The Cunning God of Death. Military leader of the the dreaded Space Pirates. The most recurring antagonist in the entire Metroid series. One of the most divisive (not to mention most requested) characters in the history of Super Smash Brothers. I am, of course, talking about Ridley.
I can’t confirm if his last name is Scott.
No other character in all of Smash Bros. speculation seems to attract as much attention, both positive and negative, as Ridley does. It’s not very hard to see why. On one hand, he is a sizable omission on a roster of what are supposedly Nintendo’s biggest stars. On the other, much of what makes Ridley Ridley also makes him an unorthodox fighter. That being said, most Smash talk surrounding Ridley focuses on him as a playable character. The truth is that Ridley’s influence in the Smash series has been present since the very beginning and is a notable aspect of how the Metroid series has been represented. This article will focus on the importance of Ridley to Smash in every generation of the franchise and will hopefully shed some light on why he has, up until now, been denied a spot on the roster.
I. Ridley in Metroid
NES Ridley: Not too big.
Before we focus on Ridley’s roles in Smash, it would be helpful to understand who exactly this space dragon is and why Metroid fans think he is so important. Ridley made his debut in the very first game in the series, Metroid for the NES/Famicom. Ridley is one of only three boss characters in this game, but he is not the final boss. That honor belongs to Mother Brain. Ridley has never actually been the primary villian in a Metroid game, and it is a common misconception among fans that he is the main antagonist of the franchise. He instead fills the role of supporting villain as the games in which he is featured contain a bigger and more impending threat, examples being Dark Samus in Metroid Prime: Corruption and Mother Brain in Metroid, Super Metroid, and Other M.
This fact, however, does not diminish his importance to the franchise. Ridley appears in more games than any other villain in the series. The only games to omit Ridley are Metroid II: Return of Samus, Metroid Prime: Echoes, and Metroid Prime: Hunters. All told, Ridley was only absent for a third of the Metroid games, and his presence is often a driving force in the game’s story.
Ridley also has a very personal connection with series protagonist Samus Aran. He is a commander of the Space Pirates in the Metroid universe, and his actions in this role helped shape the game universe. His theft of the baby Metroid in the introduction to Super Metroid is an iconic moment in the series, and it helped set up the plot to several future games. Ridley’s interaction with Samus sets him on a higher level than any other Metroid antagonist. Ridley is directly responsible for the creation of his arch nemesis as he killed her parents when she was a child. This act, first revealed in Metroid Fusion, led her on the course to become the bounty hunter we know today.
II. Ridley in Smash
Ridley is unique amongst characters in Smash in that despite never being playable in an official title, he has appeared in roles of varying degrees in every generation of Smash, starting with Super Smash Bros. 64 and continuing on up to Super Smash Bros. for 3DS/Wii U. (It should be noted that he does not actually appear in the 3DS version, although data files referencing him as an enemy character where found in the game.) He is the only non-Pokemon (unless you consider Bob-omb and Whispy Woods to be characters) to have this honor.
Super Smash Bros. 64
Ridley’s appearance in Super Smash Bros. 64 is noteworthy because of how little content was included in this game as compared to its sequels. Very few game villains had any sort of representation in this entry. Bowser and Ganondorf, for example, were nowhere to be seen. Ridley (in the form of his Super Metroid sprite) can be found on Smash 64’s Metroid stage, Planet Zebes, flying in the background at random intervals. This is similar to how King Dedede from Kirby could be seen flying around in the Dream Land stage of the same game.
Ironically, he’s so small as a sprite that one could miss him easily.
Super Smash Brothers Melee
Ridley appears twice in Melee: First in the intro movie, where a recreation of the iconic scene from Super Metroid where Ridley steals the baby Metroid, takes place. The second appearance of Ridley is as a trophy. Trophies are collectibles that were introduced in Melee that provide trivia about the object or character in question. The use of Ridley in the opening movie is interesting in retrospect. Two other “villain” or “rival” characters were used in that cinematic: Wolf from Star Fox and Samurai Goroh from F-Zero. One of these characters went on to become playable, the other was used to debut the concept of the Assist Trophy to the world in Sakurai’s Brawl Dojo. It would seem that Sakurai felt that all three were “important” characters.
