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[Deleted member]

Double Zeroes for Ridley. I don't care about him in the slightest, and I don't think he's playable. Simple and harsh, I know.

Chibi-Robo:
Chance - 11%: I don't think he'll be playable either, but he's got a better chance than Ridley.
Want - Abstain: I know nothing about him or his games. All judgments would be unfair.

Nominations:

Lucas (The Wizard) X5

 

[C_Mill24]

Ridley: Zero: Anthony Higgs is more likely to appear than Ridley.

Chibi-Robo: 10%: It would be interesting for Chibi-Robo to appear in a Smash game. (SSF2 doesn't count).

 

[Pacack]

Ridley:

Chance: 70%
One of the few characters that I'm confident in. But I'll let others explain that. I'm not going to get into that can of worms.

Want: 90%
Not as high up there for me as Takamaru, Toad, or Shulk, but he's definitely in my top 5.


Chibi Robo:

Chance: 12.5%
Possible, but I'm not holding my breath. He just has so much competition to consider...

Want: 66.66%
He's really cute and I'd love to see him, but there are just so many characters that I'd rather see first.

 

[jaytalks]

Ridley: 25%
Based on what we know, it seems like to me that he isn't a playable character. But this all could be a Sakurai curveball. However, I don't think it is.
Want: 100%
I dont want him in that much in the game actually (really maybe like a 70), but the extra 30 is for all the Ridley supporters out there.

Chibi-Robo: 0.0001%
His chances are as small as he is.
Want: 25%
Not really that interested in the character.

Nominations:
Akari Hayami x 5

 

[Parallel_Falchion]

Ridley chance - 75%
Sakurai is a troll, and the not-quite-deconfirmation just seems like his style of setting up for a grand reveal. He's been highly requested for too long; I'm betting on him. But, well, I'm not totally confident.

Want - 80%
Up there with Dixie for my most wanted unconfirmed newcomer.

Chibi Robo chance - 5%
Does Nintendo even own this character?

Want - 15%

 

[KingofPhantoms]

Ridley - 5%

Nearly every single aspect of the footage of Ridley's shadow during the direct has been analyzed thoroughly, top to bottom. I believe some of it does hold some water....but it hasn't convinced me that Ridley is more likely playable than not. I still have little faith that the Ridley we glimpsed as indeed playable. We don't know how other bosses will move yet. We know the Yellow Devil moves in a similar fashion to the various bosses from Brawl, from one side of the arena to the other, but that still can't guarantee that all bosses will behave this way again. With all this being said.... I don't want to get too far into detail on all of this either... it's mostly how I personally feel on the matter than anything else.

The biggest factor that hurts Ridley, I think, is what Sakurai says shortly after the footage begins:

"Boss characters appear in other stages, not just this one."

This also occurred immediately after Sakurai had finished explaining the Yellow Devil's role as a boss.

If that's not a huge blow to Ridley's chances, then I don't know what is.

Want - 90%

I've played few Metroid games so I don't have much of a connection to him. However, he has been one of my most wanted characters since I fought him as a boss in Brawl, I always thought it would be extremely fun to play as a swift and deadly space dragon. I was rather upset to see his shadow after the Sakurai explained the role and mechanics of the Yellow Devil and bosses in general, and since I still have little faith in Ridley's chance at this point, I wouldn't feel much more upset about him being a boss than I already felt during the boss part of the Direct.

Abstaining from Chibi-robo.

EDIT: Almost forgot the noms.

Masked Dedede Final Smash x5

 

[Pureownege75]

Ridley
Chance: 80%
Want: 90%
Well, the most controversial character. If there is one thing everyone can agree on, it's that he IS in the game, it's the role he plays that has everyone at arms. There is honestly so much that has been said, that I honestly can't contribute. When i watched the Direct, I thought he was done for. But ever since then, his chances have continued to increase. If you are unfamiliar with his situation, there are two videos I saw recently which REALLY make me think he is in this game that I'll link. Of course he COULD be stage boss, nobody would be surprised if that's what happened. But with all that has happened, I think his role in this game is larger than that. As for want, he's my 3rd most wanted at the moment. I've never played a Metroid game, other than a small amount of Super Metroid (gotta get on that), but I want him because he'd be REALLY interesting (possible opposite of LIttle Mac), Metroid seriously deserves more reps, and he's been so requested for so long, that he deserves it. He's got a pretty good chance, but really, Sakurai can destroy him at a moment's notice if he wishes. We are getting stage info at CoroCoro, whatever it says about Pyrosphere can make or break him.

Smash Bros 4: The Ridley Debate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEcabFkhpa8
Ridley's Position in Super Smash Bros for 3DS and Wii U: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvQXWHh8RY0


Chibi-Robo
Chance: 15%
Want: 5%
I really don't consider him overrated. If I made a list NOW of the top 10 most likely characters, he'd (barely) squeeze in. With so many confirmations/deconfirmations, their are only so many viable characters left, and he's one of them (granted he's on the lower end, but he's there). His chances aren't he best, but not unreasonable, we've had crazier additions, and I could see him be a very quirky addition. He got a new game recently, which certainly helps. I don't really want him, but from a strictly chance perspective, he's not awful. As I said, there are only so many characters we can realistically consider, probably 10 or so. Chibi Robo does deserve to be there, even if there are other characters in front of him

Nominations
Olimar Alternate Costumes (Louie, President, Alph, Brittany, Charlie) x3
Post-Release Balancing Patches x2

 

[Icedragonadam]

Ridley: 80% When Sakurai disconfirms something, he does it straight away, not drag it out for mouths.

Want:95%- Yes to big purple space dragons.

Chibi Robo: Chance: 10% I've only seen 1 person on Gamefaqs want it.

Want:0%. Really don't care about it.

 

[Strider_Bond00J]

Ah, finally we get to Ridley. This ought to be interesting. So, why not start off with a bit of controversy?

Ridley Chance: 80%

I'm sure that must seem remarkably high, but I do have my reasons which I have conveniently just finished putting together into a large analysis, for those of you who are interested.

Spoiler

Ridley. It's possible that this has been the single most controversial character topic in Smash history. For all the support he receives, there's also a huge number of people who believe that a playable Ridley is simply impossible at this point. Now, I'd like to tackle this topic myself, and perhaps give people a better idea of just what Ridley's chances are at this point. So, to start things off, let's take a look at Ridley's credentials.

Why should Ridley be in Smash?
For the very few of you who don't already know, Ridley is the main antagonist of the Metroid series, one of Nintendo's most successful series, and is the most recurring character in the series besides Samus herself. Within the context of the games, Ridley is the one responsible for murdering Samus' parents when she was a child, unknowingly creating his arch-nemesis in the process. In that sense, Ridley is the one who started the plot of the entire Metroid series. In almost every Metroid game, Samus has to constantly confront Ridley is some form or another, and somehow he is always able to come back and fight another day. Frankly, Ridley is a pretty important Metroid character, and by extension, is an important Nintendo character. As a result, he would be an excellent choice for Smash.

Now of course, there is a huge amount of controversy about why Ridley shouldn't be in Smash, which usually has to do with him being "too big." However, I do not intend to dwell on that topic, so here's my brief response to that issue: size does not matter in Smash, characters are resized all the time, and there is no reason that Ridley has to be an exception to this rule. Now, with that out of the way, I'd like to talk about about something else: the Ridley we've seen in Smash. Ridley is rather unique among potential Smash characters in that we have already seen him in the game. Or rather, we've seen his shadow, which was shown during a segment of a Smash Direct that talked about the appearance of other boss characters. Considering how Ridley seemed to be teased as a boss character, and considering how he was already a boss in Brawl, it would seem that the logical conclusion would be that Ridley is simply a boss hazard on the Pyrosphere stage, and therefore is de-confirmed. However, I believe that there is more to this than meets the eye.

So, let's take a look at a few points that show why this "de-confirmation" may not actually de-confirm Ridley, and that maybe, just maybe, this could actually help Ridley's chances.

