Important The Ridley for SSB4 Thread - End of an Era

[Sehnsucht]

I'm going to come back to this thread and feed off everyone's tears in here once you all realize he's not playable.

I have a different salty fluid in store for you, mate.

 

[majora_787]

I want to say that the OP addresses a really great moveset and shows great potential as a character. By the way isn't Ridley like the most requested character in Japan atm? It would be shocking if he is not playable.

I doubt it over characters like Mewtwo or K. Rool who are also requested heavily. Metroid's not exactly Japan's thing like it is our thing here in the US.

 

[ES. Dinah]

Who started the Ridley for smash trend anyway? Was it a trend back in melee/brawl? I might be missing something entirely here.

 

[Dalek_Kolt]

Who started the Ridley for smash trend anyway? Was it a trend back in melee/brawl? I might be missing something entirely here.

My current theory is that the "Ridley 4 Smash" movement started after Melee, after seeing Ridley cameo in the intro and seeing Meta Ridley in Metroid Prime.

 

[SchAlternate]

Change the title to (Insert comment about Ridley's shadow)

 

[FalKoopa]

I'm going to come back to this thread and feed off everyone's tears in here once you all realize he's not playable.

Again, a reminder that posts like this WILL be infracted without exception.

 

[Dalek_Kolt]

Change the title to (Insert comment about Ridley's shadow)

Ultimate twist: Ridley's shadow is a boss. Regular Ridley had a bad run-in with Peter Pan.

 

[Keeshu]

Why is the Super Metroid/Brawl Ridley so praised? Zero Mission Ridley is far superior and will always be Ridley's best design.

Zero Mission is basicly a much larger and spread out version of the Super Metroid Ridley design. Just with bigger goofier hands + Feet, and a color scheme that I see all too often. The head doesn't have the curve thing that the Super Metroid version had going on either, so it's super flat. Zero Mission has some pointless spikes added onto the top of his head.

What I do like more about the Zero Mission design is that it makes the tail a bit prettier.


I'm a bit biased towards Super Metroid for several reasons. A few of these things are just small reasons though. Most of these are just gameplay related.
#1 The Ceres Station encounter was the first time I've had a boss almost kill me without killing me (little did I know that's supposed to happen unless you're really good, which you wont be if you're new to metroid).
#2 I haven't played Zero Mission yet.
#3 Zero Mission's Ridley roar sounds much squeakier than Super Metroid's, and a tad annoying...... They both spam it waaaay too much, but Super Metroid Ridley spams it much less.
#4 Ridley is just big and slow compared to Super Metroid Ridley. Super Metroid Ridley flys around a bunch, and if you go in the air you deserve the damage you are taking. If you're going to intimidate me, intimidate me with speed, not size. What's the point of being huge if you are never able to hit anyone because everyone can see what you are doing?
#5 Zero Mission Ridley is an attention hog compared to Super Metroid Ridley. He's always on screen. In Super Metroid I would always go into the morph ball when he goes up off the screen so I can dodge whatever he does right away. He's just way too fast for you to just jump up to him without being hit. You can't worry about what's going to happen when you don't have time to worry about it. (of course..... most metroid players just basicly stand+shoot Ridley in both games.... Makes me sick whenever I see people do DPS races for any boss)
#6 When Zero Mission Ridley does his fireball attack, he's not doing anything else, he's just sitting there. Also some Fireballs give you missles if you destroy them, which to me is like having Ridley giving you presents....
#7 Those gigantic goofy hands + feet on Zero Mission Ridley are incredibly distracting.



I'll probably stop saying SuperMetroid/Brawl ridley now though. When Brawl came out, the only Ridley's I saw was Metroid Prime's and Super Metroid, and I thought Brawl's was pretty accurate to how I remembered Super Metroid's Ridley. Turns out Super Metroid's Ridley didn't have Orange wings at all, they are pink. So I guess my mind remembered the Orange from Meta Ridley.
Brawl Ridley is my favorite design currently.

 

[Xigger]

Even though Yellow Devil works the same as other bosses do? And really, moving slowly and unaggressively isn't "bad boss behavior for the Smash series because other smash bosses didn't do it". It's objectively bad boss design. Take literally any boss you have ever fought. Now imagine instead of the actual fight, they walk slowly over to you, dry hump against you lazily / pick you up and hold you in a warm embrace and do nothing else.

Is that boss battle better or worse than it was before? And that's not even accounting for the weird treatment and the fact that Ridley is really small for a boss appearance. That's just looking at behavior that was definitely taking place.

