Important The Ridley for SSB4 Thread - End of an Era

[Smashoperatingbuddy123]

Hm. That DOES look reasonable. Though perhaps my Ridley is too small for that shadow.

(Why is it that I am the one who says that, and I am usually dead serious about it?)

But still yours is really close though.

Because remember its strenched out so bring in the strech correctly there you go thats checkmate

 

[Snagrio]

just found this online lol

There is not enough likes in the world, even though I'm pretty sure that's been posted on this thread before.

 

[AustarusIV]

Darn it @Dalek_Kolt you made him to small, he can't open the door now D:

I always thought putting Snake there instead of Ridley would be just as meaningful, but I won't complain.

EDIT: Oh, damn. I never noticed Snake until you pointed it out, @ Neo Zero .

Someone needs to send this to Sakurai's twitter page.

 

[Neo Zero]

I always thought putting Snake there instead of Ridley would be just as meaningful, but I won't complain.

Someone needs to send this to Sakurai's twitter page.

Snake's trying to get through the airduct. Look at the legs beside Ridley.

 

[False Sense]

I always thought putting Snake there instead of Ridley would be just as meaningful, but I won't complain.

Someone needs to send this to Sakurai's twitter page.

You know Snake is in there too, right?

 

[Snagrio]

Sweet Mother Brain, you guys need to hear this.

I can just see Ridley playing those piano solos. @ AndreaAC , this vision must be realized!

 

[Pacack]

Sweet Mother Brain, you guys need to hear this.

I can just see Ridley playing those piano solos. @ AndreaAC , this vision must be realized!

Hasn't Andrea already done Ridley on a piano? I feel like that was a thing.

 

[Smashoperatingbuddy123]

Here it is, Roidley haters and don`t-likers:

Longer legs, beak bent down, darker color, orange eyes, fitting size, fitting stage with lightning applied, Samus, but no Ridley`s theme because it is, unfortunately, impossible to include in this image. I think i made his legs too lo- *looks at the SM Ridley model* Nope, everything is right. I hope THIS is at least close to how he looks in Sm4sh as a playable character. If he is not playable, then i don`t care about the design at all - i like any kind of Ridley unless its pre-Super Metroid Ridley (concept art Metroid 1 Ridley, Captain N Ridley, etc).
Also, i recently saw March`s Direct...now i don`t think that bosses are pathetic and i actually want to see other bosses unless one of them is Ridley. And other parts of the Direct were awesome.
And judjing by the signature of one of the users, Screen KO looks funny in this game, but i would like it more if it would be a little bit longer at the end, after fighter slams into the screen. Now i want to see how it would look like with Ridley...

Sakurai does make designs of characters better

I would not be suprised if his playable ridley was close to this anyway about this

 

[Neo Zero]

Sakurai does make designs of characters better

I would not be suprised if his playable ridley was close to this anyway about this

Spoilers: Ridley destroys the Enterprise and eats the cookie before heading to steal the Baby Metroid.

 

[Snagrio]

Hasn't Andrea already done Ridley on a piano? I feel like that was a thing.

Maybe...? I don't remember.

 

[AbioFlesh]

Hey~ Does anyone know where I can find a SSBB Ridley model that isn't a trophy?

Also: http://game-oldies.com/play-online/super-metroid-nintendo-super-nes

Anyone interested in playing Super Metroid? It has some audio issues (at least for me it does).

 

[Rebellious Treecko]

Speaking of Metroid music, they should put this arrangement in. It's from the Super Metroid: Sound in Action soundtrack.

Oh, but, uh, yeah. Good work on those shadows and scaling and stuff. I think I've warmed up to Other M Ridley all the way. Dem muscles. And the face looks less derpy from the front than Super Metroid Ridley.

So since we're making an employment list, I figured I should organize it:

Ridley's Gigantic Space Pirate Lounge:


Let me know if I missed anyone and if I need to readjust our current employee list.

I have no idea what or who I am, so sign me up for "?????"

