Social Lower Norfair

[meleebrawler]

Some more notes: he struggles vs combo heavy characters with a gap closer (pikachu, bayo), and has issues dealing with camping characters (villager, samus, cloud). He wins matchups against heavies pretty solidly because his aerial game is comparable to clouds with less aerial mobility and he has his down b which tends to land much more consistently on bigger targets. Mid range fighters or combo characters without a gap closer appear to be more mixed matchups. I think you are right In the idea that the impaling down b hitbox only lands if the base of the spike is in the opponents hurt-box.
His tilts are pretty good, smashes mediocre, fireballs are ok dmg but are kinda slow so you won’t land them often, as well as a high amount of ending lag. His side b has pretty high startup but can be good for repositioning you and your opponent if they are just in the right spot and can’t react to it. Down b doesn’t have real follow ups off of it, you use the crumple to favorably reposition if possible. His fair is a really solid option for keeping opponents off stage, an extremely generous move.



It does have the power effect where the screen slows down right after you land it in a 1 vs 1, with the “strong move landed” lightning as well. No blood splatter

The fireballs are probably best used for pressuring landings at a distance (easier on Final Destination, as well as side b dragging) or edgeguarding low recoveries. But stages with platforms give him more opportunities to shark with aerials and usmash. Hmmm... stage decisions, stage decisions.

 

[StrangeMann]

The fireballs are probably best used for pressuring landings at a distance (easier on Final Destination, as well as side b dragging) or edgeguarding low recoveries. But stages with platforms give him more opportunities to shark with aerials and usmash. Hmmm... stage decisions, stage decisions.

Platforms probably preference
From personal experience side b is not a move you can pull out in neutral, and it’s most effective with more space to scrape your opponent. It has considerable startup which makes it difficult to use effectively, but if you land side b your goal is to forward air your opponent enough times afterward off stage to either build much percent or to outright kill them.
Im probably sleeping on Ridleys up air because I didn’t use it much even though it’s very similar to clouds up air. His fair and bair are both pretty good and his nair is like charizard a but I don’t know if I landed a nair any of the games I played

 

[mynameisBlade]

Language translation isn’t 1:1, especially Japanese to English. I’d have to listen to the Japanese dialogue again (my ability to understand it is fairly piss poor anyway), but it’s likely such a word could also be translated as “vicious” or “evil” depending on context.

Plus K. Rool’s name in Japan is pronounced more like “Kururu” anyway so that probably wouldn’t even occur to them.

Maybe not, but neat regardless.

 

[Mr Gentleman]

Can we all just take a moment to appreciate how deliciously evil Ridley is

Spoiler

 

[NintenRob]

I need to reread that manga. It was actually pretty good.

 

[Mr Gentleman]

I need to reread that manga. It was actually pretty good.

I just recently read it for the first time. I loved it. fleshed out both Samus and Ridley's characters and made me love them both even more!

 

[Mario & Sonic Guy]

It's a shame that Miiverse and Shinru202 flew the coop. If you don't know who I'm talking about, in 2014, a user named Shinru202 made a good amount of Ridley related drawings. I was able to save a good portion of his old drawings before the Miiverse service was terminated.

Spoiler

It's a shame that these drawings were made long before Smash Ultimate was revealed.

 

[Seanp12]

Can we all just take a moment to appreciate how deliciously evil Ridley is

Spoiler

I love the way Ridley's eyes look in that middle panel.

 

[meleebrawler]

Two videos featuring Zaki's Ridley against Abadango's Inkling. The second one has some of the best Ridley play I've seen thus far.
Highlights in the first video include dash attack KOing Inkling at about 110% near the edge and up b stage spiking at around 40.

 

[UltimateWario]

I'm conflicted.

On one hand, Ridley lost an inordinate amount of matches during demo play. I get that he's a new character, but so is Inkling, and they won a lot. If he really does stink despite all of the good tools he has, I want him to get buffed so he's at least decent.

On the other hand, he does seem to have a lot of good tools and work well on paper. I don't want him getting buffed and then being really good and everyone hates him like Bayo. Hell, I don't even want him to be top-tier so that he's not overused.