Ridley bribed the trophy writer to provide misinformation about his role on Zebes.
Super Smash Brothers Brawl
With the scale of Brawl increasing compared to Melee, Ridley’s influence on the game only grew larger. Originally planned to be an Assist Trophy, Ridley was instead made into a boss character for the new Subspace Emissary mode not once but twice. He appears in both his organic and Meta Ridley forms. His first appearance is in the Research Facility, where he attacks Samus and Pikachu as they reach the end of the complex. His second appearance is in the Subspace Bomb Factory as Meta Ridley, chasing a fleeing Falcon Flyer while the facility explodes from behind. Apart from his boss role, both Ridley and Meta Ridley return as trophies as well.
And so the Meta Knight ventured forth to slay the Meta Dragon
Super Smash Brothers for 3DS and Wii U
In a bizarre twist of fate, Ridley makes no appearances in the 3DS version of Super Smash Brothers in any way, not even as a trophy. This makes Super Smash Bros. for 3DS the only entry in the Smash series where Ridley does not appear at all. Ridley would, however, appear in the Wii U version as a unique hazard/boss character in the Pyrosphere stage. He would also receive a total of 3 trophies, two of which belong to his “Little Birdie” and “Mystery Creature” phases from Other M.
The stage hazard incarnation of Ridley takes his design and attack patterns from Metroid: Other M. The Ridley in that game was a genetically modified clone of the original. An oddity from the 50 Fact Extravaganza is that Ridley is referred to as Meta Ridley when he absorbs the energy from the sides of the stage. This does not correspond with any of the games, as Meta Ridley has always been a robotized version of Ridley. There is no correct term in Metroid canon for this powerup, so to speak. As a stage hazard, Ridley is incredibly durable, being able to take much more punishment than Metal Face or the Yellow Devil. This is possibly to accommodate the unique allying mechanic this Ridley has as a stage hazard.
“Did you get my good side?”
Masahiro Sakurai on Ridley
Smash series creator Masahiro Sakurai has always found a way to include Ridley in the game, and he has had a few things to say about the character over the years.
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
After the release of Super Smash Brothers Brawl, an interview was conducted in which Sakurai was asked about his opinion of Ridley as a playable character. He was quoted as saying that Ridley could be made to work, but not before saying that it would be “pretty impossible”.
Interviewer: There was a rumor at one point about Ridley being playable. Was that ever a consideration?
Sakurai: I think that would probably be pretty impossible. [Laughs] If we had put our best efforts into it, we may have been able to do it. But he might have been a little slow. Would that be all right? [laughs]
Smash 3DS/Wii U
During the pre-release period, Ridley was teased on several occasions in an ambiguous way. The first major tease was a Picture of the Day where Sakurai showed the Pyrosphere stage with the words “an enemy from Samus’ past could appear at any moment.” This was interpreted by some fans as a sign of Ridley being playable.
To be fair, he only said that this enemy would appear. He never said how.
The second tease occurred in the April 2014 Smash Direct, where a shadow of Ridley was shown during a segment discussing boss characters. Many felt that this confirmed him as a stage hazard, though a sizable amount of Ridley fans pressed on and believed it to be another tease. This ultimately turned out to not be the case, and Ridley was properly shown as a stage hazard in the 50 Fact Extravaganza stream in October 2014.
Sakurai once again made a comment about Ridley in an interview with IGN at the time of Smash Bros. for Wii U’s release. This time, unlike in the Brawl era interview, Sakurai explained why he believed Ridley could not work, citing proper character portrayal as the primary reason.
“I definitely know that Ridley’s a much-anticipated name for fans, but if we made Ridley as a fighter, it wouldn’t be Ridley any longer. It’d have to be shrunk down, or its wings reduced in size, or be unable to fly around freely. Providing accurate portrayals of characters is something I want to pay ample attention to. If I don’t stick to that thought, then we’d have to lower the quality or break the balance of the game.”
