Ridley

Ridley is a character from the Metroid Series, and quite an important boss, generally one of the last ones. He is a space pterodactyl with claws and wings. His attacks include a charge attack, fireballs (a lot of small ones or a few big ones), and a grab attack, in which he grabs Samus, damaging her.

Character description


Ridley is the main antagonist of the Metroid series, the codename for his "official" name being Geoform 187, is a Space Pirate General. In spite of his fearsome and beast-like appearance and mannerisms, however, Ridley is by no means a mindless beast; he is sentient and can speak.

Ridley is directly connected to Samus Aran's past and present. In the Metroid E-Manga, he has gained enough favor with the Space Pirates that he is now one of their figures of highest authority. He attacked and decimated 3-year-old Samus's homeworld of K-2L in a raid for fuel and resources, and Ridley himself killed Samus's mother when she jumped in to protect her daughter. Unwittingly, he created his own worst enemy in Samus for this.

In Metroid and Metroid: Zero Mission he appears as the leader of the Space Pirates and as a boss in the area with his name, and in Zero Mission the final boss is a mechanical Ridley. He, his counterpart Kraid and all the Space Pirates want to capture the Metroids for, of course, evil purposes.

A cyborg version of Ridley, called Meta Ridley, was a major antagonist in Metroid Prime and reappeared in addition to a new version called Omega Ridley in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Meta Ridley also appears in Brawl as another boss).

In Super Metroid, he kidnaps the last Metroid, a hatchling found by Samus. It ends up as the main mission of the game, and having to find the Metroid hatchling, the player battles once more Kraid, Mother Brain and others.

In Metroid Fusion, Ridley's cryogenically frozen remains appear, and Samus fights an X Parasite mimicking him.

In ''Super Smash Bros.
Ridley appeared on Planet Zebes, flying in the background.

In Super Smash Bros. Melee
He has a cameo in the introduction sequence of Super Smash Bros. Melee, fighting Samus, when Samus jumps on top of him and shoots several missiles. He appears to have the baby Metroid capsule, á la Super Metroid.

Trophy description
''The head of the Space Pirates on Zebes, Ridley soars through space on wicked wings. Ridley may look like a mindless monster, but he's actually quite intelligent. After the SR-388 incident, where Samus captured the infant Metroid, Ridley took the Space Academy by storm, annihilating the complex and taking the Metroid back.''


 * Metroid (1989)

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl
A remix of Ridley's theme from Super Metroid and Meta Ridley's theme from Metroid Prime both appear in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. In addition, Ridley's lair in the Metroid series, Norfair, is also featured as a stage. Hacking shows that Assist Trophy data of Ridley was found, but unfortunately, Ridley doesn't appear as an assist trophy despite his other numerous references. Presumably, Ridley was initially planned as an assist trophy, but was instead included as a boss.

Role in the Subspace Emissary
Ridley appears as the fifth boss during the Subspace Emissary, in which Samus and Pikachu must fight him. He is found 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 Thunder. 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 tailswipe across the entire stage. The tailswipe can do major damage (The move can do around 70% damage if other person at 0% damage) on harder difficulties and the extreme speed move is a main killing move. He flies from one side to the other and is similar in style to Master Hand in the way of how it attacks and then pauses. Meta Ridley, his form in Metroid Prime, later attacks Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Captain Falcon, Olimar, Samus, Pikachu, and R.O.B.

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.

First OR Second Move
- Ridley scrapes the stage with his tail. At low percentages, it covers half the stage. At higher percentages, it cover the whole stage, sometimes turning around at the end to double back. Sometime he will use this attack twice in a row. It can be easily dodged by jumping over his tail.

First Move
- Ridley flies off the screen, then rushes at you horizontally. It is dodgeable by sidestepping, air dodging, roll dodging, or jumping over/under with good timing.

- Ridley does a loop-de-loop and damages anyone who makes contact. This can be dodged by jumping into the middle of the loop, where he will just circle you.

Second Move
- Ridley roars and flaps his wings violently, which kicks up wind that pushes you back slightly. Damage can be taken by making contact with his head as this starts.

- Ridley flies low and sweeps the stage. He screeches before this.

Third Move
- Ridley lands on the floor, jumps up, and then drops down trying to stomp on you. Because Ridley always drops down on the same spot he landed before jumping, it can be dodged by running to the opposite end of the stage.

- Ridley jumps up and then flies toward you from the background, similar to Master Hand's punch, but with an erratic flight pattern. It can be dodged easily by air dodging, roll dodging, sidestep dodging, or jumping over it.


 * On higher difficulties defeating Ridley usually earns something valuable.

Trophy Stand Strategy
Obtaining a trophy of Ridley can be quite a hassle, considering that most of his time is spent in the air. On top of this, a Trophy Stand takes a considerable amount of time to appear. It is advised that at least one character has a sticker that increases trophy stand drops, like Big Boss because the effect remains active for the whole fight. Also, it's best to play on the Very Hard or Intense difficulty, because the drop chance is higher. If you're unlucky enough to get the stand towards the fight's beginning, drop it when you sense a move that you have difficulty avoiding in case you die; the next character can retrieve it. Lower his health significantly, but not too much, in case a Blast Box, Bob-omb, etc. appears and Ridley detonates it whilst your waiting for the Trophy Stand. The best chance of turning Ridley into a Trophy is when he is readying his third move, when he crouches to take off. If you miss this chance, if he does the stomp move, you can get him as he lands by Throwing the trophy stand directly upwards about 1.5 seconds after he goes offscreen, and he'll collide with it on the way down. This is the best opportunity because other times he normally floats over the edge of the stage and the trophy drops into the abyss below. Alternatively, you could risk doing this and chase the trophy with a fast faller, but it is not advised. You may also want to risk throwing it when he rushes across the screen, but you must have quick reflexes to achieve this. Another useful strategy is throwing your Trophy Stand when Ridley is scraping his tail across the stage.

Trophy Info
''The leader of the Space Pirates. He looks like a pterosaur but has high intelligence and a brutal nature. He plans to steal the baby Metroid from Samus for his own use. Ridley utilizes wings for a full range of flight and attacks with fireballs from his mouth and whips of his tail. As the culprit behind the murder of Samus's parents, the connections with Samus run deep.''


 * Metroid (1989)
 * Super Metroid (1994)

Trivia

 * Ridley has a move during the first battle similar to Dyna Blade in Kirby Super Star. He stomps on the ground, then takes to the background and jets straight ahead into camera view and flies up. He had done this before during a fight with Samus in Super Metroid, but not as an 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.
 * Jigglypuff is the only character that Ridley can 1hit-KO (at any percentage) using the move where he flies offscreen then rushes across the stage at top speed.
 * On the official Japanese polls Ridley was voted for 4 times to be playable. The highest vote was for King Dedede with 5.
 * In the trailer for the upcoming "Metroid: Other M," Ridley can be seen scraping Samus against a wall, almost exactly like in Brawl.
 * In Brawl, he is unable to do fireballs when he used it as an attack in past Metroid games. The fireball attacks were used by Meta Ridley.