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.	”
—Super Smash Blog, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Official Site

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 revealed as a newcomer alongside Inkling and Daisy from Nintendo's 2018 E3 press conference, on June 12th, 2018, with an animated trailer.

Moveset

NOTE: SmashWiki is not speculative. Please refrain from adding detailed data values derived from pre-release gameplay footage, such as the E3 demo. Such data (damage values, launch trajectories, frame data, etc.) are subject to change before the official release.

Ridley's whip-like tail has a spiked tip that acts as a sweet spot on attacks involving it.

Attributes

• Ridley can perform two mid-air jumps.
• Ridley is a heavyweight, yet is surprisingly mobile despite this.

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.
• Forward tilt: Grabs his tail and stabs forward. Can be angled.
• Up tilt: Extends one of his wings to swoop from behind.
• Down tilt: A low tail swipe.
• Dash attack: A leaning bite.

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. Hitbox covers the entirety of the explosion.
• Up smash: A spinning tail/kick attack that covers Ridley's entire overhead, similar to Fox's. Respectably powerful, though is more impressive for its speed.
• Down smash: Slams his wings onto the ground. While it's the slowest and weakest of his smash attacks, it has the greatest range.

Aerial attacks

• Neutral aerial: A spinning tail attack that covers around Ridley, similar to Charizard's. Appears to have a long duration.
• Forward aerial: Stabs with his tail forward three times in quick succession.
• Back aerial: A backward roundhouse kick.
• Up aerial: Thrusts both wings into the air while closed.
• Down aerial: A stall-then-fall stomp with both feet, which spikes at the beginning.

Grab attacks

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

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 Moves

• 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. This mirrors countering Ridley's plasma attacks from Metroid Prime, as well as the weak spots of other classic Metroid boss enemies like Crocomire and Kraid.
• 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. The opponent can mash out of the drag to end it, but Ridley can also jump directly out of the throwing animation. The move otherwise ends when a ledge is reached. It also KOs Ridley first if used as a sacrificial KO, similar to Flying Slam. Similar to Mewtwo's Disable, the move is easier to mash out of the less percentage the victim has. However, the grab release does have advantages off certain stages against certain opponents, letting Ridley release them underneath a stage and recover, and even when mashed out of, Ridley has a chance to use a quick attack before the opponent can act.
• Up special: Ridley pauses before flying upward. It can be angled to fly in a few other directions, similar to Fox's Fire Fox. 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. This move resembles Omega Ridley's charge attack from Metroid Prime 3.
• 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, but if the sweetspot at the center of Ridley's tail tip connects, the target will be impaled while being dealt almost 10 times as much damage. The sweetspot hit causes the opponent to crumple, similarly to a fully charged Focus Attack. Despite requiring very specific precision, it is capable of piercing multiple targets at once with no deductions.
• 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. It can instantly KO.

On-screen appearance

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

Idle Poses

• Spreads his wings out and shakes his body a little.

Taunts

• Straightens up his body as if noticing something, before easing up while slightly smiling. 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 at the ground 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].

In addition, Ridley has a unique victory theme - an intense version of the Metroid Item Acquisition theme that ends in a more sinister tone [2].

Alternate costumes

A costume resembling Meta Ridley appears in Ridley's introduction video and the reveal trailer for Dark Samus. It was not present in the Ultimate demo at E3 2018.

Official render of the Meta Ridley costume.

Reveal trailer

<youtube>aisZuQxMZZc</youtube>

Gallery

• 

  Ridley's splash art.

• 

  Official render of Ridley's Meta Ridley costume.

• 

  Ridley’s amiibo.

• 

  Using his neutral special on Mario Galaxy.

• 

  Jumping on Wrecking Crew.

• 

  Using his up special on Midgar.

• 

  Using a Hammer on Wrecking Crew.

• 

  Using his down special against Fox on Battlefield.

• 

  In his Meta Ridley costume with Samus on Castle Siege.

• 

  Ridley attempting to burn Marth with his neutral special on 3D Land.

• SSBUWebsiteZeroMM4.jpg

  Ridley about to be hit by Zero's Genmu Beam on Midgar.

• 

  Ridley, Jigglypuff, Ice Climbers, and Zelda on Summit.

• 

  Taunting on Wily Castle.

• 

  With Kirby, Mario, Link, Inkling, Marth, Pit and Villager on Battlefield.

• RidleySmiles.png

  Ridley smiles.

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 the NES Game Metroid, where his hunched posture is only slightly taller than Samus.
  • Sakurai was reported to have heavily based Ridley on his depiction in the original Metroid, specifically how the sprite appeared hunched over even while flying.[3]
• Previously, Sakurai did not want to include Ridley in Super Smash Bros. as a playable fighter due to various reasons, including believing that reducing his power to playable levels will undermine his presentation and, more 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 while flashing 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 Ridley before a stunned Pikachu is likely a reference to the ending of Super Metroid when the Baby Metroid protects Samus from Mother Brain.
    • It also resembles a pivotal point in his boss fight in Metroid: Samus Returns, where the Baby Metroid saves Samus from Ridley by leeching some of his energy.
    • The fact that it is Pikachu might also be a call back to their previous encounter during the Subspace Emissary.
      • Coincidentally, both Pikachu and the baby Metroid save Samus in a similar manner in their respective games, with Ridley in both instances briefly clutching his head and then roaring with rage.
    • 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.
• The moment Ridley appears in his introductory trailer resembles his appearance in Metroid: Zero Mission, just before his fight. This includes the way Samus looks at the screen, Ridley's entrance animation, and music timing.
• 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.
• There is an error on Ridley's page on the Latin American and Canadian French 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, and on the Canadian French version, a gameplay trailer is shown [4][5].
• Ridley is the first playable character from the Metroid universe to not be a variation of Samus Aran.
  • As such, he's the only Metroid fighter to be male, and not have "Samus" as part of his name.
• Masahiro Sakurai has stated in an interview that Ridley's down taunt is among his favorite taunts in the game [6].
• Ridley is one of two newcomers (the other being Inkling) to be in a veteran's gallery on the official website, specifically Marth's.