“Something that goes way off spec could break the entire game. Instead of going through a lot of very convoluted hocus-pocus to make Ridley a fighter, I figured it’d be better to keep Ridley as it currently is, the correct way, and have it feel like a truly threatening presence. There are other icons, too, like Metal Face and the Yellow Devil, which help effectively portray each of their world settings. They go a long way toward deepening the game world, and I think it’s been fun to experiment with.”
III. Conclusion
Many people feel that Sakurai “hates” Ridley. I do not believe it’s that simple. The man went out of his way to ensure that the character was represented in every generation of Smash Bros. He has went on record as saying that the reason he did not make the character playable was because he wanted to make sure he was properly represented. That is an act of respect, not derision. At the end of the day, that might be the most disappointing thought for Ridley fans. Sakurai likes the character and wants to make sure he isn’t watered down, he doesn’t hate him, he just has a different opinion on what he thinks is appropriate for him.
What does this mean for Ridley in the future of Smash Bros.? It’s impossible to say. Sakurai has been known to change his opinion from game to game (Villager is a notable example of this). It is also completely possible that Smash 5 has a new director or that a more Smash friendly version of Ridley is introduced in a future Metroid game. For now, though, Ridley fans can at least take comfort in the fact that he has played an important role in Smash history. Keep dreaming of a bigger tomorrow, friends.
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I may or may not get some slack for the way I say this, but bah humbug!
Sakurai has said on his last quote on this article that he wanted to correctly portray Ridley. I dig that. I really do. Respect that really. Want to make sure the character is the character and not a shell of its former self. What bugs me is..as a Ganondorf fan (Hear it comes oh no!!) I wish he portrayed him better in Smash Bros. For me, I feel like Ganondorf in his current form is a bit like him, but at the same time I feel as though he’s not as much himself as Bowser or Mario are their selves.
There is actually an article here about the Ganondorf situation, and if you look closely, even with his clonish moveset, Ganondorf does take quite a bit from his game portrayals.
If you squint, a few of Ganondorf’s punches or kicks vaguely resemble concept art of him or secondary boss fight attacks. It’s still far from ideal representation of the character, defended entirely on the basis of “WARLOCK PUNCH = STRONG, GANONDORF = STRONG.”
Ridley has a good quantity of representation in Smash, but quality? He literally becomes a puppy dog for whoever punches him past a low threshold of damage. That’s not hate for the character, but it’s hardly ‘respect,’ or at least it’s a deluded way of showing it.
Silly fans. Sakurai hates Waluigi.
the whole “no shrinkage for sake of keeping his threatening presence” or “reducing the wing size” is the main reason why i’m voting for Super Metroid-era Ridley (the original Ridley)
Do you mean NES-era Ridley, like the one pictured above? Because this is the significantly larger Super Metroid Ridley: http://metroid.retropixel.net/games/metroid3/boss_ridley2.gif
I’m pretty sure NES-era Ridley was made the size he was due to hardware limitations. Heck, even Super Metroid Ridley might have been smaller in that due to limitations, as the SNES could only handle 64 x 64 sprites (that’s 16 Super Mario Bros. small Mario sprites stacked in a square, for reference.) Ridley’s obviously made up of multiple sprites, but still.
To back up my theory, here’s a screenshot of Ridley from Zero Mission on GBA (which is a re-telling of the first Metroid): http://metroid.retropixel.net/games/metroidzm/boss_ridley.gif
nope
latching on the retconned Ridley from the NES original is gonna get us nowhere
reason why i voted for Super’s OG Ridley is:
1. the design is least menacing than the Other M clone (where he’s portrayed as if he came out of the Alien movie)
2. Super+Brawl Ridley’s wings are smaller than Other M’s
3. it’s the iconic Ridley design
4. Zero Mission’s OG Ridley design was not used in Brawl and beyond but Super’s
5. Shrinkage won’t alter his image since it’s as menacing as Bowser and Ganondorf could even be. (http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l153/Myke-JinX/Facepalm%20gallery/BlogBrawlRidleyDoh.jpg)
6. Ridley has an existing model which Sakurai can easily update; plus animations (already known Lucario and MK Brawl models have been re-used, re-textured, and gotten more polygons as well for Smash 4)
altering Clone Ridley’s threatening image, as portrayed in Other M, and redesigning his new large wings is literally the main reason why Sakurai held back Ridley from being playable.