1.) How Sakurai usually de-confirms characters
As unpredictable as Sakurai is, he does have a few patterns that he follows in how he handles some of his reveals. One of these is how he typically de-confirms characters. When he reveals that a character isn't playable, he is quick and to the point about it. He doesn't tease the character beforehand or allow for much opportunity for people to think the character in question may be playable, he just outright de-confirms them. Here are just a few examples of how Sakurai has previously treated non-playable characters.

https://miiverse.nintendo.net/posts/AYMHAAACAABnUYnZZEvggg
https://miiverse.nintendo.net/posts/AYMHAAACAAAYUKlLqsgn_Q
https://miiverse.nintendo.net/posts/AYMHAAACAADMUKluq9DPhw

As you can see, Sakurai is usually quite clear when he de-confirms characters, and it would seem that he likes to avoid creating unnecessary confusion or false hope amongst fans. This tendency of his was made even more apparent after the recent reveal of Robin and Lucina, when Nintendo made an official statement that Chrom would not be playable after he appeared at the end of Robin's trailer. So what about Ridley? It seems quite clear that Sakurai was teasing Ridley as a boss in that Direct. If that really is all Ridley is, why did Sakurai not clarify what he was? Even if he didn't want to actually show Ridley just yet, it would have been easy and beneficial if he just stated outright that Ridley would not be playable to avoid giving fans false hope. In fact, despite Ridley being heavily teased as a boss, we have yet to see any more of Ridley since the Direct. Despite being teased for almost a whole year now, ever since the reveal of the Pyrosphere, we have been given very little information regarding just what Ridley's role in the game is. If Ridley truly is a boss, there is very little reason for them not to show him at this point, and the way Sakurai has been treating Ridley does not match up at all with how he's previously de-confirmed characters.

2.) How Sakurai has teased newcomers

Just like how Sakurai has a certain method in which he de-confirms characters, he also has a certain method he uses to tease some of the newcomers we've seen so far. The best example of this is Palutena. Prior to her reveal, a new Kid Icarus stage was revealed that featured a Palutena statue. Along with the update came a comment that referred to the statue as a statue of "the Goddess of Light," which also mentioned how she was watching over the battlefield. This is rather interesting because Sakurai was clearly referring to Palutena, yet did not mention her by name, and the way he worded the comment almost made it sound like Palutena would just be a statue in the game. Later on in the Smash Direct, one of the Trophy Quizzes showed off a trophy of Pseudo Palutena, although at first it was shown from an angle that made the trophy look like the real Palutena. This gave a number of Palutena supporters a brief scare. At this point, it was clear that Sakurai was teasing Palutena in some way, and many believed that it was leading to an official confirmation. As it turned out, Palutena was indeed confirmed to be playable at E3.

Looking back, how did Sakurai tease Palutena? He hinted at her presence in the game (though never directly referred to her), and presented the situation in such a way that it appeared to some that she was not going to be playable, ultimately leading to her official reveal. This actually matches up quite well with how Ridley has been teased for so long; his presence in the game has been hinted at, though he has yet to be addressed by name, and he's been presented in such a way that it appears that he won't be playable. When you think about it, it makes sense for Sakurai to make it seem like characters people really want in the game are not playable, only to reveal them as playable later on. After all, it's much more exciting when a character you thought was unlikely gets in than when a character you thought was a guarantee is revealed. So perhaps Sakurai is doing what he did with Palutena to Ridley, in order to maximize hype when he's finally revealed.

3.) Ridley's size

Well, I did say I wasn't going to dwell on the topic of Ridley's size, but this is a somewhat different issue. As we all know, Ridley is a rather large creature, usually about twice Samus' height or more. Also, bosses in Smash are typically large, so that it's harder to dodge their attacks and easier for you to hit them. So, logically, if Ridley is a boss on the Pyrosphere stage, he would be large, and likely significantly bigger than a playable character. However, it appears that the Ridley we saw in the Direct may not be all that large. Basically, shadows on the Pyrosphere appear to be mostly static in size. Because of this, it is possible to get a rough idea of how big Ridley is compared to other characters. Here's an example of such a comparison (keep in mind that these are not 100% accurate).

Spoiler

Looking at this, it would seem that Ridley is relatively close to the size of Bowser. If that's the case, then that means that Ridley has been resized. Why would they shrink Ridley down just to make him a boss? Wouldn't that be counter-productive to making an effective boss? Speaking of effective bosses, that brings me to my next point.

4.) The Ridley we saw does not act like a typical Smash boss

In previous Smash games, bosses have typically followed a fairly basic attack pattern: stand still on part of the stage (usually the left or right ends), followed by either an attack or the boss moving to the other side of the stage while attacking (all this is usually done quickly). This is the basic pattern most bosses in Brawl followed (most notably, Ridley followed this pattern when he was a boss), and judging by how the Yellow Devil functions, it appears that pattern has carried over to this installment of Smash as well. So how does the Ridley we saw in the Direct act, and how does that compare to previous Smash bosses?

Well, Ridley starts out by flying in (slowly) from the right end of the stage, stops in the middle, does nothing for a few seconds, then (slowly) flies over to the left of the stage, and then immediately turns around and starts flying (slowly) towards the right. It's movements are also somewhat jerky and not very fluid.

First of all, that behavior does not match up at all with how Smash bosses typically function. What's most notable about how this Ridley acts is that, within the entire span of time he's on screen, there is no indication that he ever made an attack. Even his basic movements across the stage seem too slow to actually cause damage. That's a good ten seconds or so without a single aggressive move. That not only fails to match how bosses usually function, but frankly, that's just a bad boss design. This "boss" Ridley is essentially a mobile piñata. Not to mention the fact that this would be a very poor representation of Ridley, considering that he's usually a very fast and aggressive opponent in the Metroid games. If this is really a boss Ridley we're seeing, then it's a very poorly designed boss in practically every aspect.

Conclusion
So, what does this all mean? Well, we know that Sakurai usually goes out of his way to clarify when a character is or isn't playable, so it's odd that he has yet to officially de-confirm Ridley. We know that he can ambiguously refer to newcomers prior to their reveals and can tease them in such a way that makes it seem as if they may not be playable, which he has done for both Palutena and Ridley (though whether or not he's playable has yet to be seen). We know that the Ridley we saw in the Direct is not that large, meaning that he could possibly be at a playable size. And we know that the Ridley we saw acts very uncharacteristically for a Smash boss, or just well designed bosses in general. If Ridley really is a boss on the Pyrosphere, then that means that Sakurai, for almost an entire year now, has been teasing and hyping up a relatively small, slow, and fairly harmless boss version of a highly requested and controversial character. While that is a definite possibility, it seems somewhat unlikely. What is perhaps more likely is that Sakurai has been teasing a playable Ridley all this time, lowering our hopes in an elaborate attempt to maximize hype when Ridley finally makes his Smash debut.

... 0.0

That's pretty good logic! Almost makes me want Ridley in the game as a character! *claps*

With this in mind, I'll give my opinion:

Ridley Want: I guess I'll go for 30%.
Chance: Your amazing essay. 80%.

As for Chibi-Robo, I think he seems more suited for an Assist Trophy, but that's just my opinion.

 

[Smashoperatingbuddy123]

Ridley

Chance 95%

My post on page 637 on the ridley page is good evidence and sakurai is a troll and look at post 2 on page 1 of the ridley support page and look at the megaman picture of him with pikachu ont he pryosphere megamans shadow is 2/3s of ridleys

Want 100%

All the way

Chibi robo

Chances abstain

I don't know much info on chibiw chances but i know who it is though

Want 90%

Yes i would love chibi robo for a WTF rep.

 

[CoolEric258]

Ridley
Chance: 50%. The arguments for both sides have valid arguments, so it could really go either way.
Want: 50%. I don't care for Metroid, I'm not in the "more villain reps" camp, but the character was fun in the SSE, and out of all the series, I want Metroid to get more representation. It's one of Ninty's most beloved IP's, and having two versions of Samus ain't gonna cut it. If Mother can get 2, Metroid should get more than two Samus'.

Chibi-Robo
Chance: 15%. Other characters have more history and more potential, and I don't see Sakurai using a character that isn't all that popular.
Want: 25%. He could be a cute, quirky addition, but there are still more that I want to see.

 

[Thereallucario]

Ridley Chance: 80%
I don't think this needs to be explained.

Ridley Want: 88%
Who wouldn't want a giant flying dinosaur (prospectively) tossing around Mario?

Chibi robo Chance: 5%
What? Really? Why?

Chibi robo want: 0%
II don't... I just don't... I'm still confused... Why?

 

[The Light Music Club]

Ridley:
Chances: 68% - I like his chances
Want: 65% - In the pre-brawl era I wanted him badly, even though I haven't touched Metriod. He'd still be good, but my want has died down since then.

