Ridley

''For boss info, see Ridley (SSBB). For his cybernetically-enhanced form, see Meta Ridley. For the Japanese smasher, see .''

Ridley (, Ridley) is a character from the series, and a major antagonist throughout the majority of the series, in which he generally acts as one of the later bosses. A draconic creature hailing from, Ridley is a vicious, yet highly intelligent member of the s, and is one of its most prominent leaders, alongside Mother Brain. He is also the arch-nemesis of the Metroid series' protagonist, Samus Aran.

Ridley made his debut in Super Smash Bros. Brawl as a boss in, returned as a stage hazard in , and transitioned into a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Origin
Ridley, also known by the identifier Geoform 187, is one of the main antagonists of the Metroid series, the other being Mother Brain. His appearance varies slightly across the series, but he is generally a large, winged alien that resembles a dragon or pterosaur. In spite of his bestial appearance and fearsome mannerisms, he is by no means a mindless animal, but a high-ranking that is sapient and, in some material, capable of speech.

Ridley is directly connected to Samus Aran's past. In the , he led a Space Pirate ambush on an Afloraltite mining expedition on, where Samus lived. He attacked her, but ended up killing, Samus' mother, when she jumped between the two to save her. , Samus' father, then detonated the Afloraltite, killing himself and several Space Pirates, and forcing Ridley to flee.

In , Ridley is a leader of the Space Pirates on planet. He, Mother Brain, and the Space Pirates stole and cloned the eponymous creatures for galactic domination. Ridley, however, was surprised to find the little girl from years ago, now a grown woman, came to defeat him. In the remake , he had also created a robot replica of himself called. However, this robot was unfinished before fighting Samus, when it was destroyed.

Ridley returned in , revived as the cyborg "Meta Ridley". In this new form, Ridley oversaw the experiments of on the wildlife of  aboard the Frigate Orpheon. This backfired, as the creatures mutated into s that escaped captivity and ransacked the ship. Meta Ridley encountered Samus aboard the frigate, fleeing to Tallon IV below while she gave pursuit. They then clashed at the, where the Chozo architecture turned on Meta Ridley and struck him with several lasers to the chest, knocking him into the.

Meta Ridley returned with an improved armorskin after Dark Samus took control of the Space Pirates in . Meta Ridley led the Pirate assault on, but was defeated by Samus. Upon retreating to the, Meta Ridley was exposed to massive amounts of Phazon inside the , mutating into . This powered-up form became the Leviathan guardian and fought Samus, but he was again defeated and subsequently cleansed of Phazon.

In , Ridley arrived on planet SR388 just as Samus returned to her ship with the Baby Metroid in tow. Ridley's body was still partially healing with cybernetic prosthetics, now known as "". After an arduous battle, Proteus Ridley was left incapacitated on the planet's surface as Samus fled for the Ceres Station to deliver the Baby Metroid.

In Super Metroid, Ridley's body had completely healed, so he kidnapped the Baby Metroid from Ceres. Samus chased him back to planet Zebes, where there was a rebuilt Pirate base. Samus battled Ridley as one of the guardians to Tourian, defeating him a final time. When Mother Brain's death caused the destruction of Zebes, Ridley's remains were consumed in the blast, supposedly marking the true death of Samus's longstanding nemesis.

However, Ridley's legacy lived on. In , Ridley was unintentionally cloned via a DNA sample from Samus' armor after their battle in Super Metroid. The result was initially a small creature dubbed "", which Samus encountered on the. Later on, it evolved into a that ambushed Samus before being repelled by Galactic Federation soldiers. After escaping, he evolved into his most recognizable form. Samus met the reborn Ridley in the Geothermal Power Plant, going into a state of shock until supposedly sacrificed himself to protect her. Samus fought the cloned Ridley, but he escaped once more, only to be cornered by a and drained into a lifeless husk.

In , the husk of Ridley's clone appeared, cryogenically frozen, on the research station. Samus discovered it halfway through her mission, watching it shatter as an copied his DNA. Samus later encountered the X-mimic as the mutant "" and defeated it, presumably ending Ridley for good.

In Super Smash Bros.
Ridley appears on Planet Zebes, flying in the background. His appearance is based off of his Super Metroid sprite.