the long time flying problem can be easily fixed. stuff like Peach’s float
, Metaknight’s jumps+glide special, and Villager’s balloon gimmick could be a real great help to it.
I think one important factor that the development team and Sakurai thought about how he was portrayed in previous games (specifically in Brawl) and how having him playable changes the portrayal from the game “canon”. I mean, compared to characters that went on to became playables (like Dedede, Charizard, Villager and Little Mac), their in-game portrayal still fits their previous appearances, even if they got a redesign in between Smash games (maybe there are more examples, but I can’t remember right now)…With Ridley you can’t do that because he has already appeared in Smash in a specific way. Not that I’m saying that Ridley would never become playable but I believe this is a reason.
That seems not important at all.
I disagree with you saying that Ridley being the main antagonist of the series is a “Misconception”. It really isn’t. Debatable, yes, but not to the point of being a misconception.
Ridley has never been the main villain of any singular game, that’s true, but for the series as a whole, he beats out the other villains in terms of importance. The only other one that comes close is Mother Brain, and Ridley has been in twice as many games as she has. He usually works for another villain in each game, yes, but I personally think the purpose of that is to parallel Samus, who (usually) works for a higher power as well.
What Sakurai means by ‘can’t portray him properly’ is he can’t find a way to make Ridley balanced/proportional to his original appearances. He’d have to give what looks like a zombified chicken with gigantic either super armor on every move (over powered) or have him have huge range, and do little to no damage (underpowered, not accurate of Ridley’s strength).
You can debate, argue, or whine all you want, but Ridley’s proportions don’t give way to a balanced fighter. For lack of a better phrase, Ridley (his wings, long tail) are too big.
Sakurai’s quotes about Ridley do make sense. After looking at some mods for Brawl, and how almost any character can “join” the battle, Ridley as a playable character would seem off. Size and balance are what hinders Ridley’s chances since even though he can be resized in the mods, there’s the flight/recovery issue that would best even the Villager. Even his dash animation needs work. I would be open to having him in the roster but his uniqueness in the Pyroshere stage feels better that way as Sakurai did the best he could.
He’s a character that would be fast, have a great recovery, hit like a tank, have a giant projectile and super armor, if you were going to properly represent him. So how would one counteract that without taking away a part of what makes Ridley, Ridley? You can’t make him weaker, you can’t make him slower and you can’t make him less durable, those are all faucets of the character. I want Ridley in as much as the next guy, but you have to admit that is really quite the problem, and that there’s is no easy fix.
“He is the only non-Pokemon (unless you consider Bob-omb and Whispy Woods to be characters) to have this honor.”
WRONG! Koopa Troopa. Whispy Woods is definitely a character also.
I can see Sakurai’s reasoning but I don’t think it’s right. Ridley can be made as a character without big sacrifices to his character, you’ve all seen how awesome Bagan’s mod is, right? I think it feels more like Ridley than Pyrosphere’s version (who doesn’t even fight like Ridley… where’s the pogo-tail? the little fireballs thing from Super? Why doesn’t he grab anyone? What exactly that weird Meta-Ridley thing is supposed to be?), like I could have agreed with Sakurai more if he didn’t provide such a messed-up portrayal of the character anyways. The pair-up mechanic also makes no sense for his character. If you have to make a compromise, then go all the way and make him playable, as he is right now he doesn’t really satisfy anyone and still doesn’t really reflect Ridley’s character anyways.
