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Ridley is bad.

ps_

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Really, really bad. I made it into elite smash with him a day ago (I don't know what this means; it probably won't mean anything in a week) and I think he's bottom-tier.

Everyone who made "too big" jokes for two decades was 100% correct. I've been hit by forward-smashes while standing behind the opponent, things my opponent blatantly missed or aimed badly, projectiles launched from across the map, even things "I swear I air-dodged" still hit the tail-end of my hurtbox and inflicted damage. Fighting Ridley is basically like being given training wheels. He has no hope of escaping Luigi, Yoshi or slicey dicey eat-the-ricey characters (pretty much anyone with good forward air) because they will still be inside your hitbox while you're recovering, doing whatever attack they want. I've been carried to the blast zone by Bowser of all people because Ridley has no answers to anyone aggressive.

"So just space them out," you say. You can't do that either. Your projectile is decent for guarding ledges and harassment, but to make it efficient you have to hold the button down, charging it. You take 25% damage if hit during this. You can't "store" it like a Samus or Mewtwo special. You can never use it as a swift option, and characters like Sheik (who already benefit from the size issue I mentioned above) can use their own projectiles to earn a free twenty-fiver punish. They're easy to leap over, making them a poor option for keeping opponents away. Their chief (read: only) reliable use is pouring damage onto opponents trying to recover.

And the recovery. Where do I even start?

You get two jumps and what can only be described as "Fox's terrible Up+B, but even worse." It doesn't go anywhere. The places it does go are four given directions, making it wonky to use and easy to predict. It's telegraphed hard, so you shouldn't attack with it. If you do attack with it you'll get punished; pretty much any standard attack will trump it, you can swipe at it with a big forward smash and win. it only blows through projectiles (but not big ones, like Villager's gyro.) If you use it at a ledge "the wrong way" Ridley slams his face into it like a mental defective, bouncing off and leaving you a sitting duck. All of this plays into the above complaints about aggressive characters, where Ridley is reliably outplayed by simply running up and hitting him over and over. And if you parry or shield? Your jabs are still slow with no range, the best ones demanding a short hop, so any opponent has the time to get up and resume where they left off.

Ridley has too many problems to be any good. These aren't "just buff it" problems, these are fundamental flaws in his design. This is the same exact stuff that kept Bowser, DK and Ganondorf sitting in Melee's bottom-tier. Getting in on him is trivial, he can't get in on you, everything hits him, his toolset is extraordinarily limited and every inch of his play feels like someone at Nintendo said "let's make a . The fact that this is the case when the developers have cracked the code to making a good heavy, providing K. Rool with a wealth of amenities to compensate for his size, such as super armor, amazing recovery, reliable projectiles, good frame data, a wealth of meteor attacks and combo potential is beyond pathetic.

I'm going to play him but wow, did they **** up. Maybe they'll release Other M's steroid duck Ridley as DLC and I can pay $5 to get pro, just like all the Cloud and Bayonetta mains.
 

Dendros

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Jump more. His arials are fantastic! Nair and Uair especially. Nair is so good! It's one of the best escape tools in the game. He has good dash speed so you can run out of reach of almost anything.

His tilts are also great. His dtilt has more range than his visible model shows. Utilt can combo into itself and ftilt has more range and speed that most other moves.

Ridley is not bad, he is a speedy heavyweight like DK but with more utility and much better arials.
 

Skydra

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"So just space them out," you say. You can't do that either. Your projectile is decent for guarding ledges and harassment, but to make it efficient you have to hold the button down, charging it. You take 25% damage if hit during this. You can't "store" it like a Samus or Mewtwo special. You can never use it as a swift option, and characters like Sheik (who already benefit from the size issue I mentioned above) can use their own projectiles to earn a free twenty-fiver punish. They're easy to leap over, making them a poor option for keeping opponents away. Their chief (read: only) reliable use is pouring damage onto opponents trying to recover.
Yeah, that move is ass. But that's not his spacing tool, its his aerials. You can't prove he's terrible by saying you couldn't reliably use one of his worst moves in neutral.

His recovery is also not bad compared to a wide variety of the cast's weaker recoveries. Your jumps aren't great, but they give you some versatility in repositioning for up and side special. Hitbox on upB is fine as well.