In literally no setting is slow, languid, docile behavior from a strangely small boss ever a good idea. This isn't a "smash thing". And no, this doesn't prove the Ridley in the footage is not a boss; It proves that he is either playable or an awful boss.

Come now: you're thinking of him as a pure BOSS, not a hazard. Bosses may be there to be beat, but did you ever consider why Ridley picked up Pikachu and stayed still? Stage bosses very evidently have more than one purpose: Not just to beat, but affect the fight between players.

Imagine a four-player fight, Ridley comes flying in, what do the players do? Much like the in-depth strategies with the Yellow Devil, you either:

1. Avoid being caught by Ridley.
2. Try to beat Ridley for some purpose, similar to the Yellow Devil giving you an explosion
3. Try to get an opponent to be grabbed by Ridley.

And if Pikachu is just hanging there, everyone else can use that opportunity to beat on Pikachu or Ridley: or get away from Ridley. This isn't a normal boss, this is a HAZARD. Not a bad boss design for classic 1v1 bosses in single player games.

 

[Dalek_Kolt]

Again, a reminder that posts like this WILL be infracted without exception.

Yeah, sometimes I don't understand people. My first instinct upon seeing the Assist Trophy massacre, particularly Saki, Waluigi and Goroh, was to offer condolences to the hopefuls, not spit in their faces that their favorite character didn't get in.

New characters are always pretty exciting for me. I had no idea who the hell Greninja was and why he wasn't Mewtwo, but as of now he's looking to be a pretty promising character. Plus, Ninja.

 

[Smash G]

Again, a reminder that posts like this WILL be infracted without exception.

That's some selective and bias modding you've got there . The very first post is a troll and you choose to ignore it.

I'd advise not even bringing up "he's too big" argument, because it's really dumb and no one wants to waste their time showing you why you're dumb just to here you say "OOOOHHHHhhhhh" or "Sorry, but I'm dumb and choose not to understand as a defense mechanism so I can feel like I'm right, even though I only believe the argument is true because I saw someone say it once long ago and it sounded kind of convincing at a glance so I believed it kind of like that time my brother told me the Earth's seasons are caused by the Earth's orbit being closer to the sun in the summertime." Just, I dunno, sit down for a minute, practice some critical thinking, and you won't make a terrible mistake.

He's literally calling everyone dumb who disagrees with him. The whole post doesn't use much logic but rather attacks using name calling and claiming people against him can't use critical thinking skills while the post itself uses very little. But hey, you can ignore it. I have a feeling your'e going to because you seem really, really unreasonable if you can ignore that, after over 500 freakin' pages and then give me infraction points for a joke about drinking tears which may or may not be wrong but it's certainly no worse than the original post.

 

[ES. Dinah]

Yeah, sometimes I don't understand people. My first instinct upon seeing the Assist Trophy massacre, particularly Saki, Waluigi and Goroh, was to offer condolences to the hopefuls, not spit in their faces that their favorite character didn't get in.

New characters are always pretty exciting for me. I had no idea who the hell Greninja was and why he wasn't Mewtwo, but as of now he's looking to be a pretty promising character. Plus, Ninja.

Greninja is from pokemon x and y. I thought anyone would know him by now. A bit offtopic but I think Greninja got in because it was essentially a 12 year old's wet dream. Everyone has a shiny greninja online because it is like the 2nd coming or something. I never got the craze, tbh. In fact... when it leaked everybody hated it. No idea what went on there.

Sigh... Ridley is very likely whether people like it or not. I am not going to think that the nintendo direct directly makes him unplayable. This is a bit like Toon link if you ask me.

 

[FalKoopa]

Just so you know, if had made that post in any thread, you would gotten that infraction~.

 

[majora_787]

Come now: you're thinking of him as a pure BOSS, not a hazard. Bosses may be there to be beat, but did you ever consider why Ridley picked up Pikachu and stayed still? Stage bosses very evidently have more than one purpose: Not just to beat, but affect the fight between players.

Imagine a four-player fight, Ridley comes flying in, what do the players do? Much like the in-depth strategies with the Yellow Devil, you either:

1. Avoid being caught by Ridley.
2. Try to beat Ridley for some purpose, similar to the Yellow Devil giving you an explosion
3. Try to get an opponent to be grabbed by Ridley.

And if Pikachu is just hanging there, everyone else can use that opportunity to beat on Pikachu or Ridley: or get away from Ridley. This isn't a normal boss, this is a HAZARD. Not a bad boss design for classic 1v1 bosses in single player games.

That just seems really... un-Ridley to sit there and hold people until they get hit by something, rather than run in, grab them, and throw them into something. And yes, it is still a bad boss design simply because of the fact that being slow and not doing much of anything other than casually frustrating people while the other stage hazard takes effect isn't much of a boss. It is literally a nuisance. Yellow Devil stays very true to his own actual "one player vs boss" battle form. There is no reason Ridley, should he a boss, would have to be watered down so much that he is acting like a schyphozoa. Literally, 100% exactly like a schyphozoa actually now that I say that.

EDIT: I'm going to elaborate on this just because I feel it is relevant to Ridley and how he seems to be behaving. The Scyphozoa I am talking about is an enemy from the show Code Lyoko. It has insanely gratuitous amounts of hitpoints, and only shows up when there are other significant threats taking place. It then moves EXTREMELY slowly and attempts to grab people, at which point it... sits there and holds them. It is entirely unable to harm people. Technically what it is doing is trying to steal their memories, but that is all they can do.

It's not very good boss behavior. If Ridley wants to be a boss, he should be flying in, requiring some level of effort to avoid, grab people, and smash them into the lava hazard or something unless they get out of his grasp quickly enough. Not act like a Scyphozoa.

 

[Arcanir]

View attachment 12109

DAMN...i had to do this quick little sketch....i find that Substitute plushie TOO ADORABLE....

Aw, that's so adorable!

Greninja is from pokemon x and y. I thought anyone would know him by now. A bit offtopic but I think Greninja got in because it was essentially a 12 year old's wet dream. Everyone has a shiny greninja online because it is like the 2nd coming or something. I never got the craze, tbh. In fact... when it leaked everybody hated it. No idea what went on there.

Everyone hated it because it was a kneejerk reaction, the other two had the same thing happen to them before things evened out and everyone calmed down. Also, I don't think Sakurai would put in any wet dreams, that's way too sultry for a Nintendo game.

 

[Xigger]

That just seems really... un-Ridley to sit there and hold people until they get hit by something, rather than run in, grab them, and throw them into something. And yes, it is still a bad boss design simply because of the fact that being slow and not doing much of anything other than casually frustrating people while the other stage hazard takes effect isn't much of a boss. It is literally a nuisance. Yellow Devil stays very true to his own actual "one player vs boss" battle form. There is no reason Ridley, should he a boss, would have to be watered down so much that he is acting like a schyphozoa. Literally, 100% exactly like a schyphozoa actually now that I say that.

EDIT: I'm going to elaborate on this just because I feel it is relevant to Ridley and how he seems to be behaving. The Scyphozoa I am talking about is an enemy from the show Code Lyoko. It has insanely gratuitous amounts of hitpoints, and only shows up when there are other significant threats taking place. It then moves EXTREMELY slowly and attempts to grab people, at which point it... sits there and holds them. It is entirely unable to harm people. Technically what it is doing is trying to steal their memories, but that is all they can do.

It's not very good boss behavior. If Ridley wants to be a boss, he should be flying in, requiring some level of effort to avoid, grab people, and smash them into the lava hazard or something unless they get out of his grasp quickly enough. Not act like a Scyphozoa.

Un-Ridley, I can see. Ridley was much quicker and deadly in Brawl than that shadow. I'm just describing what is known: Ridley's shadow was moving slow. As for design, of course it falters down to WHY it was designed the way it was, or what else he will do; my guess is as good as anyone else's. I doubt he'll only grab people and fly away, but that's all I have to go off of. There's likely more to it than that.

 

[BKupa666]

Sakurai's perception of Ridley:

 

[ES. Dinah]

Everyone hated it because it was a kneejerk reaction, the other two had the same thing happen to them before things evened out and everyone calmed down. Also, I don't think Sakurai would put in any wet dreams, that's way too sultry for a Nintendo game.

You cannot deny the fact that Greninja is a wet dream. When this thing is challenging the likes of Mewtwo and Charizard... things should be said. I remember EVERYONE saying the tongue was the dumbest idea ever for a scarf.

Honestly... I was on a pokemon forum chat once and if you shout Greninja even once you have all these 12 year olds explaining how much they admire greninja.