As for the limitations that should be set on him… well, it’s not like Ganondorf, or Bowser, or Samus herself in Smash are as powerful as in their games. Or like Kirby can fly indefinetily in Smash, too. Ridley can be a bit resized (really, look at how he compares to Samus in Super Metroid and it doesn’t look like a big stretch to resize him a bit from there), be a great aerial fighter and really strong, but pretty light for his dimensions. He’d be balanced but still himself.
These accomodations have been done to every character. For instance, take Ike: he should be super strong, super fast, super durable and be able to attack from a distance, so I can’t really see why similar compromises couldn’t be made for Ridley. Even more so if we consider that he is a major character in his series and one of the most requested chars ever. So I think Sakurai’s reasons sound kinda pertinent but in the end a bit like excuses. Like, okay, Ridley may not traslate to a fighter as linearly as Link or Mega Man, but it’s not like we’re talking about something like Andross, or Kraid, or Giygas. In the end he’s pretty much just a big dragon, like Charizard. Don’t want to offend anyone.
We’ll have to wait for when Sakurai finally stops teasing of quitting smash and actually does it, then we get a smash without sakurai.
Only then we’ll have ridley.
All of his excuses are terrible, there are already characters being misrepresented, there are already character imbalances, and there are already characters stretching a lot to be in the game or characters that take inspiration from older versions of themselves (like smaller ridleys).
We’ll never know why he really does not want ridley playable, but it doesn’t matter anymore.
At this point it’s clear we’ll never get a real Ridley playable with him Sakurai around.
While I think Ridley is significant enough within Metroid to be a playable fighter, and in some ways has it coming for him, his protrayal in Smash currently makes it unlikely that he’ll appear, which is fine. I agree with Sakurai, and have enjoyed his protrayal of the character even if I personally think it can work without sacrificing his size or wings too much.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Sakurai’s opinion changes with time, as evident with inclusions such as Villager or Pac-Man. However, odds are I think it will be up to the actual Metroid series to protray Ridley in a way that would be appropritate for Smash. Alternatively I think it’s likely that another character from the Metroid series may be added as fighters. According to Tanaba – the director of the Metroid Prime series – Sylux will play a more significant role in the future. Alternatively, and I say this cautiously (barriers are up!) I can see the Federation Marines, as protrayed in Metroid Prime: Federation Force, may be included as playable fighters in a hypothetical Smash 5. Tanabe has also shared that the Marines will continue to play and increasingly more significant roles in future Metroid games.
Could you say he’s causing RIDLELYCULE?
Discussions of this nature are always RIDLEYCULOUS!
+10 pts
I really like Sakurai. I haven’t played much Metroid so I think I am neutral to Ridley. However, some of the things he says bugs me sometimes:
“if we made Ridley as a fighter, it wouldn’t be Ridley any longer:”
“It’d have to be (…) unable to fly around freely.” Like Charizard, Kirby, Dedede, Meta Knight, Palutena…? (who fly freely in their games, not sure about Palutena)
“Providing accurate portrayals of characters is something I want to pay ample attention to.” In Brawl and Melee, sometimes it felt their Luigi was actually Tingle cosplaying as Luigi, really, “Negative Zone” doesn’t *feels* like it could come from any character from the “Mario” (series), maybe he’s confusing Waluigi’s weirdness with Luigi? Also, Bowser has a dog voice and turns into Giga Bowser because Sakurai thought he missed when he was ‘scary’ (he was never really like that?:tinyurl.com/qxsbhz5), DK has feral sounds, unsmiling Mario never says “it’s-a me Mario and other more famous phrases) and Olimar’s funny voice that gives him so much contrast is never present. Zamus has a whip and heels that are cool, but are not canon. Wolf has a biker outfit.. Anyway, I think you get what I mean.
“If I don’t stick to that thought, then we’d have to lower the quality or break the balance of the game.” I think this is the only good reason to keep Ridley out of Smash in case he’s too big/powerful, however, I feel that Ridley fans don’t really care if he’s smaller, slow, his wings clip on the walls and he falls.. I think that at this point they just want Ridley in any way that is possible for Smash. If staying too true to it’s origins was realy so important, I don’t think we would get Cpt. Falcon, R.O.B., WFT, among others.