Chibi Robo:
Chance: 10% - He's only had the Gamecube game as one that's recognizable.
Want: 10% - I don't have a connection to him and there are more characters I think that deserve it. (Ex: Andy)

Nominations:
IdolM@ster (Namco) Character x 5

 

[andimidna]

Ridley:
Chance: 62%
Everything about this makes sense, but I don't want to get too confident and end up disappointed.
The shadow size... It just has to mean he's playable. Right? But what's taking so long to reveal him? The Smash community would be much nicer if Ridley was confirmed at e3 2013 and so much could have been avoided... But I have a feeling he might be the last revealed character.

Want: 98%
No personal attachment. Yet I support this much. That's how much it needs to happen. It... It just has to.

Chibi Robo:
One of the biggest decreases ever from my scores. [both]

Chance: 6%
Not that many unique newcomers left, and he is far from the top priority new series character.
Want: 45%
I'll take him after Shulk, Isaac, Chorus Kids, and Andy. But what I really want right now is a Zelda newcomer and a DK newcomer and a retro newcomer. Still, I like his potential. But I agree he was our most overrated. And our new most overrated IMO is Andy. Which I hate to say.

X5 cia
X1 Daisy
X1 Blaziken
X1 Lana
X1 Impa
(I have 12 left)

Predicting who?

 

[ShrekItRalph]

Ridley
Chances 20%
Want 50%
I think Ridley has a very high chance of being in this game... as a stage boss. In the april direct Sakurai basically confirmed this, and while he could be messing with us, I think a stage boss is the most likely option.

Chibi Robo
Chance 10%
Want 55%
I wouldn't mind it, but I don't see it as likely.

x5 Inkling

 

[Smasher 101]

The extra nominations will be updated ASAP, hopefully some time tomorrow.

Ridley's chances: 30% - A bit more than before, but I'm still not too confident in him.
Want: 100% - Yes please.

Chibi-Robo's chances: 5% - There are several un-represented series that I think would get characters before his, but he's got a shot as an assist trophy.
Want: 60% - I'd be fine with it.

Brain Age stage x5

Edit: Predictions:

Purchasable DLC newcomers: 35.47%
Crash Bandicoot: 0.67%
Tropical Freeze: 40.17%

 

[Kenith]

Ridley's Name Is Bigger than the Others:

Chance: 100%.

Yep. Yep. Yep.

I am that confident he's in.
The reasoning? Oh, that's been done to death. But I'll just abridge the arguments for the sake of completion:

1. He's been teased. When Sakurai disconfirms a character, he does so swiftly and unquestionably.

"Here's a new Assist Trophy--the Skull Kid! I repeat, it's an Assist Trophy, not a new fighter. The characters announced on the website are the fighters!"

This is the day Skull Kid was confirmed to be an Assist Trophy. He was mentioned by name, and his role was absolutely clarified.
However, take another picture that was briefly thought to be a disconfirmation:

"You can find this statue of the Goddess of Light in one of the stages. She's watching over the arena."

Here, a statue of Palutena is shown, BUT, she is not mentioned by name, nor is the character's role mentioned. She's just called the "Goddess of Light".

Now, Ridley is one of the most requested characters since Brawl. In that game, he didn't make it as a playable character, but he got TWO boss roles in the Subspace Emissary.
He was one of three pre-existing Nintendo characters to even appear as a boss in that mode. The bosses were actually treated somewhat like characters, as well. Just not playable. They got their own update on the Dojo!, had the fancy gradient behind their character render, and all that jazz.

Back to his role in SSB4. In the April 2014 Nintendo Direct, Ridley was thought to be disconfirmed when, at the end of the "Boss Characters" segment, a close-view of Pyrosphere is shown, along with the shadow of what is obviously Ridley or a form of him.

So the obvious conclusion is he is a stage boss on Pyrosphere.

However!

Notice how vague he is. Ridley was "hinted" to be a boss hazard back when Pyrosphere was first announced. Incidentally, in both cases, Ridley was NOT mentioned by name, and his role in the game was not directly stated.

Also, interesting, the Smash communities collectively freaked out when Ridley was initially hinted at being disconfirmed. Even though he was not. Knowing that Sakurai loves to troll and toy with the fanbase lovingly, and also how he is clearly aware of the fanbase's opinions, it's very likely he caught on with this, and decided to mess with the fans even more by confirming their suspicions in the Direct, even though he's actually playable.

It's very likely there is a Ridley on Pyrosphere, as a boss. However it's more likely that's he's playable, or both.
Too me, it all adds up to him being playable.

One last thing:

In the Nintendo Direct, the shadow's size is supposedly around the same size as Bowser. Which probably looks about like this:

Not too big after all.
Good day, everyone.

Want: 90%. For his fans, and to finally end this debate, and because he's an extremely deserving character.

Chibi-Robo:

Chance and Want: 50%. I haven't played any of his games, but he seems like a cute addition. However, he is somewhat obscure now, and a very niche addition.

---

Nominations: Bayonetta x5

 

[TCT~Phantom]

Ridley 99.99% Chance
100% Want

Chibi Robo
5% Chance
50% Want

Nominating Paper Mario x5

 

[TheZombiePig]

Chibi Robo: 18%
One if the more likely miscellaneous characters, but still unlikely.
Want: 70%
Don't know much about the series, but I love his design, and think he'd make a real neat addition to the roster.

Ridley: 70%
In addition to shadow comparisons, it just doesn't add up for him to be a boss.
Almost a year since the Pyrosphere was shown.
Almost 4 months since the direct.
In Ridley.
Not giving him more than 70% because there still is a sizable chance he could be a boss.
Want: 90%
He coo. And I really want some of my friends to be wrong.

 

[CrusherMania1592]

Ridley:

Chances: 80%
Want: 100%



Chibi Robo: 20%
Want: 20%


Nomination: Coco Bandicoot x4, Blaze the Cat

 

[Sid-cada]

Ridley

Chance - 50% - I ...just... don't know anymore! I can't tell anymore. I can't figure it out. Just shoot the bullet.

Want - 100% - My most wanted character at the most.


Chibi-Robo

Chance - 0.5% - Yeah, so close to release seems like this should be an appropriate score. Too little going for him at this point.

Want - 60% - OK, I like him, but not enough to support the little guy.


Predictions

Buy-able DLC Newcomers - 5.75% - Wow, that's going to be unpopular.

Crash Bandicoot - 0% - Wow. Nintendo-associated he ain't.

Tropical Freeze Representation - 23.56% - I don't know what people think about this.


Nominations
Masked Dedede Final Smash X5

 

[Leafeon523]

Chibi robo:
Chance: 5%

I'm simply disgusted with myself on how much I overated him last time.

Want: 40%

So I tried him out in SSF2, and... he kinda sucked. Then again, I play games with a keyboard about as well as a diseased ape, so maybe that isn't fair judgment.

Ridley:

Chance: 48.41%

As I expressed earlier, I think his old score was absolutely perfect. It's very near the middle, with a little bit of uncertainty. And no, he isn't too big.

Now as for want...

I attended a casual Project M tournament today with my friends (and got 3rd!) and I brought up the topic of Ridley. Here were everyone's opinions on his chance in smash:

2/11:Yes
2/11: Maybe
6/11: Nope
1/11: Who's Ridley?

As you may expect, this turned into a massive flamewar. Not really anything with malice, but a fun debate about the character. And then is when I realized just how important Ridley's absence is to smash bros. Just think about how different smash speculation would have been without the big guy. The amount of overall speculation would have been so much lower. Think about how awesome it has been on the Ridley thread. So many pictures, debates, overall hype... and I'd be really sad to lose hat before the next smash. Who could take Ridley's place if he were to go? There is no widley requested character with a completely inaccurate argument against their inclusion. The cloest thing I can think of is Captain Toad, with "Captain Toad can't jump!" as the argument. But he is no replacement for a gigantic space dragon. With that, I give Ridley a 1% want.

So there's my spheal. Feel free to fire away at my opinion!

Predictions:
Purchasable DLC characters: 30.07%
Crash: .35%
Tropical Freeze representation: 44%
Nominating Frederick AT x5

 

[Chandeelure]

-Ridley:
Chances: 45%
Want: 70%

-Chibi Robo:
Chances: 10%
Want: 50%

-Nomination: C-R-O-W-N-E-D X5

 

[Kalimdori]

Chibi Robo's Chance: 15%
I think he could happen, he'd be a quirky, unique character that might fit in well with Smash, depending on how they implement him. However, he hasn't made nearly a big enough name to warrant an inclusion. Might be an AT, but I'd be really surprised if he was a character.
Want: Abstain
Apart from SSF2 I know absolutely nothing about him.

