Nightmare Wizard

Remember this villain? Back in the NES days, we all thought we were competing against an obese penguin in the 8-bit masterpiece Kirby's Adventure, that is, until we clobbered him silly. Then, we uncovered the true villain of the game, a horrible wizard from the Moon (really) who is as every bit as brutal as a final video boss should be.

Trust me. This guy was one of the stiffest challenges that my childhood twitch skills ever had to tangle with. It's been a while. I wonder if I've still got it in me to take him down.

Anyway, the dark wizard of your darkest dreams is also an assist trophy in Super Smash Bros. for the Wii U and 3DS. He follows shortly after his peon Meta Knight was announced as a playable character. Director Masahiro Sakurai describes his ability as being able to turn off the battle's lights and force players to go at it blindly.

Nightmare Wizard appears as an Assist Trophy! He will engulf the stage in darkness, and fighters will need to brawl blindly for a while. Look out for the effect before it goes dark, and play it to your advantage. Blinding and reversal effects even make the computer players mess up.

Sounds hideous, but I'm glad to see him in HD for the first time. His 8-bit sprites were so amazing that even this new model looks a little drab by comparison. Not to say that he doesn't look marvelous, but he was truly one of the defining boss battles of the NES era.