*This game is a hoax. This page only exists to expose it and stop anyone from buying it!*

Early June 2004 an auction appeared on eBay boasting a Kirby GBA game, called Red Diamond. The box art was so flawless, and the art was impressive at first it was assumed by many to be a promo game. However, this was strange because HAL nor Nintendo made any mention of it.

When everyone was pretty much convinced that it appeared on eBay and was fake, it added to the confusion when an additional copy appeared on Yahoo auctions.

The Ebay Auction

On June 12th 2004, the eBay auction by the user Globe-bargains started at the opening bid of £12.99 GBP (about $23.00). There was no info about the game itself, just the cover art. What was even more baffling is the user's feedback was 700+ at the time.

Strangely however, the auction ended June 14th, 2004 - early.

A picture from the auction: (Click to enlarge)

The Yahoo Auction

On June 13th, 2004, the same game was put up for auction by Pastaloti. The starting bid was $29.99 AUD (about $21.00). This auction started even more promising, because the seller scanned the back of the box. (Thanks to Jboy_144 for saving this!) Only 3 days later the auction ended on June 16th... but it was cancelled strangely...

At first the seller had the back of the box art on the auction, but after I asked her about the game's authenticity, she pulled it and deleted my question. After I inquired why she did this and sent a letter to Nintendo, the auction was cancelled. Coincidence?

Box Art from the auction (thanks Jboy_144!) (Click to enlarge)

No one bought either game from either auction.

Why This Game is a Hoax

The Game Date and Title

At first it looked like this might be a Euro release. However, we all know the game there is still called Kirby Nightmare in Dreamland. The storyline is also the same plug as Nightmare in Dreamland, and it is no doubt by looking at the pics on the back of the box art... it IS Nightmare in Dreamland. However the biggest giveaway is on also on the back of the box, as the (c) for the game is 2001. But release dates around the globe would prove that this release date is a year too early!

Release Dates Japan 10.25.2002 US 12.3.2002 Europe 9.26.2003 Australia 1.27.2004

... And because this game in question is obviously in English, EVERY country that has the game in English all have it named Nightmare in Dreamland, according to their official home Nintendo sites.

The Box Art

The box art is impressive, and at first it is easy to fall for it. However, if this is Nightmare in Dreamland in disguise, we can pick apart even more why this is a hoax.

Angel Kirby - On the cover of the box, clear as day, you can see Kirby with the angel ability. This doesn't appear in Nightmare in Dreamland... but in the still unreleased Amazing Mirror coming in October. This would give whoever was trying to pull this off the advantage, there are probably very many people who still don't know this.

Kirby Holding the Diamond - Kirby holding the diamond is a rip off of Kirby holding his cell phone from Amazing Mirror! (Thanks to Kirby Kid!)

4 Player Link Up - Strange that the game is supposedly seperate from Nightmare in Dreamland and better, with more powerups etc. etc., yet on the back of the box it indicated you NEED Nightmare in Dreamland PAK to use the 4 player option... Ooops, I think someone forgot to edit this out. Didn't they mean to say Red Diamond Game Pak? ;)

Of Pixels and GBA - OddEven2002 noticed a lot of things down to the pixel! It was so impressive I had to include it. ^_^ Here is his original word:

"This game you found on ebay is a fraud! I found it too on ebay, I took the image on a program on my comp, enhanced its size 1200% and compared it to 2 other REAL games, the guy selling it did nothing more than make an image my cutting and pasting images and put them together to look very, very real. But there were 2 MAJOR mistakes in his scam. 1. he got the image down perfectly, but one thing, the "only for gameboy ADVANCE" on the left side of the screen, it does not quite touch the top, I know you might think that the box top might be opened just a little bit, I thought that to at first, but then I noticed, there is a little slit on the top of the box top if it is opened a little bit, there was, ON THE OTHER SIDE! not on the
" only for gameboy ADVANCE" thus being his fault number one!   2. When I looked at the basic graphics, I counted how many pixels made up the thickness of the pink kirby, then I counted the pixel thickness of the "red diamond", and they were different! the only way that would happen if there were two different art drawers working on the box, which does not happen, ever!  And thus so, warn people about this on your site tell them NOT TO BID!!!"

Thanks OddEven2002! ^_^

The Title - Thanks to K Kirby from the forums, you can see that the title is actually a rip off of the art used on the official Nightmare in Dreamland site by Nintendo of Japan. You can visit the site here: http://www.nintendo.co.jp/n08/index.html

The Official Word from Nintendo

I wrote to Nintendo the day I saw this, not accusing the game of being a hoax, but wondering if it had in fact been released. Amazingly I got a response (and not a form letter at that!)

This e-mail was received yesterday, and strangely enough... both auctions were cancelled.

As above, we have proved that in other countries this game was not released.

There is probably so many more little flaws to pick up, but I think we had enough evidence now that this game is entirely fake.

In conclusion: This game is a hoax. Whoever created this used the flashy graphics of Amazing Mirror and the sales pitch of Nightmare in Dreamland to create a tempting game to Kirby players who might not know better. It was a pretty dirty trick. In simple terms DO NOT BUY THIS GAME!

Thanks to everyone who sent in emails playing detective and got stirred up - it was fun! ^_^