Ridley

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For fighter info, see Ridley (SSBU).

Ridley
Official artwork of Ridley in Metroid: Zero Mission.
Universe	Metroid
Debut	Metroid (1986)
Appears in	(cameo) (boss) (stage hazard) (playable character)
Console of origin	NES
Species	Unknown
Gender	Male
Homeworld	Zebes
Created by	Makoto Kano

Ridley is a character from the Metroid series, and a major enemy in most of the games, generally acting as one of the later bosses. He is a space pirate that resembles a pterosaur with vicious claws, large wings and a long whip-like tail. His attacks usually include a charge attack, fireballs (a lot of small ones or a few big ones), a diving attack where he grabs Samus and damages her, and various moves with his tail, from slamming it on the ground to flailing it like a whip.

Ridley was named after Ridley Scott, a famous Hollywood film director who helmed the Alien movie franchise. The Alien series served as the largest inspiration for many elements seen throughout the Metroid series including a female protagonist for both franchises.

Character description

Ridley as he appears in Super Metroid.

Ridley is one of the main antagonists of the Metroid series, the others being Mother Brain and Kraid. His "official" name being Geoform 187, he is a high-ranking Space Pirate General. In spite of his bestial appearance and fearsome mannerisms, however, Ridley is by no means a mindless animal; he is very intelligent and, in the manga series, capable of speech.

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 devastated 3-year-old Samus's homeworld of K-2L in a raid for fuel and resources, and personally 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 military leader of the Space Pirates and as a boss in the area with his name, and in Zero Mission the final boss is a robot in his likeness. 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).

Although Ridley does not appear in Metroid II: Return of Samus, he was added into the remake, Metroid: Samus Returns, as the game's final boss. In this game, he takes the form of "Proteus Ridley", and appears to be in a transitional state between his organic and meta forms. He attempts to steal the Metroid hatchling as Samus prepares to leave SR388. Samus manages to fend him off for the time being.

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 again battles Ridley, Kraid, Mother Brain, and others.

In Metroid: Other M, Ridley is cloned from pieces of his DNA left on Samus' Power Suit. Ridley's growth cycle is also detailed throughout the game, in which he starts as an infantile bird-like creature that covertly relies on and manipulates the strength of others to secure food for it, then growing into a larger lizard-like form resembling his famous winged dragon form. One particular scene in the game became the subject of controversy, where Samus is confronted by a seemingly resurrected Ridley. She suffers a horrified PTSD attack and is too paralyzed with fear to fire back, despite having been able to fight Ridley in the past after seeing him alive again. Federation soldier Anthony Higgs manages to fend off Ridley, seemingly dying in the process, which finally spurs Samus into action. Samus seems to kill Ridley in the following fight, but when she goes to check on Adam, he escapes through a wall. He is then killed by the Queen Metroid off-screen.

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

Ridley in the Planet Zebes stage.

In Super Smash Bros.

Ridley occasionally appears as a cameo in the Planet Zebes stage, flying in the background, his sprites are the ones used in Super Metroid.

In Super Smash Bros. Melee

Ridley's cameo appearance fighting Samus.

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 in 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, 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 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 tail swipe across the entire stage. The tail swipe can do major damage (The move can do around 70% damage on a 0% damage target) on harder difficulties and the extreme speed move is a main killing move.

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.

Ridley's attacks

Ridley is not particularly difficult, but 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, thus staying alert can help you avoid a lot of damage. The hardest attacks to dodge are his claw sweep (not his tail sweep) and shuttle loop, but by paying attention to his attack order they can be predicted.

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

First OR Second Move

- Ridley scrapes the stage with his tail. At low percentages, it covers half the stage. At higher percentages, it covers the whole stage, sometimes turning around at the end to double back. Sometimes 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. Oddly, he seems to charge at a random speed each time, regardless of difficulty. It can be dodged by any dodge or jumping over/under with good timing, though the variable speed may lead to issues on higher difficulties. Leaving the stage and grabbing the ledge is often safest, as the attack is obviously telegraphed.

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

Second Move

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

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

Third Move

- Ridley lands on the floor, jumps up, and then drops down trying to stomp on players. 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 will only hit you if you are on or very close to the ground, so it can be dodged easily by jumping over it or by sidestep dodging.

Trophy description

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.

In Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U

Ridley appears as a stage boss on the Pyrosphere stage. He will attack all players on the field with his claws and tail, but if someone attacks him enough, he will join them and fight for their side. If he is KO'd, it will count as a KO in Time mode, and a unique stock of him will appear in the end screen. If Ridley stands in the board of the stage, he will drain energy and become more vicious as Meta Ridley, and then uses his tail against the fighters. He will also spit regular-sized fireballs (either individually or in bursts of three).

Trophy Description

Samus's long-standing rival in battle. In this game, he's a common foe to all the fighters in the Pyrosphere stage. However, if you manage to launch him or knock him over, he'll become an ally to whoever dealt the last blow. Defeating him in a timed battle nets you +1 KO.

• Metroid (1989)
• Super Metroid (1994)

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Main article: Ridley (SSBU)

Ridley returned in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as a playable character. This was confirmed by game director Masahiro Sakurai at the E3 2018 Nintendo Direct. His attacks include a fist smash, tail swipes, and fire breathing.

In this game, Ridley can resize himself to fit into almost a humanoid size during a battle. During his Final Smash cutscene, he temporarily regrows to his original size to attack opponents.

See also

• List of SSBB trophies (Metroid series)
• List of SSBM trophies (Metroid series)
• List of SSBWU trophies/Metroid series

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 One hit-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 four times to be playable. The highest vote was for King Dedede with five.
• In Metroid: Other M, Ridley has an attack that scrapes Samus against a wall, almost exactly like in Brawl. However, he momentarily stops at some point.
• In Brawl, he is unable to shoot fireballs as he did as an attack in past Metroid games. The fireball attacks were used by Meta Ridley. However, in Super Smash Bros for Wii U, Ridley regains his ability of shooting fireballs.
• Ridley's Brawl design is based on his appearance in Super Metroid.
• Masahiro Sakurai stated why Ridley wasn't playable in Super Smash Bros for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U

External links

• Ridley's article in Wikitroid
• Official Smash Bros. Brawl Website, where you can listen to a remake of his main song.
• Screenshots