| “ | It's the head of Mini-Boss Hideout II. It jumps up into the air and breathes fire. It's the original life form of the planet Zebes and is controlled by Mother Brain. Destroy it and you win 75 missile blasts! | „ |
| ~ Metroid on Ridley. |
Ridley is the main antagonist throughout the Metroid franchise. He is Samus Aran's archenemy and often conflicts with her upon meeting and their relationship stems back when Ridley invaded colony K-2L where he took innocent lives including killing Samus's mother and indirectly forcing Samus's father to sacrifice himself to ensure that the Space Pirates never get any of their supplies. He has made many appearances in the series.
What Makes Him a Base-Breaking Character?[]
What Do People Like About Him?[]
- Ridley's fans regard him as one of the best Metroid villains of all time and one of the most memorable as one of the most violent specimens in the galaxy.
- While most hostile specimens naturally act on their instinct, Ridley stands out as a sapient and sentient creature who shows signs of high intelligence and cunning.
- He has some pretty badass moments, such as being able to endure the most fatal wounds and survive, effectively cheating death at every turn and effectively overwhelms his opponents like an expert tactician.
- He has a very cool character design which makes him appropriately intimidating with some charm to him.
- While Ridley's proteus form appearance in the remake Metroid: Samus Returns's finale was debatable, his fans argue that the fact that his existing cybernetics from the Metroid Prime Trilogy is actually helping to properly fit the Prime games in the timeline when Metroid: Other M failed to acknowledge, and him losing them to chase Samus and the Baby Metroid which led to the Super Metroid all build up to their confrontation at Ceres Station, which his appearance in the remake does, at least, make sense outside of merely being for fanservice.
- Ridley wasn't included in the previous Super Smash Bros. games aside from being a background character, trophy, or sticker, due to the fact that reducing his size would result in him losing presentation and he was too big, the later factor would end up becoming an internet meme, and when Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was nearing completion, Ridley managed to be incorporated as a playable fighter which has delighted fans.
What Do People Dislike About Him?[]
- Ridley's constant appearances have soured people's opinions about him and have started to have enough of his overexposure in the series, as they feel that his place as Samus's arch-nemesis overstayed its welcome for them and the strange ability to cheat death are getting more ridiculous as the series went on.
- Ridley's presentation in Metroid: Other M is particularly infamous as it wasn't explained anywhere in the game of how Samus's parents died and Samus's sudden fear of him after having fought him many times did not help matters, with his fight against Anthony Higgs and properly fighting him as a boss after that being the only good parts. Additionally, Adam giving Samus his final orders to defeat was supposed to build-up to a second boss fight with him, which never came to be as Ridley was taken down by the Queen Metroid before Samus could make confront him there.
- His appearance in Metroid: Samus Returns felt out of place for his detractors and they believed that it was only a fanservice moment, feeling that it wasn't necessary, especially since Metroid II: The Return of Samus did not feature Ridley at all.
- It would get to the point where Ridley ended up being relegated to a cameo appearance in the image gallery in Metroid Dread while Kraid, who was shafted for several years made a spectacular return as the second boss in the Cataris region of ZDR.