Ridley being upper-mid would be great. As long as he isn't god-awful Melee Kirby- or Brawl Ganon-tier I'll be happy though. Not like I'll be going to any tournaments or anything.

 

[Arcanir]

Inklings seems to be more straightforward then Ridley, so I'm not surprised that they're getting more victories. Plus, if you pay attention to the footage, there's a lot of examples where people make mistakes with him that end up costing them a life, so it can very well be that players are still trying to adjust to him.

Either way, I wouldn't really worry about it too much right now though. It's an early build that's probably not going to be the same once release comes around, so whether Ridley's good or bad in singles, doubles, or free-for-all in the demo can easily change once the game is in our hands.

 

[StrangeMann]

I hate to say it too early, but I don't think Ridley's going to be a top tier character on launch unless things are changed. He just has too many weaknesses with his large hurtboxes and somewhat vulnerable to camping. His specials are almost a bit too situational sometimes: High startup on down b, b, and side b. I don't think he'll be among the worst characters in the game for sure (many redeeming qualities in aerials and tilts), but his weaknesses are getting really hard to look over. He's very vulnerable to being combo'd and camped by other characters who excel at that purpose. If they nerf him from his current state in the demo, he'll be doing really bad in my opinion (unless they redistribute power from down b to other parts of his kit, then he might be a better character all around).

Doesn't mean I wont play him in tournament and enjoy it though. I don't think anyone fought for Ridley on the condition they wouldn't play him if he was bad.

 

[Mr Gentleman]

Larger framed characters have always had issues in smash games. at least in 4 they circumvented this some by giving 2 of them really good grab games so that they could steal the victory at any moment with just a few good grabs.

I'm not sure if I'll end up playing Ridley in tournament or not. sure is a lot of choices to go through. but I'm still probably gonna have a lot of fun with him in friendlies at the very least.

 

[IsmaR]

A lot of the people losing in the videos showcased thus far fall into many of the same categories that make it difficult to discern what's really the case here.

1. Players picking him are excited to try out new characters before anything (I'm guilty of rushing immediately to Mega Man, Mac and Bowser Jr. in 4 myself only to never seriously play any of them).

2. It is in fact their first time playing the new game/getting used to the physics and mechanics (only a handful of top players and dedicated fans can say they've been to more than 1 event where the demo was available. And even then, there's no guarantee they played more than a few matches).

3. Some players don't get their optimal choices when it comes to how to play (several cases of items on, stages with hazards, or in Plup's case, against characters/mechanics they are most likely unfamiliar with. Obviously we don't know what Ridley's disadvantageous match ups are yet aside from general observations, e.g. "he's combo-fodder since big body").

4. People playing him probably do not play characters that are similar in both playstyle and weaknesses (one of the reasons I think Zaki has had probably some of the best matches thus far since Smash 4 Dedede has to deal with a lot of the same issues, and his playstyle/game knowledge seemingly translates well).

5. It is day 0 until a more public demo becomes available, and a lot of people are just trying to have fun/see what sticks. I know if I had the same opportunity to play the game, I'd be in the same boat as vVv Rapture and do stuff like get in as many taunts as I can.

All of these don't apply to everyone (obviously Plup was trying to win, I don't know everyone's history with other characters, etc.) but demo builds and early game footage in general always get taken too seriously/as word of mouth.

Either way, I wouldn't really worry about it too much right now though. It's an early build that's probably not going to be the same once release comes around, so whether Ridley's good or bad in singles, doubles, or free-for-all in the demo can easily change once the game is in our hands.

^ this as well. I'll always hold the "Samus is the best character in the current (Smash 4) build according to internal testing" blurb that was said during the first Invitational as about as close as you can get to proof that things will always be subject to change.

 

[MasterOfKnees]

I think even on paper Ridley will have a hard time being a top tier character, he's got some good tools, but not enough to make up for his weaknesses, I don't think number and hitbox tweaking will fix that, it goes down to the core design of the character. I'm optimistic that even if he's awful on launch, which is much too early to tell, that balance patches will at least get him in a good spot, because although I think his moveset makes it difficult for him to be amongst the best characters in the game I also think it's an easy one to tweak enough to make him at least decent, it's not like you'd have to change the functionality of any of his moves or change his core attributes to get him there (unlike someone like Dedede or Ganondorf in Smash 4).