In Super Smash Bros. Melee
Ridley has a cameo in the opening movie of Super Smash Bros. Melee, fighting, when Samus jumps over him and shoots several missiles. As the opening movie was part of the game's initial reveal, this scene led to fan speculation that Ridley would be a playable character, though this ended up not being the case. Like in Super Metroid, Ridley is carrying the baby Metroid's capsule, though unlike in Super Metroid, Samus has both the and Missiles.

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl
In an interview with the gaming magazine , when asked if Ridley was considered as a playable fighter in Brawl, Masahiro Sakurai replied that making Ridley playable would have been impossible without putting their best efforts into it. He commented that Ridley may have been "a little slow" as a fighter.

Hacking of Brawl reveals incomplete Assist Trophy data for Ridley; presumably, Ridley was initially planned as an Assist Trophy but was instead included as a boss.

A remix of Ridley's theme from Super Metroid and Meta Ridley's theme from Metroid Prime both appear in Brawl, the latter being directly ported from the game. In addition, Ridley's lair in the Metroid series, Norfair, is featured as a stage.

Role in the Subspace Emissary
Ridley is the fifth boss in the Subspace Emissary. and must fight him at the end of the Research Facility II. In the cutscene prior to the battle, Ridley ambushes and grabs Samus, flying upward and scraping her along the walls. Pikachu breaks Samus free from Ridley's grasp using. In the first battle, Ridley has higher health and uses moves ranging from claw swipes to a move similar to Rayquaza's ExtremeSpeed to a tail swipe across the entire stage. Meta Ridley, his form in Metroid Prime, later attacks, , , , Samus, Pikachu, and.

Ridley and his Meta Ridley form are resurrected by Tabuu, their true leader, in The Great Maze to face down the heroes. Oddly enough, they are resurrected as separate beings.

As a playable character
Like all Brawl bosses, Ridley can be played as in Boss Battles through hacking, which will assign debug controls to Player 3. The moveset assigned is notably quite incomplete, missing a few attacks and having glitches with others. Ergo, he is much weaker than in his true boss appearance.

Moveset
Ridley spends most of his time in the air over the abyss. Characters with strong aerials have an easier time, but in a pinch, up smashes can be used. Most of his attacks are either relatively slow or well telegraphed, which means that staying alert can help the player avoid a lot of damage. The hardest attacks to dodge are his claw sweep (not his tail sweep) and loop-de-loop, but by paying attention to his attack order, they can be predicted. Ridley has a move during his battle similar to Dyna Blade in Kirby Super Star. He stomps on the ground, then takes to the background and jets straight ahead into the camera view and flies up. He had done this before during a fight with Samus in Super Metroid, but he did so to escape instead of attack. A similar type of attack was employed by Meta Ridley in Metroid Prime. It is similar to Master Hand and Crazy Hand's Jet attack.

On higher difficulties of The Subspace Emissary, defeating Ridley usually earns something valuable.

Like all bosses, Ridley can be controlled with hacks in Boss Battles Mode. The start button will, like all bosses, self-destruct him.

Origin of attacks
Most of Ridley's attacks are completely made up for Brawl; however, there are a couple of attacks that are somewhat retained from the Metroid series. The attack that Ridley does when he flies into the background of the stage and tries to ram into the player looks very similar to how Ridley flew away at the beginning of Super Metroid. Also, in Super Metroid, Ridley will often use his tail as a weapon by whipping it at Samus. In Brawl, Ridley does use his tail as a weapon, but not as a whip.

HP and damage taken
Like all bosses in Brawl, Ridley gains an additional ×0.6 damage resistance modifier when fought in co-op mode, effectively gaining 67% more health. This modifier is applied whenever the second player is in-game and is no longer applied if the second player loses all their stocks.

In
Following 's release and the day prior to the American release of, Sakurai stated that Ridley's size was a factor in his exclusion from the playable roster, despite being aware of significant fan demand for the character. Sakurai felt that scaling the character down, as well as other necessary changes like having to prevent him to be able to fly freely, would make him less threatening than he appears in the Metroid games, thus providing an inaccurate portrayal of his original role as a dangerous boss.

