As the title implies, we have decided to revamp Ridley's Moveset to make him what many of the fans have desired him to be:
A vicious aerial fighter who controls the battle from the air and is a master of Juggling foes.
Ridley's incredible air game will allow him to easily combo and deal heavy damage and at middle percentages KO almost any opponent who takes the risk of getting close when he is off the ground.
But of course, like any character in Smash Bros. Ridley will spawn in and start all of his battles from the ground.
While Ridley is a master of the air, he suffers a notable reduction in potency on the ground.
Being a heavyweight, his moves hit hard no matter his location on the field of battle, but on the ground he suffers from a notable drop in speed and agility.
Couple this with the fact that Ridley will be about Bowser-sized, and Ridley can become an easy target for faster opponents such as Fox and Greninja who often will take advantage of Ridley's lower speed to get in close and punish him.
Because of this, it is very important to be aware of Ridley's position on the ground and space the enemy well so that he can take advantage of an aggressive or fast character's missteps and openings and get them into the air, effectively opening the way for some seriously lethal damage.
Since Ridley will often want to spend his time flying around in the air, we designed many of his ground attacks so that they would lift opponents up off the ground, allowing him to follow up with some Short Hop Aerials that can lead into some dangerous Aerial Combos.
Ridley's Tilts and Neutral Combo String both either directly lift opponents off the ground or allow for opportunities to do so with later attacks; a smart Ridley player should often wait for just the right moment to lash out and get an Aerial Combo going with one of these moves. Because, while they can often get a combo started, they are still hindered by some starting and ending lag due to Ridley's significantly lower speed on the ground.
Therefore I reiterate the fact that Ridley's spacing while on the ground is very important to ensure that he does not become a Space Dragon Shaped Punching Bag.
While his Tilts and Neutral Combo String are his go-to moves to help him get opponents off the ground, his special moves are his go-to spacing moves to keep those pesky aggressive players from being able to act like an annoying fly that Ridley may have a hard time swatting.
On the ground, his Neutral B acts quite similar to Bowser's, Ridley breathes a steady stream of plasma directly in front of him that can be angled with the control stick and gradually dissipates as time passes.
However, Ridley, unlike Bowser, has the ability to walk back and forth whilst breathing this plasma.
This added mobility augments the spacing ability of this move greatly as Ridley will be able to both defend himself while retreating and more safely approach enemies with this stream of plasma covering some of the space in between him and the enemy.
His Down B is another great spacing tool, with a press of the button, Ridley lowers his body, brings his wings forward, and then begins to extend them behind him slowly, putting them in position to produce a great gust of wind that will push enemies away without causing them to flinch.
Ridley's Neutral B has another unique property, when he is in the air, he will shoot 3 fireballs at a downwards angle in front of him which explode on contact. This property allows for additional spacing capability when paired with frequent Short Hops.
As you can probably guess, the gust Ridley produces will get stronger as he gets more time to extend his wings behind him. Like other charge moves, Ridley will be able to save the current charge he has by shielding, although the charge will be disrupted if he takes damage while doing so.
Furthermore, when used in mid-air, Ridley will send the gust at about a 45 degree angle below and in front of him, making it good for aerial edgeguarding.
The distance the gust will cover depends on the amount of time Ridley has charged it. At full charge, the gust will travel a little more than 1/2 the distance of Battlefield and have a pushing force similar to that of Mario's F.L.U.D.D.
Additionally, the wing flap will deal damage to the opponent, but will not cause them to flinch, similar to Mario's Cape.
The damage dealt by this move at close range (the wing flap) would be 8%, which makes sense considering Ridley is a fairly heavy hitter.
Then there is his Side B:
This move acts similar to Ganondorf's Flame Choke from Brawl, albeit with different properties.
Like Ganondorf's Flame Choke, Ridley will lunge forwards, however, he will not lunge quite as far.
While in Brawl Ganondorf's Flame Choke covers about 1/3 of the length of Battlefield's main platform, Ridley's lunge covers only around 1/4 of the distance of Brawl Battlefield's main platform.
Ridley's lunge covers a shorter distance than Ganondorf's. However, it also deals more damage.
In Brawl, Ganondorf's Flame Choke dealt 9% damage on the ground. For Ridley's move, he grabs the opponent and grinds them along the ground while moving forwards before finally throwing them upwards and away from him.
Ridley's Side B will deal 14% damage on the ground. It will also come out fairly quickly, being similar in speed to Ganondorf's Flame Choke. In this way, it will be fast enough to catch opponents off-guard or chain with his other attacks to end a combo, but not so fast that it becomes broken.
Also, if used mid-air, it will not put Ridley into a helpless state if missed, but he will not be able to use it again before landing.
Additionally, this move deals additional damage when in the air, again similar to Ganondorf's Flame Choke, which deals 12% damage in Brawl when used in mid-air.
To exemplify Ridley as a serious threat in the air we decided to boost the damage for his Aerial Side B a little more than the jump in damage that Ganondorf's Side B has.
Ridley's mid-air Side B deals 20% damage if Ridley manages to dive with his opponent to the ground.