----

 

[domokl]

So since we're making an employment list, I figured I should organize it:

Ridley's Gigantic Space Pirate Lounge:

Lounge Employees and Veterans (so far):
Lounge Owner; Strongest: @Oasis_S
Employee Head Organizer/Manager/Coordinator: @The Soulless One
HR Department: ??????????
Old Timers (TGBRW Veterans*): @samusrules93 @Ridley_Prime @Oasis_S @ IsmaR
Ridley Propaganda Artists; Comic Relief: @ AndreaAC @ SchAlternate @Angelglory @ AbioFlesh @Dalek_Kolt
Redundant Cycle Announcer (The cycles are redundant): @ Snagrio
Animal GIFs: @TitanTeaTime
Lounge Interior Design: @Kamiko
Text-Wall Architect/Moveset Interrogator: Myself (@The Soulless One )
Size/Shadow Analyzers: @Dalek_Kolt @Angelglory @ Smashoperatingbuddy123 @OblivionWolf
The Realism Squad: @samusrules93 @Scoliosis Jones @Dark Phazon @Ridley_Prime
The Sarcasm Department: @samusrules93
The Writing Department: @ Snagrio
Lounge Peacekeepers: @ IsmaR @Swampasaur @Scoliosis Jones
Low-Quality Trolls: @The Soulless One
Female Avatar Roulette Captain: @majora_787
?????: @majora_787 @ Pacack @Reila
Charidley: @ AustarusIV
Lurkers in the Corners: @Ryuma @ender_idk @_______________ @JustALurker
Resident Punching Bag: Roidley
Unassigned: @MorbidAltruism @ False Sense @Zoroarking @Wariofan1 ; Everyone else.
Bouncers: Kraid, Crocomire, Dark Samus

Current Applicants (as far as I can tell):
Ridley Propaganda Artists: N/A
Bringer of Hope: @ WayfaringElf
Lounge Bartender: @Tungsten
Ridley in Miscellaneous Media: @Headcrab Jackalope
Lounge Interior Design: N/A
Some other department: Everyone else.

Banned Individuals: Samus Aran, Adam Malkovich, Anthony Higgs.

All individuals listed under Current Applicants have shown some potential for their positions but need to continue proving themselves to the HR Department (who should control this by the way?) to become Full Time Employees.

*TGBRW Stands for The Great Brawl Ridley War; all listed veterans are written as I've heard them from @samusrules93

Also, the Old Timers get their own VIP section in the lounge and special bar privileges.

Let me know if I missed anyone and if I need to readjust our current employee list.

I will be in the optimism crew that needs to exist

 

[Neo Zero]

Can I be in charge of one liners?

 

[JonesGamer]

I'd be perfectly ok with Roidley considering how good Sakurai made Other M Samus look. Not to mention he gave ZSS a pretty cool redesign that I don't think is based on any Metroid appearance. My dream would be a bit of a hybrid between Roidley and Brawl Ridley.

 

[I Bet You Can]

I will be in the optimism crew that needs to exist

Wonderful list! I'll join the optimism crew :D

 

[Nietona]

It's weird how being in this thread for a while can convince you that there aren't that many toobigots out there. Then you get out there, and it hits you full force when you see them.

I remember there being a false leak that SR388 was the 3DS Metroid stage a few pages back?

Queen Metroid as a boss could be awesome.

 

[WayfaringElf]

Wonderful list! I'll join the the optimism crew :D

As will I.

 

[SchAlternate]

It's weird how being in this thread for a while can convince you that there aren't that many toobigots out there. Then you get out there, and it hits you full force when you see them.

It happens too often to be considered funny.

 

[Neo Zero]

It's weird how being in this thread for a while can convince you that there aren't that many toobigots out there. Then you get out there, and it hits you full force when you see them.

I remember there being a false leak that SR388 was the 3DS Metroid stage a few pages back?

Queen Metroid as a boss could be awesome.

It's like an old Dragon Quest game. You start the game, everything is wonderful and easy, the enemies are weak, and you're just making your way merrily along.

....and then you step into the hills and the trolls attack and one shot you because you're way to low level.

Yes I compared the internet to Dragon Quest 1.