Here we go...

I have never written a rant for Ridley, which makes me quite angry at myself, as he's one of my most wanted characters. But seeing as this is probably the last time we will rate him before release, I'm going all out. I'm going to split this into different sections, otherwise I won't be able to keep this coherent. This isn't going to focus on why he should be included in the game because, well, he already is. It just hasn't been confirmed in what way.

THIS IS GOING TO BE INCREDIBLY BIG TO THE POINT I MIGHT HAVE TO SPOILER TAG INDIVIDUAL SECTIONS. THOSE WITH FAINT OF HEART WHO CANNOT READ TEXT WALLS SHOULD TURN BACK NOW!

1. Wasn't Ridley deconfirmed?
No

First of all, it's "disconfirmed", it drives me nuts when people use deconfirmed, as that would mean the character was confirmed, but deconfirmed later.

Secondly, Sakurai didn't disconfirm Ridley in any way shape or form. When Sakurai disconfirms characters, he makes sure to specify that these characters will NOT be playable, or explicitly showing them in a roll where they CANNOT . Characters including:
1. Skull Kid
2. Ashley
3. Waluigi
4. Chrom
5. Every Assist Trophy and Pokeball in the Direct
6. Every Assist Trophy and Pokeball ever

He even went out of his way to disconfirm Brittany from Pikmin 3 when showing her trophy. He specifically went out of his way to state that this rather insignificant character would not be playable in Smash Bros. THAT is a disconfirmation people.

"But Kalimdori, Sakurai has never shown a character before they were announced! He even said that characters are officially announced on the website, therefore any character that isn't announced HAS to be deconfirmed!"

Oh my gosh you are absolutely right! And by that logic:
= Deconfirmed
= Deconfirmed
= Deconfirmed
= Deconfirmed

Not only is that statement naive, it's downright false, as I just showed. A character is not disconfirmed until Sakurai says so, or it is shown in such a way it cannot be playable. This is why Ridley is not disconfirmed, and why several of the characters we have listed as "Deconfirmed" on this game should not be there (Saving for rant in my nominations for this post)
2. Ridley is a boss, not a character!

I'm going to split this into 2 sections: Size and behavior

Size: To put it bluntly, outside of his NES appearance, Ridley is the smallest he's ever been in this game, nearly half the size he was in Brawl. If you want to know how I came to this conclusion, please visit the second post of the Ridley thread, I'm not going to copy and paste that over here. (Because then this post would be too big )

Behavior: I'm seeing people claiming that we "Don't know how bosses work and move" in this game, and therefore, Ridley's behavior in the Direct isn't something that can be shown as evidence to his playability. Which I would agree would be the case, if we didn't already have a boss fight to base it off of!

To those of you who never touched Subspace Emissary, never played Smash before now, or have a very short memory span, Ridley was a boss before in Smash Bros. Twice. Both of these fights had an active, fast Ridley that was constantly attacking the player. In this iteration, we have a Ridley that casually flies in from the right at a slow speed, hovers in midair for a few seconds (Possibly with a Pikachu in his hands, but that's not a certainty), and casually flies off to the left, only to immediately come back ascending to a higher altitude. If this is a boss fight, it's downright boring, especially compared to his Brawl battles.

Not only that, but Ridley's animations in this are incredibly choppy, his speed is extremely slow compared to his previous battles, he is moving directly across the axis that players move across, even when gaining altitude, and goes a full 12 seconds without A) Attacking, or B) Assuming he did grab Pikachu, did absolutely nothing with him. So if this is a boss, it is a slow boss that does not attack and possibly grabs people without doing anything.

Or it's someone controlling a character.

3. Sakurai is hyping him up as a boss!

This excuse. This excuse. This excuse drives me up the wall more then any other one. The claims that Ridley is to big or to overpowered or wouldn't have a moveset are so idiotic that it baffles me how people still think they are viable, and I'm not going to waste my time trying to prove them wrong. (Yes, if you believe either of those arguments I just called you an idiot #sorrynotsorry)

If Sakurai is just hyping up Ridley as a stage boss, he is taking one of the most requested characters to be in this game and slapping him into a gimmick of a feature that has always been present in Smash Bros. This would be akin to hyping up Mewtwo as a Master Ball Pokemon.

In conclusion:
If Ridley is a boss, he is a poorly designed, diminutive boss that has been deliberately hidden and hyped up for no apparent reason. If he is a character, Sakurai has been keeping him a secret for a future reveal, and is creating controversy around him to build hype, similarly to what he did with Palutena. As such, I give Ridley:

Chance: 99%
With a 1% chance that Sakurai is either an idiot or deliberately being a douche to Ridley fans. Both of which I don't believe are true. There is no logical explanation for Sakurai's behavior if Ridley is just a boss.

Want: 100%

I want Ridley to be playable in this game. After being dragged along for nearly a year to learn Ridley's fate, not having him playable would be a slap in the face to me and all Ridley fans. It would be so awesome to play as him, he's arguably the most deserving Nintendo All Star to get into this game (Barring maybe Toad). And I despise Ridley's detractors. I have been ridiculed for wanting a character in a video game, for around 10 years, to the point that I have been called a cancer to the Smash Bros community. I hate Ridley detractors and want to be able to prove them wrong.

Even without that, Ridley is my favorite Nintendo villain, and my second most wanted character to get into this game, of course I would want him in this game. As for my most wanted character...

Warning: Another rant is approaching. Kudos to you if you stuck around this far, and I will give you a cookie if you can make it through this whole post.

Nominations: x5 Rayman Rerate
Yeah. You read that right. If you recall, I said I was going to rant about the characters we have listed as deconfirmed on our list (Feel free to ignore this part of this post) As you may also recall, I also ranted about how Sakurai deconfirms characters. And as such, several of our disconfirmed characters are simple assumptions that should not be listed as such. For example:

Zoroark: Even with all the demo footage we've gotten, we have never seen any sign of Zoroark in any part of this game, other then the Greninja trailer. That and combined with the fact that Sakurai said the Pokemon in the trailer would be "appearing in some form" instead of specifying they will be Pokeballs, means that Zoroark's disconfirmation is undeserving. I personally think he's a Smash Run enemy, but we have no proof that he can't be a character.

Lip: Her stick is an item and Kirby still has a garbage block? How is that... huh? Fox's main weapon is an Arwing but he doesn't use that Mario uses Fire flowers and mushrooms in his games, but those are just items. Assumed disconfirmation is an assumption.

Isa: Terrible reason for disconfirmation is terrible.

Wonder Red/Tiki/Rayman: Go back up and read my rant about Ridley not being disconfirmed. Exact same thing applies here. When Sakurai makes a point of assuring people that Brittany is not playable, but doesn't for others, disconfirming them is an assumption, not a fact.

I don't think any of these characters have much of a chance of being playable, but not having much of a chance =/= having no chance at all.

So why am I singling out Rayman? Simple.

Unrepresented gigantic third party company has two separate trophies for their company mascot.





DONE!

*pant* *pant* *pant*

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go lie down...

 

[Nimbostratus]

Ridley
Chance- 60%
A large part of me still takes the Direct segment as a straight disconfirmation for him, but I see the logic in other people's arguments. Between this and the fall of Gematsu, I've become more positive about his chances.
Want- 100%
WARNING! A WALL OF TEXT IS APPROACHING!
This is a pretty typical score for him, but if you’ve seen my previous rating on Ridley, you might be surprised by the difference.

Have I changed my opinion on him? Not really. I still don’t like his design or personality and I still don’t have any personal connection to Metroid.

So, why am I suddenly in favor of Ridley? The reasoning actually takes a bit to explain.

Let me start from the beginning. I’ve owned Smash 64 for about as long as I can remember; I don’t remember any speculation scene at all. I was still quite young when Melee came out. I remember an older friend of mine telling me some characters would be added, which I thought was cool.

My first personal speculation really began with Brawl’s E3 trailer. I remember checking out the Dojo with my friend several times. I even remember trying to argue that Waluigi was a shoe-in as Wario had been confirmed.

Things really took off after Brawl though. There were so many new characters that I was fascinated by that I had never known before from my somewhat limited knowledge. I immediately started guessing who would make the next Smash game. I specifically recall thinking that Rosalina was a sure bet (up until I joined Smashboards, which convinced me otherwise. It’s somewhat funny how a casual sometimes knows more than we do ).