Not saying he's amazing, but he does at least have tools to combat aggression with Nair in the air and a strong grab and tilts on the ground.

he is a speedy heavyweight like DK but with more utility and much better arials.
He's actually not that heavy for his size, DK is a whole 20 units heavier and Ridley is even lighter than Samus though only by one unit. Being tied at 11-15th isn't bad, but if you take his weight difference with DK and go down rather than up, he is the same amount heavier than the 59th weight tier which happens to be Little Mac (though I'm not sure how the knockback calculator considers weight values)
 
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NintenRob

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I do wish his up b could go in more directions,just seems weird that it can't.
 

Anomilus

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Really not an informative topic at all. It's pretty clear this is a knee-jerk reaction born of short playtime and inexperience (something I expect of GameFAQs, not here). Just couldn't be humble and think "Hmm maybe I'm missing something with this character" or "Maybe I'm not quite as efficient with him yet"?

Seriously, how does a thread saying "Ridley is bad" help anybody? All it's gonna do is encourage more lazy non-analyses and hate-bandwagoning.
 
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ps_

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Really not an informative topic at all. It's pretty clear this is a knee-jerk reaction born of short playtime and inexperience (something I expect of GameFAQs, not here). Just couldn't be humble and think "Hmm maybe I'm missing something with this character" or "Maybe I'm not quite as efficient with him yet"?

Seriously, how does a thread saying "Ridley is bad" help anybody? All it's gonna do is encourage more lazy non-analyses and hate-bandwagoning.
My deepest sympathies that you can't derive any information from four paragraphs of explanation.
 

Veenon

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Wait for the upcoming patch, I'd say. From what I've seen, Ridley isn't too great right now, but I wouldn't be surprised if he recieves buffs
 

ps_

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There's nothing worth deriving. This isn't a topic about discussing Ridley's issues and what we can do to mitigate or get around them. This a rant thread. Not worth anybody's time, not worth having serious discussion.
Calm down drone, there's no rule against discussing a character's weaknesses. More importantly I would bet a grand you can't refute anything I argued.
 

Charu

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From my time playing as Ridley, his recovery is easy to predict yes, but it's not as easy to punish as it actually looks. It travels far, and combine with the magnet hands everyone has again, he can reach ledge just fine from far below. Just be prepared to tech if anyone decides to try to stage spike from the side.

Recoverying using the side motions is a bit wonky at first, but once you get there's two variations of this (one with it going upwards when facing away and one going downward when facing directly), it's surprisingly effective as I think the hitbox for it is much larger than when you're recovering from the bottom. Specifically when you're going backwards with it.

Also, as some have said. His good tools are definitely his N-Air and his Tilts. This is a character in which you probably want to set your stick to Tilt Attacks specifically. Dash canceling F-Tilt and D-Tilt is a great move and reaches far.
 

MaverickF

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No I totally agree. Ridley was one of my top characters that I was counting the days until I could play. But alas, what we got was an awkward, clunky Barney fan character.

IMO, he doesn't feel like a smash character. His specials are so situation specific and I really think they only have their place in casual play. He unfortunately doesn't make up for it with his other options like tilts and aerials. Arguably there are some good set ups, but you have to try so darn hard with no reward, aside from being able to play a character you enjoy.

I hope we get to see more from him. I really wanted to play him in tourneys but I think he won't have a place in most. Poor Ridley.
 

Sudz

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So you say this isn't an issue that can be fixed with buffs, but what do you think they would need to change about Ridley, save for changing him into a new character, to make him better?
 

ps_

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So you say this isn't an issue that can be fixed with buffs, but what do you think they would need to change about Ridley, save for changing him into a new character, to make him better?
Isn't that the question. As far as I can tell, Ridley was designed to be a power house. He's fast, he has good fall speed, he's heavy-ish, his moves hit very hard. He has a fire hose for a ranged option, he has a ledge-homing command grab, he inflicts 50% damage + crumple (if you can land it.) Simply put, Ridley is unique. The problem is at some point the dev team probably looked at all of this and said "he needs serious downsides to balance out." Their decision was a terrible up-B (terrible recovery in general), poor frames on nearly all of his moves and very little variation.

I won't deny Ridley can do damage and apply initial pressure, but he has trouble following it up, and he has no real answers to being pressured. If he was pulling off big combos at 12% per hit he'd be broken, so he has very few moves that directly work with each other, forcing him to resituate constantly. His specials broadcast themselves pretty apparently; I've measured grabs that "totally should have connected" but didn't because everything takes so long to connect and (at the risk of sounding like a scrub) aren't generous with their hitboxes. If he's punished or sent off stage he has very, very few ways to rebound. Characters will combo on you all day if you make a single error. Combine all of this and it will take very little for a good player to A) learn how he works and B) read what he's about to do.

