GOKAAAAI... SILVER!
@ColdhardSilver
Heck, the original releases of Dream Land 3 and Kirby 64 were rated E despite the aforementioned final bosses (probably because the E10+ rating didn’t exist yet), but those final bosses are likely the sole reason that “Kirby’s Dream Collection” got rated E10+.
Also, yeah, Sectonia’s pretty cool. You know who they should bring back, though, and not just in subgames like they did with every major villain of the series in Kirby Mass Attack? Nightmare. He was the first instance of freaky final bosses in Kirby, and still one of the greatest.
Also, apparently Dark Matter and Zero are basically the overarching villains of the entire franchise. In the Japanese version of Canvas Curse it’s stated that Drawcia made a pact with Zero to gain power (explaining why her soul form greatly resembled Zero), and Dark Nebula from Squeak Squad was known as “Dark Zero” in Japan and is explicitly stated to be of the same species as Dark Matter and Zero.