 

[AustarusIV]

It's weird how being in this thread for a while can convince you that there aren't that many toobigots out there. Then you get out there, and it hits you full force when you see them.

I remember there being a false leak that SR388 was the 3DS Metroid stage a few pages back?

Queen Metroid as a boss could be awesome.

Mm-hmm. It really makes your heart strain when you hear people say characters like Ridley or Mewtwo have about the same chances as a new Sonic character: virtually nil.

I second the Queen Metroid as a boss. It would be a wasted opportunity to just make it a collectable trophy.

 

[TheWozny]

Or like Peach already does.

Doesn't Greninja have a tiny little half second glide in this game by using his tongue? I've seen gameplay of him, and I always notice this little mini glide he does.

 

[JonesGamer]

It's like an old Dragon Quest game. You start the game, everything is wonderful and easy, the enemies are weak, and you're just making your way merrily along.

....and then you step into the hills and the trolls attack and one shot you because you're way to low level.

Yes I compared the internet to Dragon Quest 1.

The internet as an old school JRPG is actually a great analogy.

 

[cheetored20]

I'm a huge fan of the Atelier series.
Maybe in the future, Nintendo will have a Metroid Spin-Off where Ridley is the main protagonist.

Despite being a huge evil dragon, Ridley is very intelligent to the point that Ridley is a SCIENTIST
If Ridley can construct a Robotic Version of himself, then he can do much more in his own SPACE PIRATE LAB. (Hence the Atelier in the title)

Ridley can gather materials from unknown territories, during Space Pirate raids or even purchasing from the Black Market...
Ridley then constructs all sorts of weapons, armor, explosives, medicine and other equipment to aid the Space Pirates.

An optional sidequest could be the construction of Robot Ridley. When completed, Robot Ridley can be a powerful ally but alas, for some reason, Ridley does not fully complete Robot Ridley......Later, Robot Ridley can be found in Zero Mission.

Here are some of my favorite soundtracks from the Atelier series:

sounds good to me
edit: im still catching up from before e3 and yes i am new.

 

[SchAlternate]

sounds good to me

Welcome to the boards... I think? Uh, would you like to join the Space Pirate brigade and become a proud supporter of our leader, Ridley? Or something?

 

[Waluigi is too big]

There's a dildo on Bad Dragon named Ridley and it's supposed to modeled after an alien dragon. Coincidence?

I want to get the 12.5" one in purple just to have it, y'know? Too big for any other use.

Why is every time I go on this thread we start talking about Ridley's genitalia.

 

[Maresch]

I've been reading since page 877, and this thread actually seems really fun. I figured it's finally time I joined in. Until I saw this thread, I was convinced and saddened Ridley would be a simple stage boss, but after seeing a lot of compelling arguments drawn from the shadow alone (which is really impressive), you guys have convinced me that he still has a chance. Although some size estimations seem too small, the ones that are slightly bigger than Bowser seem perfect.

As for how I think he could work in the game, I agree with someone earlier who said he would be the opposite of Little Mac, except I would like to expand on that. I remember someone mentioning how being able to glide for a really long time would be overpowered. Ok, yeah, being able to hover in the air for a long time would be a really good recovery. But remember how Peach's works. When Peach gets hit out of her glide, she isn't able to glide again. If Ridley's good attacks are aerial attacks, then the player would prefer to always glide even when on stage for their attacking. After getting hit out of this state, he/she is not able to glide to recover, just his second jump and up B are available. This works as far as balancing goes.

As for Pyrosphere, I fully expect him to come out of the hole in the wall in the back during the cutscene that plays right before unlocking him. Remember how Wolf jumped out of his Wolfen in the cutscene right before unlocking him in Brawl.

@ Waluigi is too big because no other thread is big enough to contain it WHY DID I SAY THAT

 

[R0Y]

"Ridley is TOO BIG!"

Saying something over and over again doesn't make it true...

Spoiler

I expect he'll just be a stage hazard or a boss though...I hope I'm wrong.