 

[majora_787]

Un-Ridley, I can see. Ridley was much quicker and deadly in Brawl than that shadow. I'm just describing what is known: Ridley's shadow was moving slow. As for design, of course it falters down to WHY it was designed the way it was, or what else he will do; my guess is as good as anyone else's. I doubt he'll only grab people and fly away, but that's all I have to go off of. There's likely more to it than that.

Whether there is more to it than that or not isn't the issue. Why would he ever do that in general? That would be like if, I dunno. Tabuu had a move where he flopped around in the middle of the stage, did no damage, and made himself a massive target for no reason other than he was programmed to have that move. Bosses already leave themselves vulnerable between attacks. This kind of awkward behavior is in no way productive to making a good boss fight. It is like if they applied Fire Emblem's biorhythm to Smash bosses.

Sometimes instead of doing a swoop in and grabbing people to throw in the lava or scrape on the wall, Ridley is low in his biorhythm when he attempts the attack. He begins feeling lazy and just aimlessly drifts over, eases them up, and does whatever. Shrug.

Sure, it's all possible. But that really doesn't make this a good idea in the slightest.

 

[Arcanir]

You cannot deny the fact that Greninja is a wet dream. When this thing is challenging the likes of Mewtwo and Charizard... things should be said. I remember EVERYONE saying the tongue was the dumbest idea ever for a scarf.

Honestly... I was on a pokemon forum chat once and if you shout Greninja even once you have all these 12 year olds explaining how much they admire greninja.

I can't say I agree with that. You're taking a small subset and using it to define the majority, and that's not fair to the fans of the character. If you're going to say that, then we should be saying the same thing about other popular characters like Charizard or Rosalina as both of them endure the same thing.

Ultimately, people like the character and thus it became popular to the point of being alongside those two, that's really about it and there's really nothing negative about it. You have every right to not agree with it, but don't demean the fans of it.

Anyway, this doesn't belong in this thread, so lets drop the issue.

 

[Deleted member]

I don't know if it was already stated but :

Ayup.

 

[JediLink]

I don't know if it was already stated but

Yeah, that was brought up. I think we've pretty much gone through everything.

 

[Koopaul]

I've been studying the movements of the shadow. It almost seems like Ridley is moving in a straight line in the air then stops while still in the air.

Usually playable characters that have wings and fly don't fly in a perfectly straight line, they bob up and down with the flaps of their wings. Not only that but they can't stop and float in midair. It doesn't look like the movements of a flying character like Charizard or Pit.

This doesn't look good to me.

 

[Malle]

I've been studying the movements of the shadow. It almost seems like Ridley is moving in a straight line in the air then stops while still in the air.

Usually playable characters that have wings and fly don't fly in a perfectly straight line, they bob up and down with the flaps of their wings. Not only that but they can't stop and float in midair. It doesn't look like the movements of a flying character like Charizard or Pit.

This doesn't look good to me.

While you are right about that, we don't know if it is a hovering ability. Ridley MIGHT have something like Peach, this means that perhaps as a heavy character his recovery is somewhat better, I can imagine Ridley having this hovering ability but really bad multi-jumps like Pit.

 

[JediLink]

Not only that but they can't stop and float in midair.

 

[Smashoperatingbuddy123]

I feel pretty confident Ridley will revealed as playable at E3 now, with the tease we got in the Direct.

Yes I think we were right the first time of ridley being shown at that due to veing in the west

 

[OblivionWolf]

I know some people are saying Ridley wont be a character cuz the wings are too big but im pretty positive when he is landed his wings will be tucked and he will be on all fours and actually be shorter then Bowser. Also for those who say he wont make him playable cuz of his wings clipping while flying just take a look at this.. Go to 0:57 of the video. Sakurai doesn't care that much about clipping for bigger characters.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQD1yJinzeQ

 

[Smashoperatingbuddy123]

I know some people are saying Ridley wont be a character cuz the wings are too big but im pretty positive when he is landed his wings will be tucked and he will be on all fours and actually be shorter then Bowser. Also for those who say he wont make him playable cuz of his wings clipping while flying just take a look at this.. Go to 0:57 of the video. Sakurai doesn't care that much about clipping for bigger characters.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQD1yJinzeQ

I know man that's why in previous post I erased the wings because people are having trouble seeing him without the and his body magically shrank when I erased his wings.

 

[OblivionWolf]

I know man that's why in previous post I erased the wings because people are having trouble seeing him without the and his body magically shrank when I erased his wings.