It would be easy to say "just give him more" but I'm aware that, if you gave Ridley anything at all with his current base stats, he'd easily veer into broken territory. But if you took away his base stats, it would totally remove what makes him unique. I just can't answer your question. It's not a simple fix.

Apples to oranges, but "similar" characters don't suffer the problems Ridley does. Donkey Kong is heavy, fast, has bad recovery and is combo-prone, but his own stuff comes out fast and combos into itself. (He can also store his B special. That'd be nice on Ridley, but broken.) Ganondorf is a somewhat-heavy character and inflicts heavy blows, but his combo game is so good and his specials are so versatile that he terrifies players out of staying close to him. Even Charizard, deliberately simple as he is, can make ample use of his bread and butter attacks until it's time to firespin for a KO at 75%.

I know all of this sounds like I should just move on to a new character*, but I really want to play as Ridley too. I love Metroid and I love the fact he's a success story. It's a shame his moveset isn't too big of a victory.

*I also play Dark Samus and K. Rool, not in a spammy way either.
 
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PsySmasher

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I mean if you look at my mains, I have a tendency to main lower-tier characters (not intentionally, but that's how it is).

So I'm probably gonna main Ridley, if not main then at least have him on as a secondary.

He's definitely not the bottom of the barrel, but I can see where you're coming from.
 

Sudz

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Isn't that the question. As far as I can tell, Ridley was designed to be a power house. He's fast, he has good fall speed, he's heavy-ish, his moves hit very hard. He has a fire hose for a ranged option, he has a ledge-homing command grab, he inflicts 50% damage + crumple (if you can land it.) Simply put, Ridley is unique. The problem is at some point the dev team probably looked at all of this and said "he needs serious downsides to balance out." Their decision was a terrible up-B (terrible recovery in general), poor frames on nearly all of his moves and very little variation.

I won't deny Ridley can do damage and apply initial pressure, but he has trouble following it up, and he has no real answers to being pressured. If he was pulling off big combos at 12% per hit he'd be broken, so he has very few moves that directly work with each other, forcing him to resituate constantly. His specials broadcast themselves pretty apparently; I've measured grabs that "totally should have connected" but didn't because everything takes so long to connect and (at the risk of sounding like a scrub) aren't generous with their hitboxes. If he's punished or sent off stage he has very, very few ways to rebound. Characters will combo on you all day if you make a single error. Combine all of this and it will take very little for a good player to A) learn how he works and B) read what he's about to do.

It would be easy to say "just give him more" but I'm aware that, if you gave Ridley anything at all with his current base stats, he'd easily veer into broken territory. But if you took away his base stats, it would totally remove what makes him unique. I just can't answer your question. It's not a simple fix.

Apples to oranges, but "similar" characters don't suffer the problems Ridley does. Donkey Kong is heavy, fast, has bad recovery and is combo-prone, but his own stuff comes out fast and combos into itself. (He can also store his B special. That'd be nice on Ridley, but broken.) Ganondorf is a somewhat-heavy character and inflicts heavy blows, but his combo game is so good and his specials are so versatile that he terrifies players out of staying close to him. Even Charizard, deliberately simple as he is, can make ample use of his bread and butter attacks until it's time to firespin for a KO at 75%.

I know all of this sounds like I should just move on to a new character*, but I really want to play as Ridley too. I love Metroid and I love the fact he's a success story. It's a shame his moveset isn't too big of a victory.

*I also play Dark Samus and K. Rool, not in a spammy way either.
So many drawbacks. I don't have a whole lot to add, but I think improving his recovery/air mobility in general (it's hilarious that Ridley doesn't do well, considering...), and giving him some way to not get absolutely zonked by combos would be a good starting point. One possibility I've considered is if they did something with his hurtbox, be it some sort of HA somewhere on attack startups or giving him circumstantial defenses on parts of his body, or just improved priority. I haven't played quite enough to know tbh, but he needs a way to deal with it.

For somebody that's known for being an absolute unkillable tank it's pretty lame that he gets bopped around so easily.

Keep labbing and discussing what you find about his awful situation, hopefully at some point people on this website will quit getting salty just cause someone has something negative to say about a character that is clearly lacking on a website that exists specifically for that kind of discussion.
 