Over two years ago, I somehow stumbled across Smashboards. I don’t even remember how I found it, but I was quickly checking on it just about every day. I learned a lot about cool characters and games that I would never have been able to without these forums. It was really exciting for me, as it was the first time I’d really been active in the speculation scene before we really knew anything about the game at all.

Last year I went off to college. There were some tough times, but I was able to push through it. As well as reading BitF, I can thank checking Smashboards and the daily pics for helping me do so. It was in many ways a ritual from life back home that helped keep me grounded. I would have survived without it, of course, but I do think it was good for me. Earlier this year, I finally got my own account so I could share my own opinions with other people with similar interests.

So, what’s my point to all this? As much as I’ve loved Smashboards, I’ve had flashes of being tired of it? Why? It’s been two years since I first started reading this, and we’re still talking about many of the same character. Sure, most of the characters that have been revealed are decent in of themselves, but so many of them have been surprises (Villager, Wii Fit Trainer, Rosalina, Greninja and to a lesser extent, the FE characters) that our main discussions have gone largely uninterrupted.

In other words, two years later, I’m still have to scroll by the over 1,000 pages of Ridley discussion that’s eternally pinned at the top of the forums.

In the past I’ve been annoyed about how loud the Ridley fanbase is, but I’ve come to understand. People have been supporting Ridley even before Melee came out, and he’s still not in. That’s an awful long time for people to be talking about the same character. I don’t think it’s healthy for the community.

I’ll probably have moved on to something by then, but if I log back in to my account six years from now to get hyped for Smash 5, I don’t want to feel like its 2012 again. I want us to be talking about whether or not Dillon should be promoted from an Assist Trophy to a playable character or discussing how Splatoon should be represented, not about how Ridley or K. Rool missed the cut yet again. I don’t think I’m the only one. There have been several times were I felt bored while scrolling though the forums, and it’s because so little has changed. For the sake of the Smash community, I don’t want to see the discussion grow stale.

The only other hope would be that if Ridley didn’t make this one, people would finally give up and stop talking about him. But from what I’ve seen, there might be a few who’ll say that this was his last chance, but I’m confident the lot will still be around supporting him again next time around. Ridley fans have dealt with adversity, and I don’t see them going anywhere. So, for goodness sake, just add him already! While I don’t love him, I do think he merits admission, and I believe it would be best for everyone if he finally joins the game so we can finally move on to other things. I might not like him, but I do want him.


Sorry for the dramatics, I’m back to normal Nimbostratus, or whatever that is.
WALL OF TEXT FINISHED

Chibi Robo
Chance- 8%
Would make sense in a lot of ways... but we've seen absolutely nothing from his series, and not in a good way like Isaac.
Want- 65%
Sure... I don't mind.

 

[Zhadgon]

My Ridley
Chance: I don't know anymore, if Sakurai is trolling he should have ended this debacle months ago, instead we are still rerating our Space Pirate every three months, I'm tired and to the point that I don't care anymore, so my rate will be 50%.

Want: Saying all that, still my most wanted character to appear in Smash since Melee has been Ridley, if Sakurai adds this character I will not care anymore about the roster, he could put a playable Sandbag and I will not give a S4!T about it, so my rate 100%.

Chibi Robo
Chance: 7.77% lucky sevens to our little mechanical positive character.
Want: 70% Why not? Stranger characters have appeared in Smash as playable fighters, and the moveset potential is there.

.n_n.

 

[Con0rrrr]

Well, just found out this was a thing today...

Before anyone can make assumptions on Ridley. (Not to toot my own horn) You NEED to see the second Post on the Ridley page (Organized by myself)

Anyway...

Ridley:

Chance: 97% (read above)

Want: 100% (to be fair, I did not care at all for Ridley before the direct, even though Im a Metroid fan, then when all the evidence was presented that he is indeed playable, now I really want him)

Chibi-Robo:

Want: 60%

Chance: 10%

 

[Delzethin]

I step away for half a day, and The Mysterious Murasame Castle gets announced for the EShop worldwide? That might be good for Takamaru's chances...or it might not. Who knows?

Chibi-Robo
Chance:
-Main Roster: 8%
-As DLC: Abstain

So I get that we usually see an unexpected "wtf" character every game...but how Chibi-Robo was in the running (and the Top 10, no less!) is beyond me. For one, the Wii Fit Trainer already falls into that "wtf" niche pretty well. For two, the odds are looking pretty good that we'll see a character from Rhythm heaven, whether it's Marshal, the Chorus Kids, or someone else. The odds of Chibi-Robo getting in based on unexpectedness over one character already in and one franchise that has an enemy in Smash Run? Very unlikely.

...I honestly don't remember much about Chibi-Robo's capabilities to say how viable his moveset potential is, though. I also only know a little about his debut game and next to nothing about the sequels' popularity to say how relevant he is. He could still make it based on those merits, for all I know, but it looks like he's pretty far back in line in the niche of the strange.

Want: Abstain

Like I said, I don't feel like I know enough about Chibi-Robo or his games to make an informed decision on how much I want him to be in.


Ridley
Chance:
-Main Roster: 50%
-Via DLC: 0%

The big one...no joke intended. >_>

There's been a whole lot of arguing, a whole lot of support, a whole lot of detractors...and both sides have valid points. Ridley's canonically twice Samus' size. The shadow in the Direct didn't look much bigger than Bowser, and Smash resizes characters already. Ridley's moveset potential is questionable. Look at what they did with Little Mac and Pac-Man. Sakurai's being a troll and getting Ridley supporters' hopes up to crush them. Sakurai hasn't teased other characters he's disconfirmed, and has teased ones that were revealed later.

I just...I don't know. Sakurai might be messing with us to build hype for his eventual reveal, but it's strange he'd "reveal" Ridley as the second shown stage boss only for him not to be one, but he's already subverted expectations with Robin and shown a very high level of fan awareness so far, but...dammit, it looks like it could go either way right now. Don't make me pick a side; I don't know! >_<

The only thing I do know is that he won't be a DLC newcomer. He's in the game in some form already, whether it's playable or as a boss.

Want: 42%

After all this time, I'm neutral on Ridley. Seeing how the developers pulled off interesting movesets for Pac-Man, the Villager, Little Mac, and the Wii Fit Trainer makes me more confident they'd be able to give Ridley an interesting one as well. He's grown on me a little (As if he needed to grow more, am I right guys?), but I'd still be fine with it if he wasn't in.

Predictions
DLC Newcomers: 84.5%
Crash Bandicoot: 2.25%
Content from DKC:Tropical Freeze: 95.8%

Nominations
Stage Music Borrows From Other Stages' Franchises x5

I'll get a good name one of these days. >_>

 

[NintenRob]

Ridley
Chance: 99%
I think this video sums it up well.

Want: 100%
Currently my most wanted and people WILL FINALLY STOP ARGUING ABOUT HIM!!

Chibi-Robo
Chance: 40%
Nothing has been shown to suggest he is playable but he did have a recent game on the 3DS and would fit in well with other Nintendo characters.
Want: 30%
eh, could be cool.

Nominate Parabo & Satebo

 

[BaganSmashBros]

Ridley:
Chance: 87.32%
Want: 1100%
Why: well, he wasn`t deconfirmed yet even through every other disconfirmed character was...well...disconfirmed instantly, like Skull Kid, Waluigi, Dark Samus, Chrom (but not everyone understood that, so Nintendo decided to tell that straight and simple, so, no one will suffer as much as we will if Ridley is disconfirmed, which is very unlikely, but is still possible), etc. Further analysis proves that he is at least a very badly designed boss (slow, small on a large stage and does nearly nothing for 11 seconds and no, he didn`t grabbed Pikachu, instead he...jumped in the air) or a playable character. He is my MOST wanted character and is one of the only few characters i care about (other characters are Bowser, Power Suit Samus, Meta Knight, DDD, Charizard and Kirby).
Chibi Robo:
Chance: 3.5%
Want: 0%
Why: well, he is one of the many characters of that kind, so, his chances are not very high (he has enough competition for that slot) and i don`t know why would he be playable. I don`t want him mostly because i don`t know him, he is not at least bada$$ and he is obviously not a reptile like Bowser or Ridley.
Predictions:
DLC Newcomers: 0%
Crash Bandicoot: 7%
Contect from DKC: Tropical Freeze: 60%

 

[Swift Fox]

Ridley's chance is 5%, the rest of his % is his chance of being a stage boss, plain and simple.

