Meta Ridley (SSBB)

Meta Ridley (, Meta Ridley), is an unplayable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and only playable in Boss Battles via hacking. He has no specific voice actor, simply screeching. He is one of two boss forms of Ridley in Brawl, the other being.

When playable, while his power will scale with difficulty, Meta Ridley is exceptionally weak — even weaker than his organic form — missing most moves that define his boss appearance, including most of his Falcon Flyer-based attacks. With very little KO potential outside of an admittedly quick Mega Fire Ball, Meta Ridley is among the weakest Brawl bosses and one of the worst characters in the game.

Attributes
Meta Ridley has seven moves, with four of them being unusable. Mega Fire Ball deals massive damage and is near-instant, but is effectively the only useful move he has, which sends him reeling back and forcing him to return the stage while being completely inactionable. Falcon Flyer Slam deals respectable damage but is easily avoided, and Swoop deals minimal damage. Because of his extreme end-lag in having to slowly return to the Falcon Flyer when using two of his moves, there is very little that Meta Ridley can actually do, which makes him difficult to evaluate.

Moveset
Like all bosses, Meta Ridley's moves are inputted using a set of commands with a GameCube controller, chiefly with the D-Pad. Move names are taken from the Japanese strategy guide for Brawl. Damage varies by difficulty, the following being taken from the game's files. 's Grapple Beam restores AI control. Unlike its boss appearance, Meta Ridley can't use Claw Sweep, Rapid Fire Shot, Falcon Flyer Pull, or Falcon Flyer Smash.

Codes
Like all Brawl bosses, Meta Ridley can be accessed using a Gecko code that enables debug mode controls for Player 3 in Boss Battles. It is encountered randomly without additional external modifications, meaning other bosses need to be defeated or forced to self-destruct with their own codes to reach Meta Ridley's stage. The following codes are for the NTSC-U version of Brawl and both codes must be on.

In competitive play
Because Meta Ridley is only playable through hacking, he's banned by default in all competitive Brawl tournaments. While some boss characters have arguments to be legalised, Brawl's bosses have unique challenges that make them particularly unlikely cases. They do not conform to the usual ruleset, are exclusive to Boss Battles and thus their specific stage, are subject to Boss Battles's random boss selection without further modifications, and have varying difficulty levels that would require rulings to decide on them properly. This boils down to a very clunky experience that would likely end up delaying tournaments due to the length of time it takes for them to be set up. Furthermore, 's Grapple Beam can reset the controls of Brawl bosses, which could cause further ruling issues. Ergo, Meta Ridley has seen little to no competitive experimentation outside of casual matches.

In The Subspace Emissary
Meta Ridley is encountered while among other characters escape from The Subspace Bomb Factory after being defeated in The Research Facility prior. He pursues the Falcon Flyer, assaulting it with various attacks, before eventually being brought down, careening away in flames. He later reappears in The Great Maze.

Trivia

 * When accessed in Boss Battles, Meta Ridley spawns t-posing.