I plan on maining him no matter what, my most played character in Smash 4 was Jigglypuff by a landslide, so I'll manage even if he's the worst in the game. If he's just mid-tier, which is where I think he'll end up, then I'll be perfectly happy.

 

[Cosmic77]

There were only two newcomers in the game, and between the two, Inklings were a lot more straightforward. Obviously players are going to have a hard time beating a bunch of veterans who we've had years to get accustomed to, and you can't expect even the top players to simply pick up Ridley and master him in the span of one day.

I'm not gonna give up on Ridley being at least upper mid-tier. Yeah, his large hitbox will probably always hold him back from sitting on the top with the big boys, but he has the tools to be a truly dangerous character if used correctly. Who knows? Maybe we'll get lucky and see a repeat of Smash 4 Mewtwo here.

 

[meleebrawler]

There were only two newcomers in the game, and between the two, Inklings were a lot more straightforward. Obviously players are going to have a hard time beating a bunch of veterans who we've had years to get accustomed to, and you can't expect even the top players to simply pick up Ridley and master him in the span of one day.

I'm not gonna give up on Ridley being at least upper mid-tier. Yeah, his large hitbox will probably always hold him back from sitting on the top with the big boys, but he has the tools to be a truly dangerous character if used correctly. Who knows? Maybe we'll get lucky and see a repeat of Smash 4 Mewtwo here.

Well, did have to get that big followup patch before he truly earned the glass cannon title they've been trying to give him... well, if Ridley's
losing most of his fights in the demo, at least he won't get nerfed, right? All according to plan.

Some things I'd like to see more used from Ridley players are to try conserving their jumps off stage (his up b is dangerous to challenge and can drift a fair distance afterwards) and more use of jab. In particular I'd like to know if we can jab cancel stuff off the first hit.

 

[UserKev]

Even though I have no experience with the Metroid series, I been thinking of a what if plot, Samus and Ridley putting they're differences aside. By the end of the game, Samus is relieved, staring into the explosion of the bigger bad, Ridley suddenly gone. Samus then notices Ridley's sudden absences but she understands why.

It'd actually make sense and wouldn't be random. Aye, even have Ridley backstab and attack Samus as the actual last fight, truly ending the game.

 

[JayJay55]

As someone who's gotten to play Ridley at CEO myself. He was a blast to play with. The frames on his aerials seem pretty stellar for his size. Although his size and weight are an extreme hindrance to him. Though, with proper DI you could survive with Ridley for a substantial amount of time. Players using Ridley shouldn't use Neutral special at any time unless you know you can pressure your opponent with it or regain stage control. Saw a Ridley getting hit an innumerable amount of times in the mouth from a Shiek's needles in 1v1. The smallest things can hit Ridley when charging his plasma fireballs so don't ever think to spam it against a player who at least understands that much about it. Side B, although having a decent bit of start up, if landed can give you stage control and if your opponent decides to mash out you have frame advantage (I at least think you, do, maybe players weren't acting appropriately). Up B has weird angles to it, you have to be very specific about your inputs when deciding the direction of your flight, it also works well as an unexpected kill move. And if I recall correctly, Ridley has 5 jumps (could be wrong and its 4), I was able to F-airplane players to the blast zone easily and make it back to stage. Down B is very strict on its sweetspot, most people were claiming that it would make Ridley broken but the move isn't safe, I don't even think the sweetspot does decent damage to shield.

Overall Ridley is still fun to play, I doubt he'll be low-tier with his toolkit, but even if that ends up being the case playing him feels like Ridley and is extremely fun at that, side B feels so good to use and hitting with the down B....... it has that same feel as if you landed a "Knee of Justice" but satisfyingly brutal. Can't wait to get into the lab with and

(Really hoping K. Rool makes it in this time).

 

[meleebrawler]

Even though I have no experience with the Metroid series, I been thinking of a what if plot, Samus and Ridley putting they're differences aside. By the end of the game, Samus is relieved, staring into the explosion of the bigger bad, Ridley suddenly gone. Samus then notices Ridley's sudden absences but she understands why.

It'd actually make sense and wouldn't be random. Aye, even have Ridley backstab and attack Samus as the actual last fight, truly ending the game.