Want: 0%

 

[Kenith]

Chibi Robo's Chance: 15%
I think he could happen, he'd be a quirky, unique character that might fit in well with Smash, depending on how they implement him. However, he hasn't made nearly a big enough name to warrant an inclusion. Might be an AT, but I'd be really surprised if he was a character.
Want: Abstain
Apart from SSF2 I know absolutely nothing about him.

Here we go...

I have never written a rant for Ridley, which makes me quite angry at myself, as he's one of my most wanted characters. But seeing as this is probably the last time we will rate him before release, I'm going all out. I'm going to split this into different sections, otherwise I won't be able to keep this coherent. This isn't going to focus on why he should be included in the game because, well, he already is. It just hasn't been confirmed in what way.

THIS IS GOING TO BE INCREDIBLY BIG TO THE POINT I MIGHT HAVE TO SPOILER TAG INDIVIDUAL SECTIONS. THOSE WITH FAINT OF HEART WHO CANNOT READ TEXT WALLS SHOULD TURN BACK NOW!

1. Wasn't Ridley deconfirmed?
No

First of all, it's "disconfirmed", it drives me nuts when people use deconfirmed, as that would mean the character was confirmed, but deconfirmed later.

Secondly, Sakurai didn't disconfirm Ridley in any way shape or form. When Sakurai disconfirms characters, he makes sure to specify that these characters will NOT be playable, or explicitly showing them in a roll where they CANNOT . Characters including:
1. Skull Kid
2. Ashley
3. Waluigi
4. Chrom
5. Every Assist Trophy and Pokeball in the Direct
6. Every Assist Trophy and Pokeball ever

He even went out of his way to disconfirm Brittany from Pikmin 3 when showing her trophy. He specifically went out of his way to state that this rather insignificant character would not be playable in Smash Bros. THAT is a disconfirmation people.

"But Kalimdori, Sakurai has never shown a character before they were announced! He even said that characters are officially announced on the website, therefore any character that isn't announced HAS to be deconfirmed!"

Oh my gosh you are absolutely right! And by that logic:
= Deconfirmed
= Deconfirmed
= Deconfirmed
= Deconfirmed

Not only is that statement naive, it's downright false, as I just showed. A character is not disconfirmed until Sakurai says so, or it is shown in such a way it cannot be playable. This is why Ridley is not disconfirmed, and why several of the characters we have listed as "Deconfirmed" on this game should not be there (Saving for rant in my nominations for this post)
2. Ridley is a boss, not a character!

I'm going to split this into 2 sections: Size and behavior

Size: To put it bluntly, outside of his NES appearance, Ridley is the smallest he's ever been in this game, nearly half the size he was in Brawl. If you want to know how I came to this conclusion, please visit the second post of the Ridley thread, I'm not going to copy and paste that over here. (Because then this post would be too big )

Behavior: I'm seeing people claiming that we "Don't know how bosses work and move" in this game, and therefore, Ridley's behavior in the Direct isn't something that can be shown as evidence to his playability. Which I would agree would be the case, if we didn't already have a boss fight to base it off of!

To those of you who never touched Subspace Emissary, never played Smash before now, or have a very short memory span, Ridley was a boss before in Smash Bros. Twice. Both of these fights had an active, fast Ridley that was constantly attacking the player. In this iteration, we have a Ridley that casually flies in from the right at a slow speed, hovers in midair for a few seconds (Possibly with a Pikachu in his hands, but that's not a certainty), and casually flies off to the left, only to immediately come back ascending to a higher altitude. If this is a boss fight, it's downright boring, especially compared to his Brawl battles.

Not only that, but Ridley's animations in this are incredibly choppy, his speed is extremely slow compared to his previous battles, he is moving directly across the axis that players move across, even when gaining altitude, and goes a full 12 seconds without A) Attacking, or B) Assuming he did grab Pikachu, did absolutely nothing with him. So if this is a boss, it is a slow boss that does not attack and possibly grabs people without doing anything.

Or it's someone controlling a character.

3. Sakurai is hyping him up as a boss!

This excuse. This excuse. This excuse drives me up the wall more then any other one. The claims that Ridley is to big or to overpowered or wouldn't have a moveset are so idiotic that it baffles me how people still think they are viable, and I'm not going to waste my time trying to prove them wrong. (Yes, if you believe either of those arguments I just called you an idiot #sorrynotsorry)

If Sakurai is just hyping up Ridley as a stage boss, he is taking one of the most requested characters to be in this game and slapping him into a gimmick of a feature that has always been present in Smash Bros. This would be akin to hyping up Mewtwo as a Master Ball Pokemon.

In conclusion:
If Ridley is a boss, he is a poorly designed, diminutive boss that has been deliberately hidden and hyped up for no apparent reason. If he is a character, Sakurai has been keeping him a secret for a future reveal, and is creating controversy around him to build hype, similarly to what he did with Palutena. As such, I give Ridley:

Chance: 99%
With a 1% chance that Sakurai is either an idiot or deliberately being a douche to Ridley fans. Both of which I don't believe are true. There is no logical explanation for Sakurai's behavior if Ridley is just a boss.

Want: 100%

I want Ridley to be playable in this game. After being dragged along for nearly a year to learn Ridley's fate, not having him playable would be a slap in the face to me and all Ridley fans. It would be so awesome to play as him, he's arguably the most deserving Nintendo All Star to get into this game (Barring maybe Toad). And I despise Ridley's detractors. I have been ridiculed for wanting a character in a video game, for around 10 years, to the point that I have been called a cancer to the Smash Bros community. I hate Ridley detractors and want to be able to prove them wrong.

Even without that, Ridley is my favorite Nintendo villain, and my second most wanted character to get into this game, of course I would want him in this game. As for my most wanted character...

Warning: Another rant is approaching. Kudos to you if you stuck around this far, and I will give you a cookie if you can make it through this whole post.

Nominations: x5 Rayman Rerate
Yeah. You read that right. If you recall, I said I was going to rant about the characters we have listed as deconfirmed on our list (Feel free to ignore this part of this post) As you may also recall, I also ranted about how Sakurai deconfirms characters. And as such, several of our disconfirmed characters are simple assumptions that should not be listed as such. For example:

Zoroark: Even with all the demo footage we've gotten, we have never seen any sign of Zoroark in any part of this game, other then the Greninja trailer. That and combined with the fact that Sakurai said the Pokemon in the trailer would be "appearing in some form" instead of specifying they will be Pokeballs, means that Zoroark's disconfirmation is undeserving. I personally think he's a Smash Run enemy, but we have no proof that he can't be a character.

Lip: Her stick is an item and Kirby still has a garbage block? How is that... huh? Fox's main weapon is an Arwing but he doesn't use that Mario uses Fire flowers and mushrooms in his games, but those are just items. Assumed disconfirmation is an assumption.

Isa: Terrible reason for disconfirmation is terrible.

Wonder Red/Tiki/Rayman: Go back up and read my rant about Ridley not being disconfirmed. Exact same thing applies here. When Sakurai makes a point of assuring people that Brittany is not playable, but doesn't for others, disconfirming them is an assumption, not a fact.

I don't think any of these characters have much of a chance of being playable, but not having much of a chance =/= having no chance at all.

So why am I singling out Rayman? Simple.

Unrepresented gigantic third party company has two separate trophies for their company mascot.





DONE!

*pant* *pant* *pant*

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go lie down...

I love this post. I would like this 100 likes if possible. You said everything I did but better and funnier.

(Also, could you perhaps make that proverbial cookie a like for my rant too?)

 

[Cheezey Bites]

Ridley: 95%
He's pretty clearly in at this stage, the way they've been skirting around the subject at Comic-con only confirms this to me. The thing that I question is if he'll be in the launch version of 3DS or if he'll be free DLC for that version and revealed in the build up to the Wii U release.

Want: 100%
It's Ridley, who doesn't want him?


Chibi-Robo: 15%
He's a minor franchise among minor franchises, and while he's lovable he's neither as requested, important, as fitting for the Smash mechanics, or as well selling as a number of the already confirmed ATs.

Want: 5%
As an AT it'd be 100%, but as a playable character... he'd be taking development time better used for someone else, and a miscellaniery based move set has already been pocketed by Villager.




Don't Loose Currency: 43.2%
There'll be derision, and some people will still get confused by what the concept is asking.

Crash and the Boys: 0%
I'm calling it, no-one will give it anything!

