Antasma

**Antasma** is an evil bat king and one of the two main antagonists in *Mario & Luigi: Dream Team*, along with Bowser.

## Appearance

Antasma seems to bear similarities in appearance to all of the previous antagonists in the *Mario and Luigi* series (Cackletta, Elder Princess Shroob, the Dark Star and Dark Fawful).

Antasma appears, for the most part, as a bat with a giant grin. At the beginning of the game, though, he appears as a purple cloud, and then a bat. Later in the game, he is shown in his true form, which consist of his cape, bow tie and two claws. In battle, Antasma takes his bat form or a more ghostly looking version of his true form. This form is taller and skinnier and reveals his arms.

In Pillow form, Antasma appears as a purple Pillow with his cape spikes and eyes.

Antasma's speech is based off old Dracula movies with most words having "v"s in them and screaming tics which come from his bat side. He makes careful decisions, since after his imprisonment, such as choosing whose power he needs to help realize his dreams, but can be jumped-on easily when in a false sense of security, such as Bowser attacking him in Dream's Deep and betraying him later on. He has a temper and a strong hate for the P'illo's, especially Prince Dreambert. Others show fear towards him besides the Zeekeeper, who sees him as just a pest.

## Abilities

Antasma has many abilities inside and outside of battle.

### Bat Form

In his bat form, Antasma is able to screech ultrasonic waves that will stun a foe or power up an ally. He is also able to carry great weights such as Bowser and fly long distances. This ability is very similar to Cackletta's bat transform ability.

Antasma confronts Mario in this form while attacking Mario with Bowser in Dream's Deep. After performing one of his fire-spewing attacks, Bowser will cough up a cloud of Antasma clones that will surround Bowser. Should Mario or Dreamy Luigi accidentally hit one of the bats, all of the surviving bats will fly to the right side of the screen and then start flying towards the left side, usually attempting to ram Mario; Mario must counter these bats with a hammer. The remaining bats will return to Bowser, possibly healing him for a small amount of damage.

### True Form

In his true form, Antasma is able to hover and teleport from locations. He is also able to grow vines which he spreads through Neo Bowser Castle to supply power to it from Bowser's dreams. By the end of the game, a wish to the Dreamstone gave Antasma the ability to open portals to the Dream World at will, allowing him to access his stronger battle form.

### Battle Form

Antasma appears in his battle form for the final time after Mario enters his Dream Portal, directly transforming from his true form into his battle form. This form of Antasma is far more powerful than his prior forms.

During this third battle against Antasma, Prince Dreambert will heal Mario by 30HP at the start of Mario's attack turn(s). Antasma's turns usually start with him creating a ring of Antasmunchies around him. At the beginning of most turns, after creating the Antasmunchies, Antasma will then proceed to eat at least two Antasmuchies before attacking: each Antasmunchie gives him an increase in attack power. Antasma can also trap Dreamy Luigi in an Antasmunchie and mix them around to prevent the defeat of the Antasmunchie holding him captive. If Antasma eats the Antasmunchie containing Dreamy Luigi, his power increases tremendously, and Mario suffers from reduced stats and cannot perform Luiginary attacks as long as Antasma or his Antasmunchies have Luigi. Antasma spits Dreamy Luigi out after several turns if he manages to swallow him.

The Antasmunchies also assist Antasma in two of his other attacks. If Antasma takes a sufficient amount of damage, he may hang off the top of the screen, raising a shield around him and hibernating to recover health (200 HP per Antasma's attack turn after the turn the move is activated). While Antasma is hibernating, his Antasmunchies will transform into insect-like monsters and will try to ram Mario each turn, lowering his power if they succeed; this attack must be countered with a hammer. After all the Antasmunchies are defeated, Antasma wakes up and resumes the battle. Jumps are not useful for them due to the spikes on the top so Mario will take damage if he does jump on them when they are in this form. If Dreamy Luigi is freed when Antasma uses this attack, he will flip the screen up-side-down and it makes it harder to counter with the hammer.

Antasma's last Antasmunchie-related attack is to turn them into a ring of explosives. Antasma will create a ring of Antasmunchies, and then proceed to chase Mario. Every so often Antasma will throw the bombs straight in front of him, often re-directing them with his hand: Mario must get in the middle of the ring of Antasmuchies and jump when Antasma makes them explode. Antasma and Mario will both take damage from the shockwave the Antasmunchies create, but if Mario directly touches an Antasmunchie, they will explode, send Mario flying after dealing damage; a nightmare area may occur. Notably, the recoil damage Antasma can take from this attack is related to Antasma's attack power, not Mario's: thus, Antasma will take more damage on hard mode than he would in normal mode due to his higher attack power.

Antasma can also turn into a group of bats, whom will all fly towards Mario like in the first battle against him; however, it can cause the Trip aliment, and Mario may get a dark cloud around him if he gets hit by the bats, sending him to the "nightmare area." In this area, Mario will find himself being chased by a slightly larger Antasma that shoots purple fireballs that must be jumped over. Portals are found throughout the nightmare; to escape the nightmare, Mario has to find the Rainbow Portal, which contains coins and a Super Mushroom; if Mario falls in a purple portal, it takes him into an area with floating sawblades that must be avoided by tilting the 3DS, after which the chase will resume, with a spider web covering the portal he had fallen into.

Antasma's last attack involves him creating clones of himself, with the real Antasma displaying a large electrical orb in his hand. The Antasmas will then quickly be shuffled into a line and pull their hand out: the real Antasma will fire the orb as soon as he pulls his hand out. The orb can lower Mario's defense and can cause the nightmare area event, but can be deflected back at Antasma with a hammer.

## Quotes

* *"I can give you power beyond your vildest dreams!"*
* *"SCREEEEMBERT! You! Meddling vith me again..."*
* *"I vish... TO CONQUER THE VORLD!"*
* *"SCREENK! Always, these pests vex us..."*
* *"SCREEYEE! I can open dream portals venever I vish now... For that is vut I vished from the Dream Stone... In the dream vorld, I vill be at full strength...I haff changed, Dreambert. You haff been varned..."*

## TMNT X Pokemon

Antasma is one of the many villains you'll face throughout the game. He's one of the strongest on the difficulty scale.

## Trivia

* Antasma bears much resemblance to Cackletta with his attacks, such as attacking with a swarm of bats, or duplicating oneself. He also joins his power with Bowser in the Bros.' fight against him much like Cackletta does for a longer period of time; however, Bowser's mind is not taken over and instead, Antasma is just simply boosting his power, in the same manner that Dreamy Luigi boosts Mario's power (with similar animations). Additionally, they both have spiked capes.
* Antasma has many similarities with Count Dracula. Antasma speaks with a Slavic accent and can transform into a bat, similar to Dracula. Antasma's Russian name, "Mrakula", is even a pun on "Dracula".
* Antasma gives the largest amount of EXP in *Mario & Luigi: Dream Team*, at 7500 EXP (before multipliers). This exceeds the Gold Beanie, the second largest EXP provider, by 3500 EXP, and the previous non-giant boss (Pi'illodium) by 3900 EXP.