Once reaching the ground, Ridley will grind his opponents along the ground just like he would if he grabbed them on the ground.
The move does 8% on the slam to the ground and 12% on the floor grind, with Ridley throwing his opponent away from him at the end of the move.
Beware, Ridley will suicide if he does not find a platform to land on during his dive with the opponent.
We envision Ridley's Side B to be a move on the ground that will keep enemies on their toes since Ridley will be able to lunge forward and deal damage to any uncareful opponents.
In the air, we envision this move to be a "combo finisher" so to speak. After Ridley gets a good Juggle going, he can finish the combo with a well-timed Side B that will deal great damage and bring the opponents all the way down back to the ground after a good Aerial Combo.
His Up B is the only one of his special moves that would not be considered a spacing move.
Ridley's Up B, like those of many of the other characters, is his go-to recovery move.
When executed, Ridley pauses for a moment, then flies quickly forwards in a straight line, spinning in a barrel roll motion with his wings flattened behind him and his claws extended slightly out to his sides.
This move will have omni-directional control, similar to Fox's Up B, and covers a length that is approximately 1/2 of the length of Battlefield's main platform.
Additionally, this moves fairly quickly, at a speed similar to Wolf's Up B. and deals multi-hit damage, with 5 possible hits for the barrel roll motion, each hit doing 3% damage with no knockback.
At the end of the move, Ridley extends his wings outwards around him, dealing 8% damage and knocking the opponent a fair distance away.
This amounts to a total of 23% max damage for his Up B.
As I have mentioned, the strength in Ridley's special moves is their spacing ability, which will allow him to keep opponents from easily rushing him on the ground. With his Neutral B and Down B being the best for spacing, and his Side B having some spacing capabilities (in terms of mind games) as well.
Ridley's Up B and Side B have their greatest strengths in recovery and combo extension/ending, respectively. We have chosen to design these two moves as such in order to emphasize Ridley's incredible strength in the air.
Up to this point, I have spoken at length about how we have decided Ridley to have an excellent air game.
Of course, the heart of any great air game is the character's Aerial Attacks.
For Ridley, as I have heavily implied, we have designed his Aerial Attacks to be the best part of his moveset by far, and have built the rest of his moveset around this idea so that his other attacks would compliment his great Aerials by for the most part, being setups into his Aerial Attacks (as I have mentioned previously).
Ridley, in order to maintain his Title as King of The Skies, has an aerial set that can combo into itself easily and deal heavy damage.
For the purpose of racking up lots of damage with his Aerial Combos, Ridley has his Uair, Bair, and Nair.
Each of these moves comes out fairly quickly and has low ending lag coupled with low knockback and a favorable trajectory so that Ridley can easily chain them together until the percentages get fairly high.
For his Nair, Ridley performs a front flip/barrel roll type motion that hits twice (once with his claws, and once with his tail) and sends the opponent forwards and slightly upwards.
For his Bair, Ridley spins and hits the opponent with his wing and then immediately hits them with a backhanded hook (think Charizard's Bair).
This move turns Ridley around to face the direction opposite from which he was originally facing, and sends the opponent forwards and slightly upwards.
Due to the turnaround, this move is an easy setup for a high-damage Fair or Dair that will send the opponent far away.
For his Uair, Ridley leans slightly forward before swing one of his wings in an arc above his head (a path similar to Bowser's Uair). This move comes out a little faster than Bowser's Uair and deals slightly less damage.
This move sends the opponent upwards and slightly behind Ridley.
But what about his other two Aerial Attacks, his Fair and his Dair?
As I have mentioned to some extent, we've envisioned these two moves to be Ridley's "kill moves"; both Ridley's Fair and Dair deal very high damage with very strong knockback.
For his Fair, Ridley shoots his tail forward at a slight downwards angle.
For his Dair, Ridley shoots his tail downwards directly below him, dealing a Meteor Smash along the entire length of the tail.
Both Ridley's Fair and Dair come out and end notably slower than his Uair, Nair, or Bair. This was in order to balance these two moves for the immense damage they deal.
Additionally, both moves have Sweetspots at the tip of the tail and a Sourspot at all closer distances, although the knockback and damage is still respectable in the Sourspot for both of these moves.
Overall, in the hands of smart and careful player, Ridley is a serious threat; with proper spacing and timing in order to get both Ridley and opponents into the air for combos, a good player can take full advantage of his potential.
To a novice, Ridley may seem a little complex, but once the spacing and aerial control are mastered, Ridley becomes an offensive and aerial machine.
His incredible air game and his great combo potential, coupled with a number of great spacing capabilities allow Ridley to have a great amount of potential to become a top tier character.
Through proper use of his spacing and aerial game, we envision that Ridley will reign not only as King of the Skies, but also as King of Smash 4.
We believe this set has great potential for Ridley to prove his title to the rest of the Smash 4 Cast.
After many defeats by Samus in the Metroid Series. In Smash, Ridley will finally be able to live up to his fearsome name as
"The Cunning God of Death."