There is so much going for Ridley idk how people can't see it....I wonder how different people would have acted if the Ridley shadow clip was saved to the very end of the direct or just put in a random spot.

 

[Jigglypuff & Luma]

Did you lot notice how when he is stationary his body hardly ever moves just his wings....like pits brawl recovery.......?

Maybe in that case in that clip he was either preforming a recovery or a hover ability like Peach's

 

[majora_787]

I've been studying the movements of the shadow. It almost seems like Ridley is moving in a straight line in the air then stops while still in the air.

Usually playable characters that have wings and fly don't fly in a perfectly straight line, they bob up and down with the flaps of their wings. Not only that but they can't stop and float in midair. It doesn't look like the movements of a flying character like Charizard or Pit.

This doesn't look good to me.

They generally bob up and down because they are jumping multiple times. If this Ridley is playable, then he most likely has a sort of hover like Peach's (which does move straight without bobbing) which gives him air time while allowing him to grab opponents and probably attack them.

 

[Phaazoid]

Well, he telegraphs his moves like a Brawl Boss. And though the disassembly is a ***** to dodge, its smoothly animated enough to give a little warning as to what its about to do like a Brawl boss. And it dies after enough damage like a Brawl boss.

Just because it lacks an obvious health bar and dies in a fiery explosion doesn't mean the rules established for a good, fun Smash boss battle have changed.

I'm not saying that smash boss battles are now fundamentally different. I'm saying that comparing Smash 4 boss battles to Brawl boss battles is fundamentally flawed logic, because there are at least some differences, so with the information we currently have, we don't know enough to make that call.

 

[majora_787]

I'm not saying that smash boss battles are now fundamentally different. I'm saying that comparing Smash 4 boss battles to Brawl boss battles is fundamentally flawed logic, because there are at least some differences, so with the information we currently have, we don't know enough to make that call.

With the information we do have, we know Yellow Devil, who IS in fact a boss, behaves in a manner similar to bosses of the past. His pattern of "Attack pause attack" while occasionally moving to the opposite side of the stage to attack fits the bill. The only difference is he is only vulnerable in a small area, explodes when he dies, and appears in multiplayer matches.

Ridley, who we do not know the status of, behaves very well out of "normal boss behavior" by moving very slowly, not telegraphing, and not going for damage when he goes for a grab. Not to mention that we are combining a boss with a very invasive stage hazard like lava. Bosses and moving platforms are one thing, rising lava and lava plumes are another thing.

 

[Smashoperatingbuddy123]

With the information we do have, we know Yellow Devil, who IS in fact a boss, behaves in a manner similar to bosses of the past. His pattern of "Attack pause attack" while occasionally moving to the opposite side of the stage to attack fits the bill. The only difference is he is only vulnerable in a small area, explodes when he dies, and appears in multiplayer matches.

Ridley, who we do not know the status of, behaves very well out of "normal boss behavior" by moving very slowly, not telegraphing, and not going for damage when he goes for a grab. Not to mention that we are combining a boss with a very invasive stage hazard like lava. Bosses and moving platforms are one thing, rising lava and lava plumes are another thing.

The most suspicious thing about ridley is pikachu escaped his grasp at the very end of the shadow view and know all the the boss's that grabs a character its impossible to escape a boss's grip without pressing some buttons in other words the boss's does they're throw attack before they can escape without struggling.

 

[Phaazoid]

With the information we do have, we know Yellow Devil, who IS in fact a boss, behaves in a manner similar to bosses of the past. His pattern of "Attack pause attack" while occasionally moving to the opposite side of the stage to attack fits the bill. The only difference is he is only vulnerable in a small area, explodes when he dies, and appears in multiplayer matches.

Ridley, who we do not know the status of, behaves very well out of "normal boss behavior" by moving very slowly, not telegraphing, and not going for damage when he goes for a grab. Not to mention that we are combining a boss with a very invasive stage hazard like lava. Bosses and moving platforms are one thing, rising lava and lava plumes are another thing.

So yellow devil can have a huge, outstanding difference - only being targetable in one area - but Ridely, who's shadow looks a bit strange, no, can't be a boss.

"and not going for damage when he goes for a grab"
I don't even know what this means. The master hand, in boss fights, would grab players too, and before and after the missed grab were great times to beat on him


Listen, I'm not trying to say whether or not Ridley is a boss. I'm only trying to quash illogical arguments that are just hurting everyone.

 

[Oasis_S]

Sakurai must really be hyping up that lava, haven't even seen a single screenshot of it since the Pyrosphere was revealed.