When Sakurai first revealed the Pyrosphere stage for for Wii U, he mentioned that a character from "Samus' past" may appear at any second. Furthermore, Ridley's shadow appeared on the stage in the April 2014 Nintendo Direct. Ridley was ultimately confirmed to appear as a stage hazard in the for Wii U 50-Fact Extravaganza, over a year after Pyrosphere was revealed.

Like Samus and Zero Suit Samus, Ridley matches his physical appearance from Metroid: Other M. In battle, Ridley will appear and attack players. He will use attacks based on where opponents are standing. Damaging Ridley enough will cause him to fight alongside the fighter. Damaging him enough after he joins a player's side will KO him, adding another point to the player's KO total, even if he is on the player's side. Ridley may gather energy from the purple vats under the ledges, increasing his strength. Curiously, his stock icon (used in the KOs row of the results screen) is of his Brawl artwork.

For Nintendo 3DS marks Ridley's only complete absence from a Super Smash Bros. title.

Attacks

 * Launches a fireball. 12%
 * Moves across the ground while slashing 3 times, damaging any fighter in Ridley's path. 25% (First Hit) 10% (Second hit) 20% (Third Hit)
 * Goes into the background, and charges into the foreground, which will hurt fighters who come into contact with Ridley. This is the first move Ridley will use whenever he appears, as he enters using it. 30% (Sweetspot) 12% (Sourspot)
 * Stomps onto the ground. 15%
 * Lets out a roar. This can push back opponents.
 * Performs a single slash while darting to the other side of the stage. 15%
 * Shoots his tail through the stage while clinging through the ledge. Ridley can do this up to three times. He only uses this after increasing strength. 25%
 * Shoots out a much bigger fireball. After it lands, a shockwave of fire will spread across the ground Only uses this after increasing strength. 30% (Fireball)
 * Shoots out three fireballs at once.

As a playable character
After many years of only appearing as either a boss or a cameo in the Smash series, Ridley finally makes his playable debut as an unlockable newcomer, being revealed during the Nintendo E3 Direct on June 12, 2018. His inclusion as a playable fighter was largely cemented by popular demand both within the previous installment's Fighter Ballot and long afterward, particularly in the West.

Much like Zero Suit Samus in both SSB4 and Ultimate, Ridley uses a composite design original to the Smash series; in his case, he is primarily based on his Super Metroid appearance, with some embellishments and elements that his clone in Metroid: Other M featured, resulting in a more realistic and detailed design compared to his design in Brawl. Meta Ridley is also featured as an alternate costume for Ridley. An official Ridley amiibo was confirmed the same day as his reveal and launched alongside the game itself.

Trivia

 * Ridley's tail is the only invulnerable part of Ridley's body in every Metroid game in the series following the first. However, in for Wii U, his tail counts as part of his hurtboxes.
 * Ridley had historically been a strong contender for the fan community's most-wanted playable character; an official survey on the Japanese version of Brawl's Smash Bros. DOJO!! featured Ridley receiving four separate requests from fans to be playable, with only King Dedede having more (with five). Requests for the character increased even further for SSB4, leading to another boost to the character's popularity. A significant number of players, however, had opposed the inclusion of Ridley, primarily under the claim that including the character would require scaling him down to an unrealistic size; as a result, "Ridley is too big" had become an in-joke in the community, particularly in reference with other characters that would require significant scaling for Smash Bros. appearances.
 * Ridley's character trailer tagline in Ultimate, "Ridley Hits the Big Time!", is likely a jab at the aforementioned meme regarding his size.
 * In his home series, Ridley was at his smallest in the original NES game Metroid, where his hunched posture makes him only slightly taller than Samus. According to senior localization manager Nate Bihldorff, this was a major inspiration for Masahiro Sakurai when Ridley was scaled down for Ultimate.
 * In SSB4, Ridley is the only non-playable character to have a unique stock icon in the final build of the game. Strangely, the icon derives from his Brawl design.
 * In Brawl, Ridley is unable to shoot fireballs as he did as an attack in past Metroid games, although Meta Ridley is capable of doing so. Ironically, Meta Ridley never had the ability to shoot fireballs, instead possessing the ability to fire a long beam of plasma from his mouth.
 * In Ultimate, Ridley became the first boss in the series to become a playable character.
 * Ridley is currently the tallest playable character to date, succeeding Samus in SSB and Bowser since Melee.