Ridley was just one example, but is kind of all over the place. He's huge but not that heavy, doesn't have many great combos, has a command grab but generally isn't that good up close, has multiple jumps but isn't particularly strong in the air. I think his main focus was he's supposed to be a character that's good at getting people off the stage but it doesn't come together well in practice. He was such a popular requested character but he has a very lower player base. That's not to say he's completely unplayable or anything, or that you shouldn't use him if you enjoy him and it feels right - just that his moveset as a whole doesn't function super intuitively for most of the player base.
I feel you, that's kinda how I feel with
. I kinda think the duo could use some quality of life buffs to their CQC so it doesn't feel as inconsistent (Up Tilt's hitbox is smaller than expected, for example, meaning that it'll whiff quite a bit, vs. smaller characters especially). Then again they're well-rounded, so there's not that much that should be - IMHO - changed around them really.
If it helps, think of
as a character who instead thrives off of consistent pressure. He's got a number of poking tools especially when spaced (F-Tilt, D-Tilt, N-Air) and his aerials are generally really good at maintaining pressure because they reach quite far and offer good reward mostly. His edge guarding is particularily good because of the aerials' general utility + stuff like Plasma Breath. Space Pirate Rush is a good call out option. He might not get people to the edge often, but if he gets going he can deal a lot of damage in a hurry.
Now I do agree with the fact that Ridley's kinda in an awkward position because he has Bowser's size but Ike's weight, his high risk going alongside his high reward, plus the fact that he has some issues getting places (especially in the air - his ground speed's really good though). That said, personally I stand by my opinion that Ridley only needs some QoL buffs towards his weight and a tiny bit towards the airspeed.
CERO carried out researches several times in the past to see how much their standards are dissociated from the general public perceptions.
They didn't change anything for that, but what they said was that they got a result says that more than 50% feels that more strict rules are needed for violence and gore than the current regulations which even CERO themselves acknowledges is rigorous, while a lot, from both men and women, feels sexual censors should be more lenient.
I've heard things like ripping off human skins or zombie looking like inflamed skins aren't welcomed if they look too realistic since they remind some people of radiation injury. But I'm not sure on this one.
Also, Sakakibara incident really affected every types of media, especially gaming media, so this is more plausible reason for how the general public sees violence and gore in games.
Huh, yeah that makes sense. I found a
2007 article published in the San Diego International Law Journal that talks about how the "violence and video games" controversy was talked about in Japan. Specifically, it mentions a 2005 stabbing spree that occured at an Osaka elementary school (where the resulting furor was aimed at GTA III) as well as a then-upgoing trend of violence at primary schools. Like the then-current "violence in video games" controversy in the West the then-current violence was blamed on video games. But the article also goes into detail as to why the Japanese responses differed from the American / European responses.
With all due respect that statement is based entirely off of assumption. Just because you don’t play the character often or have seen Ridley player that often doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a large player base.
At least anecdotally in my many hours of playing Smash online, I've faced more Mii's than I have Ridley's. Early on in the game I saw him way more but he's a ghost in my online ventures.
Combs through data.
In
Ultimategamedata.com's dataset (which has recorded 2,6 million online matches,
presumably low level 1v1s) Ridley has appeared in 45K matches so far, which is... middle of the pack at 49th (out of 84) in terms of usage rate. His online win% of 49 % is pretty normal.
In competitive play he likewise is a kinda rare (but not that rare) sight, with
his online results being somewhat better than
his offline (from last year granted). He does have some notable players using him -
Nair^ is probably the most well-known player using Ridley - so he's not entirely invisible or anything like that.
Also,
I just wanna point out this clip:
EDIT because I didn't feel like making a new post, but still noteworthy:
