Oh, please, do enlighten me. Show me one shred of evidence that even suggests he will be in Brawl. And no, cloud analysis diagrams do not count. Members here in the Brawl forums are the
worst analysts on the planet. Sakurai makes mention of Sheik and Ganondorf, and everyone screams, "ZOMG Sheik and Ganondorf are confirmed!"
But seriously, Gypsy Lee, summarize the "evidence" collected in this thread. I want to see.
Well, there isn't much in this thread, because it's new. Our old one got closed because it had too many posts in it (over 7000). And there isn't evidence. Everything just points towards his inclusion is all.
But anyway, let us begin:
Sakurai
Sakurai said (from reading SamuraiPanda's translation thread) that he wanted more winged and flying characters. He wants to improve the aerial combat in the game, especially now, since they are able to animate extra appendages such as wings and tails (something they weren't able to do in Melee). He is also looking for more villains, which is probably to improve the new single player mode. And another big thing, he said that he wanted add more characters to rep the Metroid franchise because it has became much more big and popular since Melee.
Now tell me, doesn't Ridley help fill in all three of those needs?
Series' Importance
On the first post in this thread, there is a moveset I made. At the bottom is a list of the Metroid games Ridley has appeared in and his role in those games. I will sum it up here, but you should give that a read if you require more.
Ridley is the second most reoccuring character in the Metroid franchise next to Samus herself. He often serves as the next to last boss, and the game's catalyst. He is also one of the few characters who has a background story. Ridley serves as a high ranking commander in the Space Pirate army, and he led a raid on Samus' colony when she was just a child. He slaughtered her parents right in front of her.
He is also very intelligent despite his primal appearance. In the manga, he even shows the ability to speak. So he isn't just a big dragon with no personality.
Another thing: Sakurai also mentioned in the Ridley music update that he was Samus' arch nemesis. That shows that he is aware of Ridley's role and importance in the Metroid series.
Uniqueness
Ridley would NOT be a clone of Bowser (before anyone starts this crap again). He'd offer something new to the game: He'd be the only heavyweight character with the ability to fly. Ridley also has several means of attack, such as his large mouth lined with sharp teeth, his long spear tipped tail, his jagged wings, his sharp claws, and his powerful talons. He even has some abilities that would make for great special moves, like his plasma breath, fire balls, invisibility, and super speed.
Size
Ridley's size is not really an issue. Take a gander at the 3D model of him used in the Melee intro and his assist trophy. Obviously, he was intended to be in the game, but do it the difficulties of animating his tail and wings, he was taken out. If you look closely at the Melee intro, you can see that his tail is missing and his wings are stiff. Now that it isn't a problem in Brawl, there's no reason why animating him would be a problem. Also, Ridley is not that big. The one and only game he was large in was Metroid Prime, but that was probably for dramatic effect and what not (would you be excited to battle a ten foot lizard or a gigantic monster?) In the 2D games, he was roughly twice the size of Samus. Guess who else was about that size? Bowser. In Super Mario World, Bowser was about twice the size of Mario, if not bigger. Also, many characters were resized to fight in Smash (Kirby, Pikachu, Bowser). The bottom line is that size was never a major issue in Smash, and even if it was, Ridley is not all that big.
Well, that's just a quick summary. Any other questions, then please, ask away.