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ZephyrZ

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Charizard main here who couldn't help but overhear some Riddles talk in the "latest post" section. I've only played a little bit of Ridley but let's see what I have to add here.
Apples to oranges, but "similar" characters don't suffer the problems Ridley does. Donkey Kong is heavy, fast, has bad recovery and is combo-prone, but his own stuff comes out fast and combos into itself. (He can also store his B special. That'd be nice on Ridley, but broken.) Ganondorf is a somewhat-heavy character and inflicts heavy blows, but his combo game is so good and his specials are so versatile that he terrifies players out of staying close to him. Even Charizard, deliberately simple as he is, can make ample use of his bread and butter attacks until it's time to firespin for a KO at 75%.
By "firespin" are you referring to Flare Blitz (Side-B)? Yeah no, that move is tough but it's also super risky. You rarely see good Zards through that out as a primary KO move. What made Charizard a halfway usable character in Smash 4 was (and still is) mobility. Having a good run speed helped make approaching a bit less hopeless while also allowing him to be extremely good at juggling. Thankfully for Ridley he shares his exact run speed with Charizard (they're tied for 9th place). His own short hop Nair, U-smash, and U-tilt all seem like very good anti-air options to compliment his fantastic ground speed.

I've been playing Ridley like I play Charizard, which in all fairness may not actually be the optimal way to play him (new character in a new meta afterall), but it seems to me that the best way to play Ridley is to go for stage control and make your opponent feel like they're cornered. Play a midranged poking game with your tilts and aerials to try and wall opponents with worse range on their normals (that's most of the cast, btw) and then go on the offensive after you're able to knock them into the air. Projectiles aren't the only way to space someone out you know.

Of course I also believe Smash 4 Charizard was a bad character and don't have very high hopes for Purple Charizard either, but I will say the only thing that makes him look like he could be notably worse then Zard is that poor recovery of his. I definitely think he'll be in the bottom 20 but not a total lost cause for those who really want to main him.
 
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Fell God

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I don't think Ridley is completely horrible, he has some nice things going for him; Space Pirate Rush is a decent kill throw, nair covers a lot of space, side tilt is a decent poking option especially if someone is chasing you, and Skewer is actually kind of useful and hilarious in doubles, but yeah he's probably low or bottom tier, simply because everyone else seems so much better. Makes you wonder though...who would be the worst fighter?


Edit: oh wait, it's probably Robin lol
 
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ps_

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Makes you wonder though...who would be the worst fighter?


Edit: oh wait, it's probably Robin lol
Bad as Ridley is, I've never lost to Dedede using him (and I've fought him online plenty of times.) Or anybody for that matter. Poor guy.
 
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Yoshisaurus Rex

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Come on now. Ridley is not bad. Sure he has a few flaws (he could stand to be slightly heavier and he could have a bit more height on his multi jumps) that could be touched on but he’s got quite a lot of good things going for him. His normals are great, notably his N-Air. His F-Tilt can cancel most enemy projectiles. He is great at edge guarding, etc.

The directions of his up-b was probably made with edge guarding in mind. Typically when your edge guarding you’re facing away from the stage so the angle of backwards up-b makes sense there. The way I see it, he’s a character that has a high skill cap and is not a pick up and play one like Mario.
 

The Event Mask

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Hmm sounds like you need to switch characters then. I played Ganondorf in Brawl and in smash 4 and still had fun with him despite being one of the worst characters in those games. Yea Ridley has his problems but that's the nature of big characters in smash. The fact your surprise that Ridley is "bad" is very funny. Who here thought "man if Ridley, a big character, got into smash, he would be different and not be low tier". No one, the fact we got Ridley at all should be enough to make you happy. The game is still very new, they'll make changes to characters over time. Bowser was bottom tier in smash 4 in the beginning and made it into mid tier after a few changes. Ridley could see similar changes but realistically if your a fan of the character it really shouldn't matter where he is on the tier list. I've also seen high level players being really effective on Ridley so he can't be that bad. I'm not a high level player at all and can't do what they do so it might be that your also using Ridley the wrong way as well. Watch videos of them and try to copy what they do if you really want to play Ridley in competitive smash. I still really enjoy playing Ridley and will admit his recovery isn't the best, but I find everything else about him is great.
 

Pixel_

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I've probably been standing on the sidelines too long, might as well throw in my opinion if you're genuinely looking for discussion.
Everyone who made "too big" jokes for two decades was 100% correct.
Other heavies and characters with bad disadvantage have still been able to be good characters, it just depends on how well they can stand their ground, though of course you address this next.

"So just space them out," you say. You can't do that either. Your projectile is decent for guarding ledges and harassment, but to make it efficient you have to hold the button down, charging it.
You seem to have an insistence on using Ridley's neutral b, which is... questionable, especially after saying "space them out." Ridley has sword range on like 90% of his moves -- use them. You mention Yoshi, which is funny because he's been constantly said to be countered by sword characters. Use less neutral b in neutral and outrange them with nair.

You get two jumps and what can only be described as "Fox's terrible Up+B, but even worse."
You have 2 jumps, side b, and an up b that might have less angles than Fox, but has much more power. I've avoided being gimped several times purely due to the priority it has over so many attacks. Side b can stage spike opponents who aren't careful (if you cancel it with a jump), and the jumps are helpful for stalling (which can throw off the opponent's timing for their edgeguard), as well as help you mix up between forward/backward angled up b.

As far as I can tell, Ridley was designed to be a power house. He's fast, he has good fall speed, he's heavy-ish, his moves hit very hard.
It's easy to make this mistake because he literally looks like all the other heavy characters, but it's clear that his strength is in his disjoints, making him play more like a sword character. SH nair is practically spammable, which is ridiculous considering the fact that it's disjointed, can combo, and covers jumps, while dtilt has great range and ftilt can kill, or just get the opponent offstage.

And though Ridley might have a pretty bad disadvantage (which imo is still partly fixed by the fact that his recovery has several options and his double jumps help with landing), what I've found is that he has an INCREDIBLE advantage state. Opponents above him have to deal with his giant disjointed(?) uair, and opponents offstage have to deal with neutral b (which, while you've been using it in neutral, is a 1000x better for edgeguarding), along with potential deep edgeguards, since Ridley can recover from preeetty far. Plus, though he might not have incredibly long combos, they do a good job of pushing the opponent offstage, right where he wants them.

Oh, and I haven't seen a single mention of fsmash, which is a smash attack that can kill ridiculously early AND is almost safe on block.

Hope that helps.

EDIT:
Ah, right, forgot to mention.
My deepest sympathies that you can't derive any information from four paragraphs of explanation.
Listing off a character's weaknesses alone (while ignoring all their strengths) isn't an argument for saying they're bad, especially when the meta's still being developed and the game's barely a week old.
 
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Crome

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It's easy to make this mistake because he literally looks like all the other heavy characters, but it's clear that his strength is in his disjoints, making him play more like a sword character. SH nair is practically spammable, which is ridiculous considering the fact that it's disjointed, can combo, and covers jumps, while dtilt has great range and ftilt can kill, or just get the opponent offstage.
Expanding on this - people aren't talking about the use of his Side B as a conditioning tool. Ridley's disjoints are great for making people shield, and once you get that habit built, the Side B is a hard punish. Side B puts the opponent right where Ridley wants them - off stage. This is a much better game plan than trying to use fireball in neutral.
 

Tesh

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Definitely too early to tell for sure, but ridley has some damn good tools imo.

The best player (so far) in my region is on Ridley and is putting in some work on the presumed top tiers well enough. Sure he has situational options, but he also has some options that cover a much alone. Like Nair.
 

Zethoro

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Really, really bad. I made it into elite smash with him a day ago (I don't know what this means; it probably won't mean anything in a week) and I think he's bottom-tier.

Everyone who made "too big" jokes for two decades was 100% correct. I've been hit by forward-smashes while standing behind the opponent, things my opponent blatantly missed or aimed badly, projectiles launched from across the map, even things "I swear I air-dodged" still hit the tail-end of my hurtbox and inflicted damage. Fighting Ridley is basically like being given training wheels. He has no hope of escaping Luigi, Yoshi or slicey dicey eat-the-ricey characters (pretty much anyone with good forward air) because they will still be inside your hitbox while you're recovering, doing whatever attack they want. I've been carried to the blast zone by Bowser of all people because Ridley has no answers to anyone aggressive.
Well, speaking from experience as someone who mained Bowser for the first half of smash 4, he's actually really good at denying people offstage. His FAir's no joke and is absolutely massive for how quick it is.
As for "too big", welcome to playing Bowser, or DK, or anyone with a massive hurtbox. We may not have the sheer weight of those other two characters, but we're also quicker than them, and every bit as scary once the momentum swings in our favor.

