Ridley (SSBB)

Ridley (, Ridley), is an unplayable character in 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, Ridley is exceptionally weak, missing multiple moves that define his boss appearance, most notably Slamming Rush. Ergo, he lacks any kind of KO potential, relying on Flying Stomp, which doesn't track the opponent well. The most he can achieve is repeatedly using Fly Off to leave the stage to stall, but without a timer in Boss Battles, nothing happens. Without any kill power, Ridley is among the weakest Brawl bosses and among the worst characters in the game.

Attributes
Ridley has a pair of moves that strike the middle of the stage, those being Claw Sweep and Tail Sweep. Claw Sweep deals a single meaty hit, while Tail Sweep is a multi-hit move; the latter is trivial to SDI, so Claw Sweep is usually the better damaging option. Blasting Roar is generally useless, but the hitbox on the head can, against an uninformed opponent, deal a surprise hit.

Because Fly Off does not lead into Slamming Rush, Ridley can use any other move in his kit alongside it, something unseen in the actual boss fight. Flying Stomp can be used in a way that is harder to telegraph (albeit with the usage itself given away by the camera), Blasting Roar can be used from centre-stage, and Claw Sweep and Tail Sweep can target the edge. Repeated uses of Fly Off can help Ridley stay out of range of even moves like 's Blaster, allowing for Ridley to effectively become unreachable and stall.

However, Ridley greatly suffers from a collection of problems that cause his moveset to be effectively non-functional, being mired with glitches. Fly Off doesn't initiate Slamming Rush, instead effectively being half the move, and while this can be repeated and used in conjunction with his other moves, it doesn't make up for the lost KO potential. Flying Stomp and Background Ram — his only other KO options — don't track the opponent well at all, making it almost impossible for him to connect strong hits against his opponents. Ergo, all Ridley is capable of doing is hoping an opponent jumps into his head during Blasting Roar to potentially land a KO, making him almost unplayable.

Moveset
Like all bosses, 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, Ridley cannot finish Fly Off → Slamming Rush, only having the input for the former move, and can't use Loop-de-Loop either.

Codes
Like all Brawl bosses, 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 Ridley's stage. The following codes are for the NTSC-U version of Brawl and both codes must be on.

In competitive play
Because 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. Ridley's ability to stall out games with Fly Off is also something that could be considered uncompetitive and require further ruling debates, likely categorising it under scrooging. Ergo, Ridley has seen little to no competitive experimentation outside of casual matches.

In The Subspace Emissary
Ridley famously appears in Research Facility II as the fifth boss in The Subspace Emissary, ambushing and dragging her across the walls of the building as she tries to rescue. He is defeated and sent falling into the depths, but later appears as. Both Ridley forms are later fought during The Great Maze.

Trivia

 * Some of Ridley's moves can cause him to slowly move forwards if an action isn't taken directly after he becomes actionable. If left alone, he will move forward indefinitely.