 

[Shinru202]

The TV Guy is a dead man

 

[GraveJoker]

I will be in the optimism crew that needs to exist

Aww Im not on there

 

[Deleted member]

Aww Im not on there

How are you supposed to be on the optimist squad if you're sad that you're not on the optimist squad?

You're being silly.

 

[Johnknight1]

I will be in the optimism crew that needs to exist

I can run the "Pale tuna to Ridley April Smash Direct comparisons" department.

Also the "ROB is JUST a common enemy in Brawl" department.

And the "TOON LINK IS ON A TRAIN AND DECONFIRMED!!!" department.

 

[Epsilon52]

I gave that girl a playable ridley. Girls love playable ridley.

 

[Thirdkoopa]

...there's an optimism and pessimism crew now? wat.

 

[AustarusIV]

...there's an optimism and pessimism crew now? wat.

There can only be so many roles to play as in the Ridley discussion thread.

It's the main reason why people think he's such a large character.

 

[Deleted member]

...there's an optimism and pessimism crew now? wat.

It seems you're unaware of my extremely convoluted Lounge Employee List. In Ridley's Gigantic Space Pirate Lounge anything can be a department, you just have to prove that you can maintain it.

So since we're making an employment list, I figured I should organize it:

Ridley's Gigantic Space Pirate Lounge:

Lounge Employees and Veterans (so far):
Lounge Owner; Strongest: @Oasis_S
Employee Head Organizer/Manager/Coordinator: @The Soulless One
HR Department: ??????????
Old Timers (TGBRW Veterans*): @samusrules93 @Ridley_Prime @Oasis_S @ IsmaR
Ridley Propaganda Artists; Comic Relief: @ AndreaAC @ SchAlternate @Angelglory @ AbioFlesh @Dalek_Kolt
Redundant Cycle Announcer (The cycles are redundant): @ Snagrio
Animal GIFs: @TitanTeaTime
Lounge Interior Design: @Kamiko
Text-Wall Architect/Moveset Interrogator: Myself (@The Soulless One )
Size/Shadow Analyzers: @Dalek_Kolt @Angelglory @ Smashoperatingbuddy123 @OblivionWolf
The Realism Squad: @samusrules93 @Scoliosis Jones @Dark Phazon @Ridley_Prime
One Liners: @ Neo Zero
The Sarcasm Department: @samusrules93
The Writing Department: @ Snagrio
Lounge Peacekeepers: @ IsmaR @Swampasaur @Scoliosis Jones
Low-Quality Trolls: @The Soulless One
Female Avatar Roulette Captain: @majora_787
?????: @majora_787 @ Pacack @Reila
Charidley: @ AustarusIV
Lurkers in the Corners: @Ryuma @ender_idk @_______________ @JustALurker
Resident Punching Bag: Roidley
Unassigned: @MorbidAltruism @ False Sense @Zoroarking @Wariofan1 ; Everyone else.
Bouncers: Kraid, Crocomire, Dark Samus

Current Applicants (as far as I can tell):
Ridley Propaganda Artists: N/A
Bringer of Hope: @ WayfaringElf
Lounge Bartender: @Tungsten
Ridley in Miscellaneous Media: @Headcrab Jackalope
The Optimism Crew: @ WayfaringElf @ domokl
Lounge Interior Design: N/A
Some other department: Everyone else.

Banned Individuals: Samus Aran, Adam Malkovich, Anthony Higgs.

All individuals listed under Current Applicants have shown some potential for their positions but need to continue proving themselves to the HR Department (who should control this by the way?) to become Full Time Employees.

*TGBRW Stands for The Great Brawl Ridley War; all listed veterans are written as I've heard them from @samusrules93

Also, the Old Timers get their own VIP section in the lounge and special bar privileges.

Let me know if I missed anyone and if I need to readjust our current employee list.

Ridley's Gigantic Space Pirate Lounge is BIG enough to house millions of departments.

 

[Thirdkoopa]

It seems you're unaware of my extremely convoluted Lounge Employee List. In Ridley's Gigantic Space Pirate Lounge anything can be a department, you just have to prove that you can maintain it.

do go on

 

[AndreaAC]

Sweet Mother Brain, you guys need to hear this.