"So just space them out," you say. You can't do that either. Your projectile is decent for guarding ledges and harassment, but to make it efficient you have to hold the button down, charging it. You take 25% damage if hit during this. You can't "store" it like a Samus or Mewtwo special. You can never use it as a swift option, and characters like Sheik (who already benefit from the size issue I mentioned above) can use their own projectiles to earn a free twenty-fiver punish. They're easy to leap over, making them a poor option for keeping opponents away. Their chief (read: only) reliable use is pouring damage onto opponents trying to recover.
As many others have said already, fireballs aren't meant to be a projectile for spacing. Ridley doesn't need a tool like that. That's why he has great mobility and a NAir on par with Smash 4 Cloud's NAir. Or how about our massive DTilt that gives us so much mileage every time we hit it? Not to mention our amazing up tilt and up air that let us completely disrespect air approaches (as if NAir wasn't good enough for that already), or the fact that the moment our opponent decides to respect us and start shielding, we can hit them with one of the most devastating command grabs in the game, giving us free stage control any time it hits and putting us in our amazing advantage state, where we can edgeguard people with one good read at 10 and take a stock.

And the recovery. Where do I even start?

You get two jumps and what can only be described as "Fox's terrible Up+B, but even worse." It doesn't go anywhere. The places it does go are four given directions, making it wonky to use and easy to predict. It's telegraphed hard, so you shouldn't attack with it. If you do attack with it you'll get punished; pretty much any standard attack will trump it, you can swipe at it with a big forward smash and win. it only blows through projectiles (but not big ones, like Villager's gyro.) If you use it at a ledge "the wrong way" Ridley slams his face into it like a mental defective, bouncing off and leaving you a sitting duck. All of this plays into the above complaints about aggressive characters, where Ridley is reliably outplayed by simply running up and hitting him over and over. And if you parry or shield? Your jabs are still slow with no range, the best ones demanding a short hop, so any opponent has the time to get up and resume where they left off.

Ridley has too many problems to be any good. These aren't "just buff it" problems, these are fundamental flaws in his design. This is the same exact stuff that kept Bowser, DK and Ganondorf sitting in Melee's bottom-tier. Getting in on him is trivial, he can't get in on you, everything hits him, his toolset is extraordinarily limited and every inch of his play feels like someone at Nintendo said "let's make a . The fact that this is the case when the developers have cracked the code to making a good heavy, providing K. Rool with a wealth of amenities to compensate for his size, such as super armor, amazing recovery, reliable projectiles, good frame data, a wealth of meteor attacks and combo potential is beyond pathetic.

I'm going to play him but wow, did they **** up. Maybe they'll release Other M's steroid duck Ridley as DLC and I can pay $5 to get pro, just like all the Cloud and Bayonetta mains.
Our recovery may not be amazing, but it's far from terrible. At least Ridley has three jumps and an up-b that (while it is telegraphed), covers a very large amount of distance. He's no inkling or meta knight when it comes to recovery, but if you want to edgeguard him usually you have to just flat out knock him into the blastzones, as opposed to most characters where you can usually just knock them towards the side without their jumps and they'll die.

Having your recovery compared to fox really isn't that bad. Much better than being compared to Ganondorf or Doc, at least.

In conclusion, is Ridley going to be as good as K Rool? No, probably not. But he's far from trash, and only a small portion of the cast can be top tier. He's certainly not bad by any means, and I'd suggest a change of perspective in how you try to use Ridley's moves (in particular your rant about his fireballs comes to mind), or simply accepting that Ridley isn't the type of character that you like to play. There's a lot more that goes into picking a main than lore, after all.
 

Crystanium

Smash Hero
Joined
Apr 28, 2008
Messages
5,921
Location
California
Pros
Jab, all tilts, all smashes, most aerials, side special.

Jab deals a lot of damage and knocks the opponent away. D-tilt is effective for spacing grounded opponents, and it appears to lead into n-air or f-fair. U-tilt seems capable of hitting the opponent three times consecutively, although that might be character and percent dependent. It's handy against opponents on low platforms. F-tilt can be angled, and it appears it can hit opponents hanging on the ledge if used diagonally downward. D-tilt defintely can.

Smash attacks should be reserved for kills, but the controls feel very sensitive, so you might accidentally use them. F-smash is short, but powerful. It can kill early against middle to balloon weight characters. D-smash seems effective against characters hanging on the ledge, as well as those who use standing get-ups or rolls. U-smash can hit opponents on low platforms.

