Meta Knight (occasionally formatted as Meta-Knight in older media) is a masked, winged swordsman who serves as a recurring character in the Kirby series, first appearing in Kirby's Adventure. He is a mysterious figure, and his backstory is not clearly shown in the game series. The installments he appears in usually feature him as a boss, but since Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land, there have been instances where he is playable in alternate modes, or even teams up with Kirby directly. 