I can just see Ridley playing those piano solos. @ AndreaAC , this vision must be realized!

Hasn't Andrea already done Ridley on a piano? I feel like that was a thing.

xD Yeah, I already did that with my Catrín Ridley, and coincidentally I was listening to that while drawing it....MAINLY the piano solos...

View attachment 15334
Just a drawing I did after hearing Ridley's theme on piano....sketchy

Oh, I really wish I could do some kind of story/comic with my Catrín Ridley...but it would be way harder than the Ridley and Roidley interactions...with way more seriousness and violence and blood...but not to the point of being gory..and Rosalina would be in it and other character too...maybe someday.

 

[AustarusIV]

Okay, so I'm going to play the role of the skeptic to see if you guys are convinced that Sakurai was just trolling us with Ridley. If any of you can't provide a valid explanation for my questions, then I'm going to learn towards Ridley's position as a boss hazard.


1. Why did Sakurai reveal footage of Ridley in the section where he discussed Yellow Devil (who is a boss hazard)? If he wanted to announce that other stages will feature such a mechanic, why did he do it with someone who is presumably a playable character? Perhaps the Dark Emperor or Twinrova could have sufficed for it.

2. Isn't it possible that Sakurai intended for us to take everything regarding Ridley's position at face value and move on with it? Sakurai has said before that he doesn't like to give false hope to fans who want to see their favorite characters playable, so this is something all of us have to consider.

3. If Ridley is indeed as small as you guys have estimated from his shadow, that doesn't mean he's actually a playable character. Meta-Ridley was quite small for a SSE boss if you removed the wings from his model, and it's possible that this Ridley could be the same size. A stage as large as the Pyrosphere could easily allow a small Ridley to move around the stage with ease attacking the players with the same moves he used in Other M.

4. Speaking of shadows, how are you so certain that Ridley is a Bowser or Rosalina-sized character? It's extremely difficult to accurately assess the size of someone from their shadow, let alone in video games, unless you had a copy of SSB4. Your estimations might be way off.

5. Metroid stages in Smash are infamous for having over-the-top hazards and cameos of various Metroid characters. Couldn't a stage-hazard Ridley fulfill all of those expected requirements?

6. Ridley is an extremely popular and controversial character, who's widely talked about in both the Metroid and Smash communities. With that in regard, why didn't the infamous leaker Sal Romano say anything about him if he presumably leaked the last remaining newcomers? You can't say that he only leaked the newcomers that would be revealed in Nintendo Directs, because we only have one more until the game comes out on September 13 in Japan.

7. Lastly, with the way Metroid is currently being treated in Smash, isn't it possible that this is how Sakurai views the franchise? With two playable Samuses and their archnemesis as a boss character? Sakurai said the main reasons he put Zero Suit Samus in Brawl's roster was because he wanted to pad Metroid representation, and that he wanted more females. Ridley is often thought of as Metroid's answer to Bowser; why wasn't he chosen over an alternate Samus?


There. Now don't take this the wrong way, I want Ridley in as much as you guys. But I've been having a lot of doubts on his inclusion in Smash, so I want you guys to prove your mettle.

 

[Deleted member]

Okay, so I'm going to play the role of the skeptic to see if you guys are convinced that Sakurai was just trolling us with Ridley. If any of you can't provide a valid explanation for my questions, then I'm going to learn towards Ridley's position as a boss hazard.


1. Why did Sakurai reveal footage of Ridley in the section where he discussed Yellow Devil (who is a boss hazard)? If he wanted to announce that other stages will feature such a mechanic, why did he do it with someone who is presumably a playable character? Perhaps the Dark Emperor or Twinrova could have sufficed for it.

2. Isn't it possible that Sakurai intended for us to take everything regarding Ridley's position at face value and move on with it? Sakurai has said before that he doesn't like to give false hope to fans who want to see their favorite characters playable, so this is something all of us have to consider.

