Sakurai was recently interviewed by Nintendo Dream, and he had a lot of interesting things to say. Ridley in particular was one of the topics of discussion.
Sakurai: We’ve included characters that were in high demand from the “Smash Bros. Fighter Ballot” we held in the past. This is the case for characters like Ridley, King K. Rool and Simon.
We now have confirmation that Ridley was indeed among the "ballot newcomers". It makes me feel good that I still bothered to vote for him on the ballot even though I knew he was not going to happen as DLC. I still felt the need to speak my mind that I wanted Ridley to be a part of the roster, and why exactly I wanted him so much. Thank you to all who similarly decided to vote for Ridley despite his deconfirmation and looking very unlikely that he was going to be DLC, and especially thank you to Sakurai for re-evaluating his opinion on Ridley, and his team for making playable Ridley a reality.
Up until now, Ridley has only appeared in the Smash Bros. series as a boss character. What did you have in mind when you were turning him into a playable fighter?
Sakurai: How huge he is, for one. You can see him standing up straight for a moment in one of his taunts – compared to any of the more ordinary fighters he really is colossal. Ridley had to be big, that’s who he is; any smaller and he starts looking more like an imp. I turned to the NES and SNES games for inspiration as to how to implement him in a way that was feasible; using those games as a reference is what led to his current hunched-over appearance. He’s bigger when he stands upright, but his base appearance is based in the quadrilateral sprites of the NES.
I am very happy that Sakurai looked to the NES and SNES games for inspiration for how to scale Ridley. Ridley is basically only a bit bigger than Samus in the NES game, while in Super Metroid he is not much bigger. The hunched over stature for Ridley is an especially nice touch because that is how Ridley is in Super Metroid. I think Sakuai and his team got Ridley's size just right in my opinion.
When you put him next to characters like Bowser and King K. Rool, he’s pure evil isn’t he? In terms of popularity Ridley was a hit overseas, but speaking frankly, he didn’t really click as much in Japan, did he?
Sakurai: I think that if a villain actually looks like one, people overseas probably enjoy it more. There might also be people that think that if Ridley isn’t truly huge it just isn’t Ridley.
Nintendo Dream and Sakurai speculate about why Ridley is as popular as he is outside Japan, and I think aside from his "villainy" it is also the fact that he is Samus's arch-nemesis, and staple to the Metroid series, a series that is far more popular "overseas" than within Japan. Ridley also frankly has a very cool design and very memorable boss battles. His tendency to show up when you least expect him is also another factor that has endeared him to many.
How Ridley is as a character seems to reflect his popularity – or, rather – his appeal. In terms of actual height, he’s the biggest character, is he not?
Sakurai: In terms of sheer volume, though, there isn’t much there. On the whole, Ridley being such a thin fighter actually proved to be a considerable nuisance. Things that had been intended to hit him weren’t actually hitting his damage box. There really isn’t a point around the middle of his character that you’re supposed to hit, so even though an attack would clearly be digging into him, it wouldn’t count as a hit… That kind of thing. It’s kind of like Fox’s blaster – things with thin hitboxes would just pass through. He was one of the most difficult fighters I had to make.
I actually said for years that Ridley would be a challenging character to develop due to his lanky dimensions. I really want to commend Sakurai and his team for going through the effort to actually make Ridley playable. I really wish I could personally thank Sakurai and his team for doing this. This was a dream of mine for nearly 20 years, and they were able to make it happen. Ridley making it onto Ultimate's roster was truly a miracle.
There is a lot more that is discussed in the interview, so here is a link for any Ridley and/or Smash Bros. fans that want to read it in its entirety:
https://nintendoeverything.com/saku...nha-plant-character-changes-online-much-more/