N-air is Ridley's best option. The hitbox appears slightly wider than Ridley's own tail spin. This attack is effective against opponents who use standing get-ups or jumping. SSBU punishes the former a lot. Standing get-ups used to be safe in SSB4. It's not anymore. Ridley can use this to his advantage. Practice using n-air off-stage and returning to the ledge. F-air can hit Lucas' PK Fire without causing damage to Ridley, apparently. This is another good spacing tool. U-air hits hard, so test to see who it works against. B-air can kill, so practice spacing with it.

Side special is good, but be cautious. If your opponent breaks out, buffer with a jab. Or just cancel the attack early with a jump. Side special is useful against shields and dodging. It works on dodging because there is a delay at the beginning. Mix it up with a dash dance just to make sure the opponent's dodging is completed. This is useful for recovery, but mix it up with directional air-dodging, or use up special when close to the ledge instead.

Cons
D-air, most specials

D-air spikes only if Ridley lands it very early. While the attack can end, Ridley may be too low to recover. Otherwise, d-air launches the opponent at an angle. To make better use of it, using it on-stage near the ledge. If the opponent doesn't roll onto the stage, he/she will get hit. Neutral B can be handy at edge-guarding, but it requires a specific spot to fall just at the ledge. It's better to use n-air against opponents who recover low instead. Of course, you needn't charge neutral B. A single fireball will do. Be sure to use low platforms if your opponent is further away from the stage. Up special many not be a viable option for attacking, but if you happen to find yourself off-stage, try using your jumps, side special, and then up special once you're close enough. There is at least some space Ridley can have and still grab onto the ledge. Also be aware that when facing away from the stage, Ridley's up special will launch slightly diagonally upward.
 

Reila

the true enemy of humanity is anime
Joined
Feb 8, 2014
Messages
9,240
Location
Alma
You said you will keep playing him, so that is what matters in the end. Enjoy your fighter, be glad he is in the game, bad or not. Not everyone has the luxury of having their favorites in Smash.
 

Mr. Alex

Smash Rookie
Joined
May 4, 2019
Messages
5
Location
Hughesville, MD
Switch FC
SW-2613-9513-4905
I say make him heavier, have his air speed up a bit, and make his Up B go 8 directions (Like Fox, Falco, and Wolf's) and then Ridley would be more viable to use
 

Koopaul

Smash Champion
Joined
Oct 29, 2013
Messages
2,336
I wonder, if you could aim his Up Special like Fox would it be OP? And if not... then why was it made that way?

I hear people say in this thread "you just need to learn to use Ridley's recovery." But I wonder, did it need to be like that? Is there a reason for to not work in an intuitive way?

I'm not debating whether Ridley's recovery is bad or not. I'm debating if it had to be unintuitive.
 

Ridley_Prime

Proteus Geoform
Joined
Sep 18, 2007
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8,631
NNID
AlphaWarDragon87
3DS FC
0774-4845-6886
Switch FC
SW-7888-8563-5773
Up B's usually always get either better recovery with less damage (if any), or more kill power for less distance.

Using the space animals' up B as comparison, Fire Fox and Fire Bird I'd say are more the first category, while Fire Wolf and Ridley's Wing Blitz are mostly the latter, for better or worse.

Not sure if I'd say Wing Blitz would be OP if it had Fire Fox's number of directional inputs, but it's debatable given the kill power it already has on its own.
 

Koopaul

Smash Champion
Joined
Oct 29, 2013
Messages
2,336
Using the space animals' up B as comparison, Fire Fox and Fire Bird I'd say are more the first category, while Fire Wolf and Ridley's Wing Blitz are mostly the latter, for better or worse.
But Wolf can still aim his Up Special in 8 directions. I feel like Ridley having such a long startup for the attack it should balance things for the amount of kill power it has. Maybe I'm wrong.

Also for some reason I always hated the term "space animals" to describe Star Fox characters. I dunno. It just seems weird. We don't call Mario character "mushroom eaters" or something.
 

StormC

Smash Hero
Joined
Oct 29, 2014
Messages
8,162
Space animals is also no longer accurate to describe specifically the Star Fox characters considering Ridley is a space animal. But generally speaking if you say "space animals" or "spacies" people know who you're talking about, which is easier than saying "Star Fox characters" I guess.

Fox Fighters? Can we call them that?
 
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