Only reason I have any hope for Ridley is because of that 4 character leak, and because of the fact there's (at least) 2 Ridley's (much like how in Smash we have now 3 Links: Conductor Link as a NPC, Young/Toon Link from Melee on, and adult Link from the original). If we see Dixie Kong or Chorus Men and especially both, I think it'll be an interesting scenario. It would be the ultimate delayed gratification, but not one I'm willing to bet on. I think I'll stick to waiting.
I hate waiting, but hey, proper patience always leads to the best of things, especially hope. To quote one of my favorite movies,
"Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies."
But hey, worst case scenario, at least we got something for when the modding of Smash WiiU starts to use to make a smaller and playable Ridley when the inevitable Project M (esk) mods for Smash WiiU start happening. That's not so bad, especially given that:
1. Smash WiiU hacking:
The WiiU is stronger than the Wii hardware-wise by A LOT. It's like Nintendo is jumping two generations of gaming home consoles, maybe 3. We also wouldn't be limited to 2GB SD cards for those of us who use those for non-system altering Brawl mods.
Given that, modding will likely be easier to do (once we get modding programs up), and on top of that modders now have experience from modding Brawl and now even Melee. Heck, we have had various GAMES OF THEIR OWN be mods (Melee: SD Remix, Balance Brawl, Brawl +, Brawl Minus, Project M, etc). On top of that, I also have a controversial opinion that a Smash WiiU mod will eventually be more popular than the vanilla game (at least competitively), much like Project M did for Brawl (although it could just be [mostly] a re-balanced and vastly expanded upon Smash WiiU).
Given this, eventually there will be character mods, and eventually, that will include Ridley since we have some base movements, mechanics, and attacks for it that can be borrowed and retooled a tad. The only downside to this is it won't include Smash 3DS, but eh, it's just the Ground Zeroes version of the game. Still, likely with Brawl modding, I imagine the Smash WiiU modding will be better than the actual release of the game (although Smash WiiU clearly isn't as terribly designed and flawed as Brawl).
2. Brawl (and Melee?) hacking:
Brawl hackers recently figured out
how to make a character 100 characters long (although the tool isn't completely finished, but it's close; they also need to fix SFX issues). You could always just add Ridley into Brawl, or heck, even Ridley. Tools exist for that
However, the down side is a GOOD Ridley build hasn't been made yet, but that doesn't mean it won't. Brawl hacking is gonna stay around for a long while. Give it time, though, and a good Ridley build will eventually be completed and playable. It might be a few years, but it will be worth the wait (even if Ridley is playable in Smash 4).
If the Project M Development Team (PMDT, formerly the PMBR) can create and add
Roy and
Mewtwo and make them literally a better quality than all of the Brawl characters in vanilla Brawl, and if someone can make
a fairly competent but unfinished Waluigi playable character hack, there's NO WAY we won't get a great Ridley hack.
3. There's always Smash 6 (since Smash WiiU is technically Smash 5):
There's no reason say Ridley wouldn't be added in Smash 6 at this point, with most C-grade Nintendo stars either set as permanent NPC's or on the roster (Meta Knight, Robin, Shulk, Pit, Meta Knight; on the NPC side, Tom Nook, Waluigi, and various Pokémon mostly), all the A-grade stars playable (you can name them; we finally got Villager and Miis, IMO the last 2 true ones left, unless you wanna include the Wii Fit Trainer and maybe Nintendogs [the latter of whom will basically be permanent NPC's]), and pretty much all the B grade stars (Dedede, Marth, Bowser Jr., Olimar, Little Mac).
Heck, the only other potential B-grade stars I can think of left are like K. Rool, Dixie Kong, Cranky Kong (given that he's literally the original Donkey Kong), Toad (possibly permanent part of Peach's moveset), various Pokémon (not even worth listing), and maybe Isaac.
That's not a lot of new characters, even with Nintendo's few new potentially quality IP's like Captain Toad, Splatoon, etc. rising, Dillon maybe getting a shot in the future, and the almost inevitable new Fire Emblem and Pokémon characters we'll get in the future (especially the latter).
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So yeah, there's no real reason to be upset. You just got to wait, even if waiting sucks. :\ But hey, as my father always tells me, "the most patient servant gets the best payoff."
Anyways, until that payoff or the next thread of this stage, I'm off.