Stryks
Smash Hero
(If this isn't the best forum to be on, mods feel free to move it to whichever you think would be best)
And with Tuesday’s announcement, an 12 year-long journey has been fulfilled.
I’m Stryks, I’ve been a long time smash player since even before smash 64 came out in the US (my local video rental store had a japanese version of Smash 64 before it was brought to the US) and joined Smashboards way way back in 2006, was also part of most of AllisBrawl.com’s existence
Now, If you would come with me for a trip down memory lane.
Melee was the latest game at the time when I joined smashboards, I was a young lad just recently learning of stuff like Wavedashing, L-Canceling and whatever the hell a spike was. While I was never one of the top players in my city, I entered the tourneys, I played my games, and even tho I lost every time, I had so much fun.
Shortly after I joined Super Smash Bros Brawl was announced, and it was here where the golden age of smashboards (IMO) started. After the announcement was made character threads started appearing left and right, each one supporting a particular character, their reasoning as to why the character would work, the moveset it would have, stage, music, the whole package. I would have hated being a mod during that time cause it was a mess. A beautiful mess mind you, but a mess nonetheless.
But then one thread did something different, something that caught everyone’s eye, and started an online war in smashboards; The Ridley support thread gave itself a name: Club R.I.D.L.E.Y.
Ridley’s Intensely Dedicated Legion of Enthusiastic Youths.
I kid you not that was what the acronym stood for. Created by Gypsy Lee (which I will always remember for his Conker avatar) decided to give a name to the club so it would stand out more, and to better drive home that if ANY character deserves to be in smash, especially from the Metroid series, it had to be Ridley.
More members joined the cause: Legolastom, R.D.K., IsmaR, Ridley Prime, Shuma, Grim Lizard, Paramoreriot, Reyairia, among others, and yes, even me.
We were the troublemakers of the character threads, we got the thread banned a few times because it was random conversations barely revolving around our favorite flying space dinosaur from hell.
But then something happen: Others joined in.
A.S.H.L.E.Y.
Robot Master Brigade
Wolf Squadron
Mercenaries of the Dark Hunter
Geno Alliance
Bomb Squad
The list went on and on, every character that could could think of got a club, it was an incredible time to be a part of smashboards. Some would be be 100% loyal to that one character, others were loyal to multiple ones. Some people from one club would go to troll other clubs (mainly the Waluigians and their support for Waluigi). It was a full on war.
So much so, that I made a comic.
(Isn’t this the cringiest thing you’ve ever seen?)
Yes, this was a thing.
I was so in love with the community but also so intrigued by the ‘war’ of the clubs aspect that I thought it would be fun to make it into a comic, specifically detailing how club R.I.D.L.E.Y. went on the attack on the other clubs.
The OG members of Club R.I.D.L.E.Y. (RDK, Legolastom, shuma, gypsy lee, grim lizard, Reyairia, Paramoreriot and myself)
Drama! Fighting! Cringe!!
Drama! Fighting! Cringe!!
I had so much fun making these cause so many people approached me asking to be in it, and to those that I did I took feedback from them on how they wanted their character to look and everything, it was a fun process designing characters based on other people and just seeing their reactions.
At one point however it was revealed by the old Smash Dojo website that Ridley was in Brawl, but not as a character, but as a Boss, this of course caused the Club R.I.D.L.E.Y. thread to be closed for good, other clubs rejoiced that we were gone, while we were incredibly bitter by the situation.
Me being incredibly impatient with my lack of skill in drawing, decided to do a ‘season 2’ of War of the clubs showing the aftermath of the war even tho season 1 was just barely started. Revolutionary, that’s what it was. (And yes that is Gimpyfish as Bowser with shades)
In season 2 we would be facing an infamous user at the time going by the name Sandman, who was deadset serious in saying Squirtle, above all other pokemon, had to be in Brawl, he was of course trolling his little heart out but it got under our skin very quickly, cause he was a fantastic troll and we just took the bait.
You can just IMAGINE how it felt when squirtle was confirmed to be in Brawl as pne of PT’s switchable Pokemon.
I unfortunately didn’t finish the War of the clubs since I was working on another comic called S3 at the time (which I didn't finish either, go figure), which was a sprite comic based on an original story of mine. For better or worse I am unable to find any of that comic’s pages since imageshack stopped hosting them, this was the original thread if any are interested to check it and see that I’m not making any of this up: LINK
If you wanna check the rest of the War of the Clubs pages it's on my deviant art (I was like 16 at the time ok?): LINK
And so with Ridley’s boss status Club R.I.D.L.E.Y. seize to be.
I spent most of my time in AllisBrawl.com during the Brawl days, those that recognized the title of this thread probably know me cause of the blogs I would do there. Talking about Top 10s, making jokes, showing some art, and all of that.
I became a mod there for like 2 or 3 days until it was revoked cause I took advantage of the new trading card system that was recently implemented (Im a monster clearly), but never the less I was known as the blog guy, and it was truly a great experience there.
Eventually the ban-pocalypse happen and the site went down the drain, which was a shame cause as a social platform it was amazing with all of the things you could do there, it was ahead of it’s time.
I dropped Brawl due to it’s mechanics and never went back, but always hoped for a new smash in the future.
Smash 4 was announced for the Wii U and I personally waited patiently for the character reveals. Each one was great showing a great cinematic and a montage of what the character could do. High quality stuff. But character after character reveal, still, no Ridley.
And then once again, he was confirmed to be none playable, worse yet he was a type of stage hazard that would become docile to you if you beat him up enough.
This was not the Ridley I wanted, as a smash and metroid fan, I was really upset.
Smash 5 is announced and at this point I knew what I was getting into, Ridley would be another boss or stage hazard, and Metroid would be forever stuck with only 2 reps, both being a variation of Samus herself.
Ever since I saw the smash Melee intro video I’ve wanted Ridley in Smash, and since Brawl is where my undying belief that he would be added in the next game started, yet it never did. For so long Ridley fans were teased: “He’s too big!”, “One step and he’ll fall off the stage!”. The internet was savage and they had every right to be.
Sakurai himself said he was too big, that he didn’t know how that would even work. And even tho Project M eventually got Ridley playable, it was a farcry from what we wanted, but I came to the conclusion that this is it. This is as good as it’s gonna be.
Metroid was never the powerhouse franchise Mario or Zelda were. Even Fire Emblem is more popular now than Metroid.
And while the wave of new Metroid games gave me hope that maybe, maybe finally, after 17 years since I saw him in the Melee intro, 11 Years after Club R.I.D.L.E.Y was sent to an early grave, maybe today was the day I would see him fighting alongside all of these other amazing characters.
The dreamer of improbable dreams.
“I’m set for disappointment, like always”, I thought.
“When will you learn?”, I said to myself before the direct started.
It then started playing, we reach Sakurai, we see the title, we see the characters, and Sakurai tells us there’s one last thing.
And I’ll be damned if it didn’t get me a bit emotional.
There he was, in all of his scaly evil glory.
Not even with Megaman did I get this excited, because I knew with MM it was a matter of time, but Ridley? Time and time again we were made fools, thinking a giant space dinosaur would be playable.
Yet here we are. And I lost my goddamn mind
To those reading, I wanna say thank you for this little trip down memory lane. And it’s good to be back talking about a franchise I love. And you can bet your ass I'll be maining this bad boy on day one
Now to open up a discussion, what is THE one character you never thought would be in smash? Definitely Snake but as the thread shows, Ridley was #1 for years
And to those Club R.I.D.L.E.Y. members, regardless if you’re still here or wherever you are:
We did it. We waited years, but we did it.