Ice Ice Monkey!: 84.21%
Too soon my Donkey!
(get it because ass and donkey mean the same thing? No? I'll keave quietly.)



Anyways, I know I have 15 nominations thanks to post E3 when I left because of the Gematsu hype. Sooo... I may as well finish off what I was doing:

Double Cherry*15


And now to decide if I'm going to do Dragon Quest or Fatal Frame representation...

 

[Nat Perry]

Chibi Robo's Chance: 15%
I think he could happen, he'd be a quirky, unique character that might fit in well with Smash, depending on how they implement him. However, he hasn't made nearly a big enough name to warrant an inclusion. Might be an AT, but I'd be really surprised if he was a character.
Want: Abstain
Apart from SSF2 I know absolutely nothing about him.

Here we go...

I have never written a rant for Ridley, which makes me quite angry at myself, as he's one of my most wanted characters. But seeing as this is probably the last time we will rate him before release, I'm going all out. I'm going to split this into different sections, otherwise I won't be able to keep this coherent. This isn't going to focus on why he should be included in the game because, well, he already is. It just hasn't been confirmed in what way.

THIS IS GOING TO BE INCREDIBLY BIG TO THE POINT I MIGHT HAVE TO SPOILER TAG INDIVIDUAL SECTIONS. THOSE WITH FAINT OF HEART WHO CANNOT READ TEXT WALLS SHOULD TURN BACK NOW!

1. Wasn't Ridley deconfirmed?
No

First of all, it's "disconfirmed", it drives me nuts when people use deconfirmed, as that would mean the character was confirmed, but deconfirmed later.

Secondly, Sakurai didn't disconfirm Ridley in any way shape or form. When Sakurai disconfirms characters, he makes sure to specify that these characters will NOT be playable, or explicitly showing them in a roll where they CANNOT . Characters including:
1. Skull Kid
2. Ashley
3. Waluigi
4. Chrom
5. Every Assist Trophy and Pokeball in the Direct
6. Every Assist Trophy and Pokeball ever

He even went out of his way to disconfirm Brittany from Pikmin 3 when showing her trophy. He specifically went out of his way to state that this rather insignificant character would not be playable in Smash Bros. THAT is a disconfirmation people.

"But Kalimdori, Sakurai has never shown a character before they were announced! He even said that characters are officially announced on the website, therefore any character that isn't announced HAS to be deconfirmed!"

Oh my gosh you are absolutely right! And by that logic:
= Deconfirmed
= Deconfirmed
= Deconfirmed
= Deconfirmed

Not only is that statement naive, it's downright false, as I just showed. A character is not disconfirmed until Sakurai says so, or it is shown in such a way it cannot be playable. This is why Ridley is not disconfirmed, and why several of the characters we have listed as "Deconfirmed" on this game should not be there (Saving for rant in my nominations for this post)
2. Ridley is a boss, not a character!

I'm going to split this into 2 sections: Size and behavior

Size: To put it bluntly, outside of his NES appearance, Ridley is the smallest he's ever been in this game, nearly half the size he was in Brawl. If you want to know how I came to this conclusion, please visit the second post of the Ridley thread, I'm not going to copy and paste that over here. (Because then this post would be too big )

Behavior: I'm seeing people claiming that we "Don't know how bosses work and move" in this game, and therefore, Ridley's behavior in the Direct isn't something that can be shown as evidence to his playability. Which I would agree would be the case, if we didn't already have a boss fight to base it off of!

To those of you who never touched Subspace Emissary, never played Smash before now, or have a very short memory span, Ridley was a boss before in Smash Bros. Twice. Both of these fights had an active, fast Ridley that was constantly attacking the player. In this iteration, we have a Ridley that casually flies in from the right at a slow speed, hovers in midair for a few seconds (Possibly with a Pikachu in his hands, but that's not a certainty), and casually flies off to the left, only to immediately come back ascending to a higher altitude. If this is a boss fight, it's downright boring, especially compared to his Brawl battles.

Not only that, but Ridley's animations in this are incredibly choppy, his speed is extremely slow compared to his previous battles, he is moving directly across the axis that players move across, even when gaining altitude, and goes a full 12 seconds without A) Attacking, or B) Assuming he did grab Pikachu, did absolutely nothing with him. So if this is a boss, it is a slow boss that does not attack and possibly grabs people without doing anything.

Or it's someone controlling a character.

3. Sakurai is hyping him up as a boss!

This excuse. This excuse. This excuse drives me up the wall more then any other one. The claims that Ridley is to big or to overpowered or wouldn't have a moveset are so idiotic that it baffles me how people still think they are viable, and I'm not going to waste my time trying to prove them wrong. (Yes, if you believe either of those arguments I just called you an idiot #sorrynotsorry)

If Sakurai is just hyping up Ridley as a stage boss, he is taking one of the most requested characters to be in this game and slapping him into a gimmick of a feature that has always been present in Smash Bros. This would be akin to hyping up Mewtwo as a Master Ball Pokemon.

In conclusion:
If Ridley is a boss, he is a poorly designed, diminutive boss that has been deliberately hidden and hyped up for no apparent reason. If he is a character, Sakurai has been keeping him a secret for a future reveal, and is creating controversy around him to build hype, similarly to what he did with Palutena. As such, I give Ridley:

Chance: 99%
With a 1% chance that Sakurai is either an idiot or deliberately being a douche to Ridley fans. Both of which I don't believe are true. There is no logical explanation for Sakurai's behavior if Ridley is just a boss.

Want: 100%

I want Ridley to be playable in this game. After being dragged along for nearly a year to learn Ridley's fate, not having him playable would be a slap in the face to me and all Ridley fans. It would be so awesome to play as him, he's arguably the most deserving Nintendo All Star to get into this game (Barring maybe Toad). And I despise Ridley's detractors. I have been ridiculed for wanting a character in a video game, for around 10 years, to the point that I have been called a cancer to the Smash Bros community. I hate Ridley detractors and want to be able to prove them wrong.

Even without that, Ridley is my favorite Nintendo villain, and my second most wanted character to get into this game, of course I would want him in this game. As for my most wanted character...

Warning: Another rant is approaching. Kudos to you if you stuck around this far, and I will give you a cookie if you can make it through this whole post.

Nominations: x5 Rayman Rerate
Yeah. You read that right. If you recall, I said I was going to rant about the characters we have listed as deconfirmed on our list (Feel free to ignore this part of this post) As you may also recall, I also ranted about how Sakurai deconfirms characters. And as such, several of our disconfirmed characters are simple assumptions that should not be listed as such. For example:

Zoroark: Even with all the demo footage we've gotten, we have never seen any sign of Zoroark in any part of this game, other then the Greninja trailer. That and combined with the fact that Sakurai said the Pokemon in the trailer would be "appearing in some form" instead of specifying they will be Pokeballs, means that Zoroark's disconfirmation is undeserving. I personally think he's a Smash Run enemy, but we have no proof that he can't be a character.

Lip: Her stick is an item and Kirby still has a garbage block? How is that... huh? Fox's main weapon is an Arwing but he doesn't use that Mario uses Fire flowers and mushrooms in his games, but those are just items. Assumed disconfirmation is an assumption.

Isa: Terrible reason for disconfirmation is terrible.

Wonder Red/Tiki/Rayman: Go back up and read my rant about Ridley not being disconfirmed. Exact same thing applies here. When Sakurai makes a point of assuring people that Brittany is not playable, but doesn't for others, disconfirming them is an assumption, not a fact.

I don't think any of these characters have much of a chance of being playable, but not having much of a chance =/= having no chance at all.

So why am I singling out Rayman? Simple.

Unrepresented gigantic third party company has two separate trophies for their company mascot.





DONE!

*pant* *pant* *pant*

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go lie down...

One thing doe.

You mention Boss behaviors. We don't know how they work, as you addressed. However these are stage bosses we're talking about. Not boss battles, where you fight in an area specifically made for that boss fight and that boss fight alone. We can guess that maybe they'll have different fighting behaviors on stages that can hold four fighters.

 

[shrooby]

Double Zeroes for Ridley. I don't care about him in the slightest, and I don't think he's playable. Simple and harsh, I know.5

I don't mean this to be argumentative, but if you "don't care," wouldn't that mean the "Want" score is 50%? (IE Indifference)
0% would imply that you do care. In fact, you care a lot!