Well, the threat that would force them in a truce would be kind of random by virtue of coming out of nowhere and somehow being strong enough to oppose two of the strongest forces in the galaxy. The most likely candidate for this role that we know of would be the seemingly rogue faction of Chozo introduced
in Samus Return's chozo memories. They are an enemy that both Samus and Ridley have reason to hate: Samus would likely be upset at them for killing the good Chozo that she knew and was raised by, and Ridley likely just hates any and all Chozo at this point for their association with Samus.

Such a game would likely take place after Fusion, since Prime 4 is likely currently focusing on Sylux and games that don't feature Space Pirates as
the main antagonist also tend not to have Ridley in them... at least, not as part of the main story. There is the extremely minor issue of Ridley being dead
after Fusion, but I guess there will always be some crazy Fed willing to clone him again.

 

[IronWarrior94]

Eh, tbh I can't think of any situation where Ridley and Samus enter a temporary alliance. Most villains like Ridley, who are completely sadistic and murderous with no redeeming qualities, are rarely put in that situation where they team up with the hero to deal with a larger threat. Ridley is like the Carnage(Spider-Man villain) of Nintendo's rogues gallery, atleast in terms of major recurring villains. The only time Carnage canonically worked alongside heroes was when has brainwashed into thinking he was one himself.

 

[meleebrawler]

Eh, tbh I can't think of any situation where Ridley and Samus enter a temporary alliance. Most villains like Ridley, who are completely sadistic and murderous with no redeeming qualities, are rarely put in that situation where they team up with the hero to deal with a larger threat. Ridley is like the Carnage(Spider-Man villain) of Nintendo's rogues gallery, atleast in terms of major recurring villains. The only time Carnage canonically worked alongside heroes was when has brainwashed into thinking he was one himself.

I suppose there's a benefit to Ridley's personality seldom being touched upon in the games... they could always choose to diverge from the manga and tone down the bloodlust and sadism he shows there. And there's always the chance that a cloned Ridley won't have the same personality, or at least memories of the original.

And of course, in the world of Smash that has a playable Ridley, anything's possible.

 

[AndreaAC]

I'm just going to copy-paste it from the post I did on the K.Rool thread:

So, since the comment about Ridley being supposedly called "Captain America" by the Japanese smash fans came from that thread, I put it there first. I just kindly ask that please don't share or use here or anywhere else. I'm going to do that myself since I'm the artist and this was a request from a friend I got some time ago, so, please, respect that. Thank you.

Quick thing.

 

[MasterOfKnees]

I'm just going to copy-paste it from the post I did on the K.Rool thread:
View attachment 151137
So, since the comment about Ridley being supposedly called "Captain America" by the Japanese fans came from that thread, I put it there first. I just kindly ask that please don't share or use here or anywhere else. I'm going to do that myself since I'm the artist and this was a request from a friend I got some time ago, so, please, respect that. Thank you.

Quick thing.

Love the Screw Attack logo on the shield lol.

 

[Mr Gentleman]

I'm just going to copy-paste it from the post I did on the K.Rool thread:
View attachment 151137
So, since the comment about Ridley being supposedly called "Captain America" by the Japanese fans came from that thread, I put it there first. I just kindly ask that please don't share or use here or anywhere else. I'm going to do that myself since I'm the artist and this was a request from a friend I got some time ago, so, please, respect that. Thank you.

Quick thing.

That is beautiful. may I ask where I can find all your artwork?

 

[AndreaAC]

That is beautiful. may I ask where I can find all your artwork?

Thank you! About that, I don't really post my Ridley artwork anywhere else other than here most of the time, really. Some in Discord, but just like I said prior, I want to prevent it from being used/shared without my permission because I got that in the past, so, I apologize for that.

 

[Smooth Criminal]

idk, I was watching some footage of Zaki (arguably the world's best Smash 4 Dedede atm, for those that don't know) playing Ridley versus Abadango's Inkling. Zaki lost in both matches they played in, but it wasn't a huge blowout. There was a lot of weird decision-making (aka "new game, let's have fun with it") and (Mom's) spaghetti dropped between the two also---such is the demo life---but there were a couple of moments I distilled from these matches that got me thinking. Zaki was walling out Aba's Inkling with Ridley's normals between the two sets, playing a pretty efficacious mid-range game and racking up damage pretty reliably.

