Ridley (SSBU)

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Ridley in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Universe	Metroid
Availability	Unlockable
Final Smash	Plasma Scream

“	Ridley Hits the Big Time!	”
—Introduction Tagline

“	Joining the battle from the storied Metroid series, Ridley's long tail and sharp claws let him unleash a torrent of devastating attacks. His Final Smash is a powerful stream of plasma breath intense enough to bring down Samus's starship.	”
—"Today's Fighter" Super Smash Blog description

Ridley (リドリー, Ridley) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. He is Samus's archenemy and a major villain in the Metroid series. He was the last revealed newcomer from Nintendo's 2018 E3 press conference, on June 12th, 2018, with an animated trailer.

Moveset

Ridley's whip-like tail has a spiked tip that acts as a sweet spot on attacks involving it. Damage values are not final and could be subject to change.

Ground attacks

• Neutral attack: A double claw swipe followed by a bite. It can be extended into an infinite jab involving a rapid fire tail stab, and ending with a swing. Deals 10.9%.
• Forward tilt: Grabs his tail and stabs forward. Deals 9.2%.
• Up tilt: Extends one of his wings to swoop from behind. Deals 6.4%.
• Down tilt: A low tail swipe. Deals 5.3%.
• Dash attack: A leaning bite. Deals 12.6%.

Smash attacks

• Forward smash: Reels back before exploding a fireball within his mouth, similar to Mario's forward smash. Very powerful, being one of Ridley's strongest finishing moves. Deals 21.0%.
• Up smash: A spinning tail attack that covers Ridley's entire overhead. Deals 17.8%.
• Down smash: Slams his wings onto the ground. Deals 16.9%.

Aerial attacks

• Neutral aerial: A spinning tail attack that covers around Ridley. Appears to have a long duration. Deals 12.6%.
• Forward aerial: A multi-hit tail stab. Deals a total of 17.8%.
• Back aerial: A backward kick. Deals 13.3%.
• Up aerial: Thrusts both wings into the air while closed. Deals 12.5%.
• Down aerial: A stall-then-fall stomp with both feet, which spikes at the beginning. Deals 14.6% damage.

Grab attacks

• Grab: Grabs the opponent with his right hand.
• Pummel: A tail thrust.
• Forward throw: Hurls the opponent with one arm. Deals 9.4%.
• Back throw: An underhanded toss with one arm. Deals 11.6%.
• Up throw: Sets the opponent overhead and stabs them with his tail. Deals 12.5%.
• Down throw: Slams the opponent on the ground with one hand. Deals 7.4%.

Get-up attacks

• Floor attack (front):
• Floor attack (back): Swings his tail forward, then backward while getting up.
• Floor attack (trip):
• Edge attack: Does a quick downwards claw swing while climbing up.

Special attacks

• Neutral special: Ridley spits out a fireball that acts similarly to Mario's Fireball, which can be charged to have Ridley spit out multiple fireballs at once. However, if Ridley's mouth is attacked while the fireball is charging it will backfire and damage Ridley instead. Deals about 4.4% damage per fireball, with the backfire causing about 24% damage to Ridley.
• Side special: A command grab that drags its target across the ground before throwing them, this can also be initiated in the air to drag an opponent to the ground and do the grounded animation or into the blast zone similar to his introductory cutscene in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Ridley can jump directly out of the throwing animation. Deals approximately 29% damage. The drag covers almost the half the width of Battlefield. The opponent can mash out of the drag but this can be counteracted by jumping out of the animation to end it early.
• Up special: Ridley pauses before flying upward. It can be angled to fly in any other forward direction. The move deals damage to enemies along the way, with the earliest hit dealing exceptionally high knockback. If Ridley hits a wall, he will rebound with some vertical momentum.
• Down special: Pauses before performing a sudden tail stab. It has a long startup and hits some distance away. It does minimal damage if he hits with the base of his tail (5.5%), but if the sweetspot at the center of Ridley's tail tip connects, the target will be impaled while being dealt almost 10x as much damage (50.4% + 8.9%), before getting knocked down similarly to a charged Focus Attack. This can be followed up with a punish.
• Final Smash: Ridley headbutts his opponents into Samus's gunship; as the gunship flies off, Ridley shoots it down with a laser that engulfs both the ship and the target in an explosion. The gunship can be seen crashing in the background of the stage afterwards. Deals approximately 40% damage.

On-screen appearance

• Swoops down at an angle, before landing and letting out a roar.

Taunts

• Straightens up his body as if noticing something, before easing up. His body lets out a noticeable crackle as he stands upright.
• Roars and strikes a menacing pose, flapping his wings rapidly.
• Spins in a circle, finishing in a celebrating pose.

Victory poses

• Faces away from the screen while clawing either at the ground or an offscreen creature forcefully, before glancing back towards the camera with a smirk.
• Skids into frame, then turns around and does a pose.
• Flies off of the ground, does a somersault while roaring, and then lands back on the ground striking a pose. [1]

Reveal trailer

<youtube>aisZuQxMZZc</youtube>

Alternate costumes

Gallery

• 

  Ridley’s amiibo.

• 

  Using his neutral special on Mario Galaxy.

• 

  Jumping on Wrecking Crew.

• 

  Using his up special on Midgar.

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  Using a Hammer on Wrecking Crew.

• 

  Using his down special against Fox on Battlefield.

• 

  In his Meta Ridley costume with Samus on Castle Siege.

• 

Character Showcase Video

<youtube>EDi1Zf_vJsY</youtube>

Trivia

• Ridley’s model appears to be based on his Super Metroid sprite with additional details and embellishments, some of which loosely resemble his design in Metroid: Other M. His size is significantly reduced to that of his appearance in Metroid, where his hunched posture is only slightly taller than Samus.
• Previously, Sakurai did not want to include Ridley in Super Smash Bros. as a playable fighter, due to various reasons including believing reducing his power to playable levels will undermine his presentation, and, most infamously, his size being too big to properly integrate into the universe, the latter to the point it has widely been considered an internet meme.
  • His fighter tagline, "Ridley Hits the Big Time!", likely references the size debacle.
• Since this is his playable Smash Bros. debut, this also marks the first time Ridley has been made playable in any Nintendo game.
• Ridley's pose in his official artwork resembles the pose Bowser makes in his official art for SSB4, only mirrored.
• His animated reveal trailer is the first time since Ridley's role in the Metroid manga where Ridley has displayed a sense of humor, playfully twirling the hat of a defeated Mario when revealing himself to Samus with something of an inhuman grin.
  • The way Ridley twirls Mario's hat bears a striking resemblance to Mario in the beginning of the reveal trailer of Super Mario Odyssey.
  • The part where a Metroid attacks him before a stunned Pikachu is likely a reference to the ending of Super Metroid when the Baby Metroid protects Samus from Mother Brain.
    • The fact that it is Pikachu might also be call back to their previous encounter during the Subspace Emissary.
    • Interestingly, Pikachu also appears on Pyrosphere in the 2014 Smash Bros. Direct when Ridley's appearance as a boss character on that stage was first teased [2].
• Ridley is the second Smash Bros. boss character to become playable in the series after Giga Bowser and the only boss character to be playable at all times, as Giga Bowser is limited to Bowser's Final Smash.
• Ridley has a unique victory theme: an intense version of the Metroid Item Acquisition theme in a minor key [3].
• There is an error on Ridley's page on the Latin American version of the Smash Bros. website. Instead of playing Ridley's reveal trailer, Mario Tennis Aces gameplay from the official Nintendo of Japan YouTube channel is played instead [4].
• Ridley was absent when the panoramic artwork was shown in the Direct, as he had not been revealed yet. He shares this with Daisy. Meta Knight and Duck Hunt slightly change their positions to make room for Ridley in the artwork.