3. If Ridley is indeed as small as you guys have estimated from his shadow, that doesn't mean he's actually a playable character. Meta-Ridley was quite small for a SSE boss if you removed the wings from his model, and it's possible that this Ridley could be the same size. A stage as large as the Pyrosphere could easily allow a small Ridley to move around the stage with ease attacking the players with the same moves he used in Other M.

4. Speaking of shadows, how are you so certain that Ridley is a Bowser or Rosalina-sized character? It's extremely difficult to accurately assess the size of someone from their shadow, let alone in video games, unless you had a copy of SSB4. Your estimations might be way off.

5. Metroid stages in Smash are infamous for having over-the-top hazards and cameos of various Metroid characters. Couldn't a stage-hazard Ridley fulfill all of those expected requirements?

6. Ridley is an extremely popular and controversial character, who's widely talked about in both the Metroid and Smash communities. With that in regard, why didn't the infamous leaker Sal Romano say anything about him if he presumably leaked the last remaining newcomers? You can't say that he only leaked the newcomers that would be revealed in Nintendo Directs, because we only have one more until the game comes out on September 13 in Japan.

7. Lastly, with the way Metroid is currently being treated in Smash, isn't it possible that this is how Sakurai views the franchise? With two playable Samuses and their archnemesis as a boss character? Sakurai said the main reasons he put Zero Suit Samus in Brawl's roster was because he wanted to pad Metroid representation, and that he wanted more females. Ridley is often thought of as Metroid's answer to Bowser; why wasn't he chosen over an alternate Samus?


There. Now don't take this the wrong way, I want Ridley in as much as you guys. But I've been having a lot of doubts on his inclusion in Smash, so I want you guys to prove your mettle.

Text-Wall Construction Completed:

1. The answer here is simple, Dark Emperor and Twinrova were bosses/hazards that had already been revealed. Considering that the Direct was focused on New Information (considering we had gotten details on the Yellow Devil's Mechanics) and that Ridley's shadow was shown in the few seconds that Sakurai was referring to "Other Boss Character Appearances" it is logical that Sakurai would have shown characters that would've been considered "other" or not already revealed at that time such as Ridley, because by the Time of the Direct, Twinrova and the Dark Emperor had already been detailed to an extent, so they were no longer "other" boss characters. Furthermore, in the Direct, Sakurai did not say something along the lines of "Other stages will feature Stage Bosses as well" but rather said "Boss characters will make appearances in other stages as well, not just this one." so his wording is quite ambiguous here, after all, on a technical level, boss characters can appear on any stage in Smash 4 if the player chooses to play as Bowser or Ike (who is technically a boss character for a very short time in FE: Radiant Dawn) and in past iterations the same could be done with Ganondorf. What also needs to be considered is Sakurai's actions in other parts of the Direct, such as his fake-out with the Pseudo Palutena Trophy, while obviously this action was more clear, it still is interesting in the sense that Sakurai did such a thing with a character that was later revealed to be playable.

2. While it may be plausible that Sakurai intends for us to take what he says at face value, numerous counter examples already exist that contradict this desire. For example, a while back Sakurai revealed in a PotD that Phosphora was a trophy, well come E3, it turns out that Phosphora is more than a trophy, in fact she exists as part of the AT lineup. Another example is in his direct teasing of G&W at the end of the Pac-Man trailer where he has G&W on-screen and yet still hasn't confirmed G&W as a returning veteran, what is this if not leading all of the G&W fans on since G&W has yet to be confirmed? If G&W, by some circumstance, ends up being cut, then Sakurai would've completely contradicted himself in saying that he doesn't want to give fans false hope.

