdvance)

Many debug rooms remain in the ROM, all with a specific purpose.

Room 149#

The main debug hub. Eight doors are present, but only five of them work. The ones that work lead to, from left to right: Room 14A, Room 14B, Room 14C, Room 150, Room 151.

Room 14A#

Seems to be a general test of level building and tiles. Both doors lead back to the main hub.

Room 14B#

A test room for various slope types. Both doors lead back to the main hub.

Room 14C#

Test room for breakable blocks as well as the Fire Lion. The text on the blocks of the top level, which can be broken with any attack, translate as "Directly/Easily". The text on the strong blocks by the Fire Lion means "Hammer", and the text on the bomb blocks is, predictably, "bomb". Both doors lead back to the main hub.

Room 14D#

Inaccessible from the debug hub, this room tests air and water currents. Both doors lead to Room 14E, though the underwater door is nearly impossible to access.

Room 14E#

A debugging room for icy surfaces and spikes. The door leads back to Room 14D.

Room 14F#

Cannon test room, both for testing the general functionality of cannons and the vertical scrolling of Kirby after he has been fired from one. There is no way in or out of this room without cheating.

Room 150#

A debug room possibly used to test Kirby's interactions with various surfaces when near the bottom of the screen. The door leads back to the debug hub.

Room 151#

Obviously a miniboss test room. The door leads back to, unsurprisingly, the debug hub.

Room 152#

A general test room for the most common of tile types. No way in or out of this room.

Room 153#

A test room for, presumably, testing Kirby's interactions with various surfaces while near the top of the screen. Note that tiles with the red background cannot be accessed, as the screen borders cut them off.

Partially Unused Music#

Fountain of Dreams Hub#

Like in the original NES game, the theme that plays after Kirby defeats King Dedede only plays for about 18 seconds before fading out. However, after those 18 seconds have passed, the song will continue playing in a loop that only consists of synth and percussion.

Partially Unused Sounds#

A "plop" sound, located inside the last two Voicegroups. It's not quite exactly unused, as this is the sample used by the air bullet. However, due to various effects being applied to it, it sounds completely different to the base one. The unmodified sample was later used in Kirby: Canvas Curse whenever Kirby exited a tube.

An explosion sound, also inside the last two Voicegroups. Like the "plop" sample, it's not unused, as this is used by enemies that explode. However, many effects have been applied to it that it sounds nothing like the base one. A modified version would later be used for the Bomb Copy Ability starting from Kirby's Return to Dream Land.

Ability Icon#

Unused	Final

A placeholder icon found among the rest of the HUD graphics, the finalized icon is included for comparison. The text translates as "fire", but it's spelled in a different way than the actual Fire ability's icon (closer to "fiyah" in English pronunciation).

Unused Level Tiles#

Debug Rooms#

Even the debug tileset has unused tiles. These tiles might have been used in earlier versions of debugging rooms.

A variety of tile types go unused.

Interestingly, most of the unused tiles are lifted directly from Kirby's Dream Land 3! For whatever reason, Nightmare in Dream Land borrows heavily from that game's debug tileset.

In addition to the above tiles, there are more unused tiles with Japanese text. They translate as, from left to right: Fire, Stone, Ice, Needle, Broom, Umbrella, Electricity, Cutter. These were the abilities from Kirby's Dream Land 3.

Regional Differences#

Japan	US	Europe

Aside from the logo change and the language selection added, the European version moved the copyright text down slightly, along with changing 1993-2002 to 1993-2003.

References#