I do agree with this article and what Sakurai’s trying to say.
Fans strongly says that they should resize Ridley so he could be playable, just like he did to other characters like Pikmin & Olimar, and even Bowser. But eventually, resizing the character isn’t the point of Smash. People who oppose Ridley requests say he’s to big to be playable, and that is true but in a different meaning. Ridley is not just big as in tall in height, but big as in monstrously big, and that’s what Ridley’s meant to be. Unlike Bowser, Ganondorf, and Dedede who are same boss characters as well but have many thoughts of their own, Ridley is a type of being extremely monstrous with an uncontrollable personality, which his size describes how powerful and viscious he could be. He’s not meant to be controllable by anybody. He’s not meant to be sized down to fit with others. This also doesn’t mean Sakurai hates him for some or many reasons, but its because he didn’t want to ruin his visual reputation of who he is. He believes Ridley should stay big as being a monstrous boss character like every of his actual games, otherwise if he resized he’d become more of a…weird and creepy unhealthy looking lizard man with bat wings. He kept him as it is as a respect of who he really is; if not, Ridley shouldn’t be there in the first place.
Sakurai may be such a random person who can change his mind as many times as he wants, but in this case, I think he’ll keep his mind that Ridley should stay in that way to protect his identity. And even if there would be a Smash 5 in the future, I wouldn’t think he’ll every change his mind of bringing Ridley as a playable fighter due to who he is. I mean, does anybody wanna see Ridley look like somekind of a funky looking purple reptile who stayed on ground most often than flying freely? That’ll be too awkward as it’ll mess up my mind.
But actually, I think this might explain that Metroid series lacks major characters other than Samus…
But here’s my other opinion…if people say Sakurai hates Ridley, I’d rather say he hates Kirby games that wasn’t created by himself. He doesn’t bring out any Kirby characters starting from Squeak Squad to Triple Deluxe to Smash. I think that may be a reason why Bandanna Dee wasn’t seen anywhere in Smash as being playable nor assist trophy…
Bandana Dee actually first appeared in Kirby Super Star, which was made by Sakurai. Don’t know why he didn’t get a trophy, but I’m glad he’s not playable. Such a boring choice…
I’ll just throw in my opinion for whatever it’s worth.
I agree with Sakurai that shrinking Ridley down wouldn’t do him justice in Smash. I’m not someone who agrees with everything Sakurai does (even though I can usually see his side of things, at least), nor am I against having Ridley in Smash as a playable character… I just don’t think it’s possible without betraying who he is as a character.
As I mentioned in a previous comment, Ridley is canonically monstrously huge, and any portrayals where he wasn’t (IE Metroid or Super Metroid) were likely due to technical limitations (after doing more research, I found out that SNES and GBA both have a 64 x 64 sprite limit, but Samus was either made smaller in Zero Mission or they were able to utilize their sprite resources better on GBA… but obviously, they could have shrunk Ridley, but did not.)
Characters have been resized in Smash, yes… but not to the degree people are suggesting for Ridley (aside from Olimar, but from his perspective, he was about that size in his games.)
I actually found a picture that pretty much sums it up:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/–RgAuECW1VQ/TqnjS6Xd5bI/AAAAAAAAAB0/en3CY_Mf9Lk/s1600/ridleyz.png
If you notice even in the “Smash” scale, his arms, legs, and tail are pretty ridiculously long. He would either have to have an awkward fighting style, or be slow and have Dhalsim-esque reach.
Initially, I disagreed with the whole flying around freely thing, but to those who have played Metroid Prime and Other M (those are the only two I haven’t played where Ridley is featured), does he ever even walk? If all he does is fly around, what would they do for his walking animation? (And yes, this is a serious point I was wondering about.) At first I thought he could get away with being like Mewtwo, but I feel like having him flap his wings and hovering would be odd at best…
hate to object, but that image:
1. the sprites are either:
-ripped from a non-aliased emulator screen capture
or
-was from a ripped sheet but had smooth rescaling involved.
