I'm all for another Metroid rep, but would Ridley work very well? Considering his size, (Inb4 people dismiss this with a stupid TOO BIG joke.) wouldn't it look off when he's nearly always shown to be atleast twice as big as Samus? (Disregarding the retconned NES game.) The large wingspan and his lanky structure wouldn't work very well downsized.
It's all about the execution.
Ridley would be the largest character, though he can't be notably larger than even the other large heavyweights (unless they intentionally do something like
Sentinel from Marvel VS Capcom). Other than that, Ridley's bulk (i.e. his body, without accounting for wingspan) should be somewhere between 1.1-1.4 times Bowser's (or maybe even just up to 1.3).
His wingspan can make him appear considerably larger, but they're only a problem if they're a visual impairment (i.e. they block some of the view). It would also be the prerogative of the developpers to make his wings be capable of interaction or not (i.e. whether the wings have hitboxes and hurtboxes). It can be that the wings can't be interacted with at all (can't attack with them, can't be hurt by being hit in them).
If they are capable of interaction, then different variables come into play. Are they always spread out, or are they folded when on land? How many attacks implement them? And while they may confer great range on account of their size, they would also make Ridley a bigger target, so it would balance out (unless the wings have larger hitboxes than hurtboxes, or no hurtboxes at all).
As for the structure of his actual body, it's obviously desirably to not have him be disjointed or disproportional to the point where it's visually or mechanically awkward (or clumsy, or broken, etc.). I would certainly hope that the development team find a suitable compromise, or balance, when it comes to these elements of his design.
Lastly, it is the consensus among Ridley supporters that Ridley would be a very aerial-based character; he'd be slow, lumbering, and awkward on the ground, but would be a terror in the skies (i.e. the conceptual antithesis to Little Mac). This could confer an imbalanced advantage, since a strong aerial game is advantageous in a game like Smash where the goal is to knock opponents off the stage and keep them off.
However, as we've seen in Smash 4's Newcomer Design philosophy thus far, there are weaknesses to balance out strengths. Ridley being a large target would be one of them, certainly, as it makes him easier to hit. Another could be deceptive weight; while large, he could be lighter than he seems (in the vein of Rosalina and Mewtwo), since a large aerial-heavy character will need to be light enough if they're to be effective in an airborne capacity to begin with.
So Ridley would be strong and have a good air game, possibly among the best; on the other hand, he would be almost useless on the ground, and if he's a big target, and is relatively light, then it would be easy for opponents to rack up damage and send him flying (lololololol). And they could implement a more involved risk-reward system, where Ridley has mandatory cooldown periods during which, after so many times in the air, he has to remain on land before he can take to the skies again.
Point being that Ridley has attributes that may represent an gameplay archetype not yet seen in Smash, and thus possesses a lot of untapped potential as a Smash candidate.
It goes without saying that I'm a Smash scrub, and may not be qualified to discuss technical gameplay mechanics beyond the merely conceptual (as I've done here); there's also no guarantee that the Smash team would see things this way at all, or may perhaps see a different potential in Playable Ridley.
I do think, however, that the above constitutes what most in this thread would consider an ideal playable Ridley in Smash 4.
Phaazoid
