Nightmare (Kirby)

Kirby is a media franchise created by Japanese video game designer and director Masahiro Sakurai. The franchise revolves around the titular protagonist and his adventures on the fictional planet Popstar and beyond. The franchise is primarily developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo, with both companies jointly owning the property.

The franchise mainly consists of a video game series, which in turn mainly comprises platformer. The first game in the series, Kirby's Dream Land, was released in 1992. The second, Kirby's Adventure (1993), introduced Kirby's signature ability to copy enemy skills, allowing him to use them to progress through levels, distinguishing the series from other entries in the genre. The series also includes games in the puzzle and racing genres. Sakurai conceived the franchise as a game series for beginners, to which he partially attributes the series' success. Currently, the video game series contains thirty-nine games with over 50 million games sold worldwide, making it one of the best-selling video game franchises.

The franchise also includes an anime television series based on the video games, Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, which aired from 2001 to 2003 and also includes a special; and several manga series.

The main Kirby games are side-scrolling action platforms. As Kirby, the spherical pink protagonist, the player must run, jump, and attack enemies while traversing a number of areas, solving puzzles, and battling boss along the way. Kirby possesses the ability to inhale objects and enemies, which he can spit out as a projectile or swallow. Some of these, when swallowed, will grant Kirby a Copy Ability, which allows him to take on a characteristic of that enemy and use it in combat. For example, upon swallowing an enemy that breathes fire, Kirby becomes able to breathe fire or swallowing an enemy with a sword Kirby can use a sword. Kirby can also take in air to inflate himself and fly. In most games, he can do this for as long as he wants, but his attack options become limited to an air bullet.