2. ZM’s orignal Ridley design wasn’t use in Brawl (and a extent to Smash 4 if you count the boss stock image) but Super Metroid’s and Melee’s, making this analogy image very irrelevant.
currently doing a revision of this image so nobody will think we want Ridley to be at a height of a skinny featherless chicken but somewhere close to his original height+head taller than Bowser
It’s been done:
http://i.imgur.com/nHygsIj.png
It works, but I feel like people are grasping at straws a little by sticking to the size he was in NES when no other game portrays him that small.
fanart seem more unreliable
there’s even the one with the Brawl and Other M model at the RidleyRevolution site but it’s *outdated and jpeg as hell. (*not using the extracted Sm4sh models)
I am sure that the ridley size comparison has been done, and there is a web page that details the history of Ridley’s size.
http://www.gamesradar.com/the-ever-changing-sizes-of-samus-ridley-and-kraid/
Ever Since Super Metroid, the canon size of Ridley in the 2D games appear to be 2-3 times taller than Samus, enough to fit in his mouth. For some 3-D games, the height of Ridley is mostly a little more than 3 times the height of Samus.
The fans want Ridley to be shrunk down, but to how much? Having Ridley be at 1 to 1 would not show his mighty size. Ridley as big as Bowser is manageable, but still not tall or big enough. If Ridley would appear, the biggest he could be for default size is 1.5 times the height of Samus, which surpasses Bowser’s size, without potentially breaking the boundaries of the fighter. However, the size of fighters is only one aspect on making a very unique fighter.
He can walk in Other M; but even if he didn’t, he can do it in Prime, Prime 3, Zero Mission and… you know, he does it in Smash too 😛 so I can’t see where the problem would be anyways.
And no, he’s not canonically monstrously huge. That honor would go to Kraid or Draygoon. In fact, Ridley is usually the only Metroid boss that can fit on the screen, as he compares to Samus more or less as Bowser and Ganondorf compare to Mario and Link.
On another point, the image you linked is wrong. Samus’ sprite is resized in the first comparision. Ridley’s not that bigger than her in ZM. And the second is more or less his Super Metroid’s size, just with a smaller head. Take a look: https://dakkster.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/ridleysupermetroid.jpg
And this is nowhere near how much Ganondorf shrank from TP to Smash: http://i.ytimg.com/vi/n5bgobWU8Lg/hqdefault.jpg
So yeah, I still can’t see why the rules that must apply for Ridley can get a pass for basically every other character. Like, the Koopalings have completely wrong bodies and nobody bats an eye. Suggest to shrink Ridley a little and people go insane.
And you know, a flying Dhalsim-like character sounds like an interesting idea to me, as well as something only Ridley could offer.
I can understand if you really can’t see him working (I felt the same way about Olimar before Brawl came out – even if I wanted him a lot), but it’s definitely possible to do without stretching too much from canon. This exists, after all: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUAYbyYJKRM
And lastly, no Ridley is not a mindless monster, even if the games only show it in subtle ways. And the “he’s not meant to be controlled by anybody” is the exact kind of claim that can be applied to other characters already in Smash (namely: Ganondorf). Yeah I still don’t get why Ridley must always be THE EXCEPTION.
Thanks for clearing up the walking thing… I haven’t played ZM in ages, so I forgot that he could walk in it.
The picture I linked is accurate, even if they were resized. Here’s a screenshot from ZM: http://metroid.retropixel.net/games/metroidzm/boss_ridley.gif Samus’ head is basically at the same level as the tip of Ridley’s beak in both cases.