Here are the two matches I'm talking about. Again, lotsa silly stuff going on because demo, but there's a number of good stuff to glean.

Assuming all of this sticks to the final build of the game, I think that a good foundation of play is getting down the spacing and footsie aspects of the character and going from there.

Smooth Criminal

 

[Yoshisaurus Rex]

Man, looking at clips from CEO has me kinda worried about Ridley at the moment. Hopefully he’ll be buffed by the time the full game is released.

 

[Diem]

So, since the comment about Ridley being supposedly called "Captain America" by the Japanese smash fans came from that thread, I put it there first. I just kindly ask that please don't share or use here or anywhere else. I'm going to do that myself since I'm the artist and this was a request from a friend I got some time ago, so, please, respect that. Thank you.

Quick thing.

That art is awesome, and that nickname is hilarious. Sakurai did say (either in an interview or during the Nintendo Treehouse at E3, I forget) that Ridley was included due to international demand, so Japanese demand clearly wasn't why he finally appeared. But hey, they got Corrin as a DLC character before his/her game was even released in the West, so I think us getting Ridley is more than fair.

 

[Ridley_Prime]

Uploaded just earlier today, by the same channel who did the 8-bit version of the Ridley trailer...

Makes me a bit more curious as to what the actual codecs for Ridley will be, even if not as good/clever as some of the fan-made ones like that.

 

[AndreaAC]

Uploaded just earlier today, by the same channel who did the 8-bit version of the Ridley trailer...

Makes me a bit more curious as to what the actual codecs for Ridley will be, even if not as good/clever as some of the fan-made ones like that.

It says that the video is not available. :o

 

[Ridley_Prime]

>_> Made an error when I was typing the embed code. Edited/fixed it in the original post right after you replied.

 

[AndreaAC]

Uploaded just earlier today, by the same channel who did the 8-bit version of the Ridley trailer...

Makes me a bit more curious as to what the actual codecs for Ridley will be, even if not as good/clever as some of the fan-made ones like that.

xD I LAUGHED WAY TOO MUCH! Wish this was really in the game just because!

 

[AuraWielder]

I'm just going to copy-paste it from the post I did on the K.Rool thread:
View attachment 151137
So, since the comment about Ridley being supposedly called "Captain America" by the Japanese smash fans came from that thread, I put it there first. I just kindly ask that please don't share or use here or anywhere else. I'm going to do that myself since I'm the artist and this was a request from a friend I got some time ago, so, please, respect that. Thank you.

Quick thing.

Could... could I just ask WHY Ridley was being called "Captain America" by Japanese Smash fans?
Like... I-I don't get the connection and am genuinely confused here. Is it because he was heavily requested in the West?

 

[AndreaAC]

Is it because he was heavily requested in the West?

Yup, that's why.

Ridley_Prime xD You made me remember this old drawing of mine!

 

[IronWarrior94]

Could... could I just ask WHY Ridley was being called "Captain America" by Japanese Smash fans?
Like... I-I don't get the connection and am genuinely confused here. Is it because he was heavily requested in the West?

I would guess that's pretty much it.

 

[UltimateWario]

Uploaded just earlier today, by the same channel who did the 8-bit version of the Ridley trailer...

Makes me a bit more curious as to what the actual codecs for Ridley will be, even if not as good/clever as some of the fan-made ones like that.

Wait, did they just make a JOKE about how Ridley is LARGE in Metroid games?!

HOLY **** HOW DID NO ONE EVER THINK OF THAT! Next they're going to start making jokes about people calling Link Zelda or Sonic games being ****! Pioneers of comedy!

The cake is a lie!

 

[Wiinner159]

You know, it's both great and annoying that we also have a Discord server now. Easier access but I miss out on some good ****. Dangit Andrea!

 

[AndreaAC]

You know, it's both great and annoying that we also have a Discord server now. Easier access but I miss out on some good ****. Dangit Andrea!

XP Yeah, I don't know why I did not felt like posting the stuff I did today in the server this time. Sorry!

 

[StormC]

Some nice new gameplay of Ridley... even if he loses... again. Sad!