Well, anyway, I'm lovin' the big posts for Riddles.
Assuming he doesn't get rated again between now and release, this'll be my last time rating a character in this game, so I'd like to really make it count with a nice big wall.
It will be the best way of spending my Sunday afternoon. Yes, indeed.

 

[Burigu]

Oh my gosh you are absolutely right! And by that logic:
= Deconfirmed
= Deconfirmed
= Deconfirmed
= Deconfirmed

I have to say before anything I agree with most of your points there but have to disagree with most of these.
Toon Link wasn't shown until confirmed, yeah yeah a Link appeared in the Spirit Tracks stage, but IF we are tecnical that is not the same Link that is Spirit Tracks Link while playable Toon Link is Windwaker's, proof? he use the windwaker they decided to go with the Alfonzo scenario only to not cause confusion. Yeah a really picky argument, but tecnically truth.

YET again we got "MII FIGHTERS" while the characters previously shown are simply called "MIIS" their body constituion aren't even the same that is why they are put with the Smash emblem, yeah not the strongest of arguments but is still there.

I dissagree with this one, since when a statue = character? I can go and see a statue does it mean I KNOW the person it represents? the answer is NO you can keep saying it still shows her but to me a statue is far from showing a person or in this scenario showing the actual character. I can't say I know Washington or meet him only by looking at a statue
Your only undisputed character (for this scenario)

I don't even know why you bring this up when Ridley hasn't been shown, a shadow and his tail are far for showing him so you don't even need to bring these characters up to make a valid argument.

Nominations: x5 Rayman Rerate
Yeah. You read that right. If you recall, I said I was going to rant about the characters we have listed as deconfirmed on our list (Feel free to ignore this part of this post) As you may also recall, I also ranted about how Sakurai deconfirms characters. And as such, several of our disconfirmed characters are simple assumptions that should not be listed as such. For example:

Zoroark: Even with all the demo footage we've gotten, we have never seen any sign of Zoroark in any part of this game, other then the Greninja trailer. That and combined with the fact that Sakurai said the Pokemon in the trailer would be "appearing in some form" instead of specifying they will be Pokeballs, means that Zoroark's disconfirmation is undeserving. I personally think he's a Smash Run enemy, but we have no proof that he can't be a character.

Lip: Her stick is an item and Kirby still has a garbage block? How is that... huh? Fox's main weapon is an Arwing but he doesn't use that Mario uses Fire flowers and mushrooms in his games, but those are just items. Assumed disconfirmation is an assumption.

Isa: Terrible reason for disconfirmation is terrible.

Wonder Red/Tiki/Rayman: Go back up and read my rant about Ridley not being disconfirmed. Exact same thing applies here. When Sakurai makes a point of assuring people that Brittany is not playable, but doesn't for others, disconfirming them is an assumption, not a fact.

I don't think any of these characters have much of a chance of being playable, but not having much of a chance =/= having no chance at all.

So why am I singling out Rayman? Simple.

As said before while I agree with most of your post I dissagree with your reasoning here.

Acording to you, SHOWING a character with no playable role confirmed, actually hints them? that is far from what Sakurai has done until now.

And before you point Mr. Game and Watch scenario again yes he is the only exception for VETERANS, if we look at the pattern shown for every newcomer, they are flat out confirmed when Sakurai decide to show them in a trailer.

Since every character you point out could be a potencial NEWCOMER, don't actually prove your point, you can say that is subjetive but then I will ask you what NEWCOMER has been shown in a trailer and not being confirmed right away? you and I know the answer.

Zoroark you answered yourself, not shown in a DEMO, he could be a smash run enemy too. Playable? NO

Lip: before hand I have to say I love Lip mostly because of Captain Rainbow let's play.
Lip's Stick IS her signature WEAPON, Mario does use Fire Flowers and Mushrooms you are right but even in his own series there are tons of them, not so unique right?
I said this in the past but let's say it again: when we get: Master Sword, Galacta, Ragnell and Falchion as both items and signature weapons for the characters that use them, then and only then Lip still stands a chance. Comparing Lip's signature weapon with Fire flower and other items that are found by dozens in games don't make Lip any justice. And for the record I would take Lip before Takamaru as a retro any day, but let's be realistic.

Wonder Red, Tiki and Rayman.
Honestly if a trophy shown don't convince you they aren´t playable then you don't want to see the truth, but we can go check things back

• Toon Link =/= Spirit tracks Link
• Mii FIGHTERS =/= Mii
• Statue, Pseudo Palutena =/= Palutena herself
• Shadow =/= Ridley shown

SO yeah it's safe to say every theorized newcomer character shown as a trophy and on trailers and not confirmed = NOT PLAYABLE.

So you think we are getting 5 FIRE EMBLEM characters? Tiki is easily in my top 5 but I am realistic.
The sad thing is people are so stubborn that a trophy or a character shown without the "not playable words" make them think they got a shot when Sakurai HAS NEVER doing that before.

• Show me a trophy that was latter confimed a playable character
• Show me a newcomer that appered in a trailer without a confirmation
• There are words that don't need to be said because the actions and evidence of the past totally contradicts the idea, to even make them posible

But I will finish this putting you in this scenario: YOU are Sakurai, you said every NEWCOMER would get its trailer reveal, these are you tools to hype people, to make them buy YOUR game, a console future IS in YOUR hands, will you go and make all of them a fancy trailer only to SHOWN some of them BEFORE as TROPHIES?

YOU want to get the maximun reacting for PEOPLE, showing a trophy and then make the character playable, will certainly catch people off guard, but if you go around doing that PEOPLE will catch up, then every trophy they see would make them think that character is expected, by the time you show the trailer the hype wouldn't be the same, because everybody expect you to do so.

What did you achieve? putting people off guard THE FIRST TIME, for the rest everyone would expect that, and people would lose interest. NOT a smart BUSINESS strategy and a really cheap way to "show" theorised NEWCOMERS.

As a bussiness perspective the best to do is actually reveal a character out of no where in a trailer. You can even tease them but you don't play your cards until the right time

WFT , Villager, Megaman, Rosalina, Little Mac, Greninja, Palutena, Mii fighters, Pacman, Lucina and Robin everyone with a proper introduction, calling characters like trophies as posible go against everything Sakurai has shown as far as NEWCOMERS are concerned.

I agree mostly with your Ridley analisis. I am only sharing my opinion here so hope you don't take it the wrong way or think I am antagonizing you. Greetings

 

[~Krystal~]

Chibi Robo

Chance & Want: 0%

Ridley

Chance: 50%
Want: 100%

 

[Kalimdori]

I love this post. I would like this 100 likes if possible. You said everything I did but better and funnier.

(Also, could you perhaps make that proverbial cookie a like for my rant too?)

No. I only give cookies. Not likes.

(Jk if you insist...)

 

[Nat Perry]

Oh my gosh you are absolutely right! And by that logic:
= Deconfirmed
= Deconfirmed
= Deconfirmed
= Deconfirmed

Also thanks for putting my argument that I put up I think yesterday, or the day before.

I was talking about newcomers not being shown before they are downright confirmed.

= Veteran
= Background character, not a "Fighter"
= Statue/trophy of altered form
= Veteran

And you forgot, as Waluigi is too big pointed out to counter my point,

= Subspace enemy with different model from playable R.O.B.

So, we've never seen a character purely in their fighting form prior to their official reveal. Toon Link was a background character, as well as the Miis in Find Mii and Tomodachi Life. Palutena is a statue in the background. Mr. Game & Watch is a veteran. R.O.B. was presented as an enemy, and they also have different character models.

Point is, we've never been shown a newcomer's fighting model prior to its reveal. Overall though this argument may or may not hold a lot of water, but it is accurate, true (so far), and better than the Trophy Quiz theory.

 

[Burigu]

= Subspace enemy

So, we've never seen a character purely in their fighting form prior to their official reveal. Toon Link was a background character, as well as the Miis in Find Mii and Tomodachi Life. Palutena is a statue in the background. Mr. Game & Watch is a veteran. R.O.B. was presented as an enemy, but I believe the playable model of R.O.B. is identical. Not to mention R.O.B. is presented as just another enemy in the Subspace Army as opposed to a specific character. Even the Ancient Minister was a simple R.O.B.

Point is, we've never been shown a newcomer's fighting model prior to its reveal. R.O.B. takes away some from this point of view since the playable and non-playable version have the same model. Overall though this argument may or may not hold a lot of water but it is better than the Trophy Quiz theory.

R.O.B sentry is actually smaller and their model is not identical to playable R.O.B as stated here