Even if he’s not Kraid huge, he’s still big enough. It’s a little bit harder to tell from a first-person perspective (which is why I used the Zero Mission Ridley comparison in the first place), but you can tell Ridley is still pretty big in Prime: http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/metroid/images/8/87/Meta_ridley_battle_ground.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/640?cb=20130223174940
And in Other M (sorry about the blurry YouTube thumbnail): http://i.ytimg.com/vi/CGK1F8Dq7cg/maxresdefault.jpg
Admittedly, he is quite larger in Zero Mission, so I apologize for not doing my research better.
And that video… has convinced me a little more he could function in Smash, but would he be balanced?
And about the Ganondorf resize, remember that he started off as Ocarina Ganondorf, who is the same size as Smash Ganondorf… Sakurai just updated the model, but kept the same height.
Do you know what “penultimate” means?
pe·nul·ti·mate (pəˈnəltəmət/)
adjective
last but one in a series of things; second to the last.
yeah, sorry, I was writing in a rush, hope it wasn’t too difficult for you to understand my point anyways.
As co-writer and editor I’ll fall on the sword for this one. I was reworking the draft several times at around 3-4 in the morning and let that one slip through. Thank you for pointing it out.
I’m sorry, but no, what Sakurai said about Ridley is completely illogical and contradictory this isn’t a matter of what I think or Sakurai thinks, its a matter of what we know and what is logical, and what Sakurai said is completely illogical and has holes.
“I definitely know that Ridley’s a much-anticipated name for fans, but if we made Ridley as a fighter, it wouldn’t be Ridley any longer. It’d have to be shrunk down, or its wings reduced in size, or be unable to fly around freely.”
I’m sorry Sakurai, but making a character smaller and playable all of the sudden doesn’t make them that character anymore? How? Ridley isn’t even the biggest character in the series, that would go to Kraid or Phantoon (pretty sure its Phantoon though). Size was never his character, if it was why isn’t he the biggest boss in the series? Why does it constantly change? Why is his title: “The Cunning God of Death” and not “The Gigantic Pirate Crusader”? Nothing implies that what makes Ridley is being big nor has it been directly stated. And the flying around part also makes little sense considering he developed the game. I’m pretty sure he’s familiar with what balance is right? It’s completely possible for him to make Ridley playable and balanced. And for the wings issue, why not have them folded or just facing the screen? And why is it not possible to make Ridley aerial focused while being playable? You can do something interesting with the concept of flight and give him a “Flight Meter” or something. Its entirely possible to give Ridley some sort of flight based gimmick.
“Providing accurate portrayals of characters is something I want to pay ample attention to. If I don’t stick to that thought, then we’d have to lower the quality or break the balance of the game.”
Again, this also doesn’t make sense, considering Ganondorf has been the same way for 4 games. His move-set is inaccurate and not completely based off source material.
“Something that goes way off spec could break the entire game. Instead of going through a lot of very convoluted hocus-pocus to make Ridley a fighter, I figured it’d be better to keep Ridley as it currently is, the correct way, and have it feel like a truly threatening presence.
Except, you designed the Duck Hunt Dog, Pac-man, Wii Fit Trainer, Captain Falcon, R.O.B, and Mr. Game & Watch. And then you go on to say: “convoluted hocus-pocus”. No, this doesn’t make sense and is inconsistent to your previous showings. You can design characters like these, but can’t re-size the character while keeping proportions and a canonically accurate move-set? Then you also go on to say: “I figured it’d be better to keep Ridley as it currently is, the correct way…”. You also can’t do that, this statement alone makes me feel that he didn’t do enough research on Ridley before saying this. Ridley would never be that submissive in battle, becoming a lapdog is not the way a ruthless brutish space pirate should be portrayed. I know Ridley is subservient in the (canon) Metroid manga to Mother Brain and Dark Samus, but that situation and this one aren’t the same.
There are other icons, too, like Metal Face and the Yellow Devil, which help effectively portray each of their world settings. They go a long way toward deepening the game world, and I think it’s been fun to experiment with.”
But there are other characters that could be Stage Hazards as well, “deepening the game world”.
No one really cares about non-playable representation. Representing Ridley by making him a tiny sprite, an unimportant trophy, or a punchbag will not make his fans happy.