3. If our size estimates are correct, then Ridley, playable or not, would be only slightly larger than Bowser. In SSE, Meta Ridley and Ridley, while certainly being smaller compared to some of the other bosses, are still significantly larger than any of the playable characters, Meta-Ridley, being smaller than normal Ridley in SSE, is still at least 2x times as large as DK, and even without his wings, dwarfs DK by a considerable margin, DK being a character that is similar in size to Bowser, who is the largest playable character in Smash to date. Ridley's boss appearances in previous Smash games are still significantly larger than any of the playable characters, so why would Sakurai waste time making him smaller as a Boss Character? There'd be no reason for Sakurai to make Boss Ridley as small as the sizes we've estimated if he is indeed a Stage Boss considering his size in SSBB where he has already appeared as a Boss. After all, Stage Bosses are meant to be intimidating, so if Ridley is a Stage Boss, having more size would certainly help in his intimidation factor. Even in Other M, he is still at least 2x times Samus's size as well. Furthermore, original Ridley when he appears in SSBB, is fought on a stage that is similar in size to the Pyrosphere, so wouldn't he logically be a similar size to such an appearance if he is the boss?

4. This goes back to the fact that Bowser is the largest playable character in Smash Bros. History and that Rosalina also belongs in this category. At their current sizes, both of them come close to clipping through the platforms on Battlefield, and logically Sakurai wouldn't want a playable character to be any larger than these two because it would simply look odd for a playable character to have his head above a platform and his body below. So at maximum, Ridley's size as playable would be similar to Bowser's or Rosalina's. Furthermore, considering Ridley's characteristics, there'd be no reason that he'd be around Mario's size either. Also, it has been mentioned before that the Shadows in Smash 4 are static, and thus stay the same size regardless of a character's position on a stage. Additionally, a Shadow is a representation of the amount of light blocked by a physical object or being, and since shadows are unchanging in Smash, and would logically be very similar to the character's size in the game, little (if any) counter evidence exists at the current time for our estimations to be inaccurate.

5. Certainly, a Stage Boss Ridley appearance could fulfill all of these requirements, but what should be considered is that Smash 4 seems to be breaking a lot of the trends of the older games. For example, in past games, Bowser was always the incredibly slow, incredibly heavy, and hard-hitting character, but in Smash 4, he is significantly faster, has had a notable posture change and is altogether completely different from how he used to be. Furthermore, Smash 4 has also eliminated transformation characters, a characteristic that was in Melee and Brawl. Also, the game speed, the higher prominence of ground-based tactics, the killing strength of throws, the FD stage forms, etc. are all things that notably differentiate this game from any of the earlier Smash games. So who's to say that they'll not break such a trend with the Metroid Stage Characteristics?

6. While Sal Romano's source has certainly mentioned almost all of the characters that have been revealed as Newcomers, it has to be kept in mind that he has not revealed ALL of the characters. Such an example would be Rosalina, who wasn't included in either of the leaks and still was revealed as a newcomer. Furthermore, interesting parts exist within the leaks to suggest that Sal Romano's leaker may not know all of the characters to be revealed as newcomers. For example, in his 2nd leak, he mentioned a "Pokemon from X and Y" but we know now that the roster was already decided on in early development, so at this time there would've been nothing preventing him from writing Greninja aside from the fact that he only knew that a "Pokemon from X and Y" was to be included, and not which specific one. This along with the Rosalina counter example further support the idea that Sal's source may indeed not have access to all of the planned newcomers for Smash 4. So to be blunt, it is compulsively ignorant to automatically assume that Sal Romano's source has leaked all of the remaining newcomers to be included in Smash 4.

7. Again, Smash 4 has shown that Sakurai and his team are willing to break from the formula that has been present in past Smash games, so it plausible that Sakurai's view on the Metroid franchise has changed this time around. This also goes back to the idea that the character roster and other certain characteristics such as bosses for Adventure Mode are decided early in development. In Brawl, since SSE was supposed to be this epic battle between the heroes of the Nintendo Franchises and the villains, who were working under Tabuu, it is logical that Ridley was simply decided as one of the non-playable antagonist characters. It should also be considered that during that time, Sakurai thought that the implementation of Ridley as a playable character would've been impossible, but as Smash 4 has shown, Sakurai is prone to going back on his past statements (such as his statements about an Animal Crossing Representative "not fitting" because they weren't from a universe with tons of action and fighting) so it is plausible that this time around Sakurai wants to move past the idea of "two playable Samuses and their arch-nemesis as boss character."

The above statements are my responses to each of your questions.