 

[majora_787]

The most suspicious thing about ridley is pikachu escaped his grasp at the very end of the shadow view and know all the the boss's that grabs a character its impossible to escape a boss's grip without pressing some buttons in other words the boss's does they're throw attack before they can escape without struggling.

We have no real way of knowing what exactly was happening when Pikachu escaped his grab. But what we do know is boss grabs generally are either inescapable, OR do damage immediately and you are working to take as little damage as possible. And because they guarantee damage, you have incentive to avoid them.

But this Ridley is moving a little faster than Pikachu's half-walk and isn't doing any damage when he grabs. So... there are three possibilities.

1) He's not a boss at all but is a character being veiled for a reveal at a later date for more excitement.
2) He is a boss, he is just small, slow, and just has useless actions in his action pool.
3) He is a boss, he is just small, slow, has at least one useless action in his attack pool, and is encountered with a lava hazard.

EDIT:

"and not going for damage when he goes for a grab"
I don't even know what this means. The master hand, in boss fights, would grab players too, and before and after the missed grab were great times to beat on him

It means exactly what it sounds like. They grab opponents, and if they grab them successfully, the grab cannot be broken and they immediately throw the opponent or do some kind of damage. Alternatively, they begin doing damage and the player has to do something to escape their grasp. At no point does their grab succeed and they just sit there and hold them in a warm embrace.

Sure "this could be different", but it works that way in Melee and Brawl for a reason; it's just a good idea. And really, Ridley doesn't have to be "dodged" at the speed he is moving at. Everyone will be able to outrun him. Very easily.

I'm not saying "Ridley can't be a boss" like this. I am saying that either Sakurai is hyping Ridley up to be a playable character, or to be a VERY poorly designed boss. He is moving around at an easily avoidable speed, grabbing people, and not doing damage. Either this is what he does and he is close to useless as a whole, or he has at least one completely useless action in his movepool as a boss.

Either way that is poor design and is objectively a bad idea. It has nothing to do with whether he IS a boss or not.

EDIT: And also, for the lava hazard to be ignored despite the fact that we've more or less seen it to begin with would indicate (WARNING: THEORY) that Sakurai probably intended to fake out Ridley from the beginning. That way, we would assume there was no lava hazard, and when he showed Ridley as a "boss", people would go "well he has to be a boss. Right? Otherwise Pyrosphere's only hazard is platforms." And we did.

But now that we know the lava is gone from the FD version of the stage, we know it has to have some kind of impact on the fight. /Theory

 

[Arcadenik]

Maybe the reason lava wasn't on the Final Destination version is because Ridley wasn't around to make holes on the walls?

 

[Oasis_S]

"The whole point of FD this time is to allow players to enjoy the atmosphere of what nearly every stage has to offer without worrying about anything getting in the way of the match, but let's remove this obviously decorative flowing lava on Pyrosphere hey why not."

 

[Phaazoid]

It means exactly what it sounds like. They grab opponents, and if they grab them successfully, the grab cannot be broken and they immediately throw the opponent or do some kind of damage. Alternatively, they begin doing damage and the player has to do something to escape their grasp. At no point does their grab succeed and they just sit there and hold them in a warm embrace.

Sure "this could be different", but it works that way in Melee and Brawl for a reason; it's just a good idea. And really, Ridley doesn't have to be "dodged" at the speed he is moving at. Everyone will be able to outrun him. Very easily.

I'm not saying "Ridley can't be a boss" like this. I am saying that either Sakurai is hyping Ridley up to be a playable character, or to be a VERY poorly designed boss. He is moving around at an easily avoidable speed, grabbing people, and not doing damage. Either this is what he does and he is close to useless as a whole, or he has at least one completely useless action in his movepool as a boss.

Either way that is poor design and is objectively a bad idea. It has nothing to do with whether he IS a boss or not.

And here lies the problem with your argument. You're attacking the design choices of the game that you don't even know yet, that you are extrapolating from 5 seconds of the bosses shadow. This is simply ridiculous. If it is a boss fight, you know next to nothing about it, how the hell can you attack the design? For all you know, this was a scripted 5 seconds purely for this direct, and the actual boss fight is much different.

The crazy claims you make just make you sound like someone who can't accept that Ridley might be a boss, so you're lashing out at shadows. I still have hope that Ridley might be playable, but when these are half the arguments I hear in his favor, it physically hurts.