Ridley is Too Big

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About

"Ridley is Too Big" is an argument against allowing the alien creature Ridley from the Metroid video game series to become a playable character in the Super Smash Bros. fighting video games due to his large size relative to other characters.

Origin

As the leader of the alien creatures known as the Space Pirates, Ridley is the most common antagonist in the Metroid series, appearing in over half the games and cheating death from each of the previous encounters with the protagonist Samus. With the release of the original Metroid game in 1986, the creature was originally depicted as a purple dragon roughly the size of Samus. In Super Metroid, released in 1994, Ridley's size was increased to about three times the height of Samus.

On May 19th, 2006, Smash Boards Forums^[6] member xianfeng submitted a thread titled "Ridley for SSBB," which contained a proposal for Ridley to be included as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, complete with a list of fighting moves. In the thread, user =TF=Omega argued that Ridley was "too big" and that a scaled down version of the character would be "awkward." In 2008, Ridley was introduced as a boss in the game Super Smash Bros. Brawl but not as a playable character.

Common Arguments

Those arguing Ridley should become a playable character in Super Smash Bros. often point out that Ridley was designed much smaller as a sprite in the original 1986 Metroid and for his short cameo during the opening sequence of Super Smash Bros. Melee. Advocates also cite how Nintendo shrank the villain Bowser from the Super Mario franchise in order to make him a playable character. Detractors argue that Bowser has the ability to change size canonically and that Ridleys size in the original Metroid game looked bizarre and was due to the hardware limitations of the time.

Spread

On August 21st, 2007, Smash Boards^[5] member Legolastom posted a thread regarding Ridley's inclusion in Super Smash Bros. Brawl 2, which compiled arguments from previous threads regarding the character's size. On December 27th, Nsider Forums^[4] member Bender submitted a thread arguing to include Ridley as a playable character in Super Smash Bros., citing his size in the opening cut scene of Super Smash Bros. Melee (shown below).

On October 27th, 2011, Blogspot^[1] user vaztor posted an article about Ridley in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, arguing that the character is far too big to make playable in the game series and used a screenshot from the 2004 Game Boy Advance game Metroid: Zero Mission to illustrate the point (shown below).

On November 1st, 2012, Neoseeker Forums^[2] member Random hero jr submitted a thread discussing Ridley as a playable character in Super Smash Bros, gathering upwards of 60 replies in the next year. On April 1st, 2014, Redditor SakuraiBot submitted a photoshopped screen capture of Ridley in Super Smash Bros. to the /r/smashbros^[3] subreddit, which received over 530 upvotes and 85 comments in one months (shown below).

Ridley Mods For Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Fan-created mods for Super Smash Bros. Brawl that add Ridley as a playable character, typically scaling the dragon to the size of Bowser or Charizard (shown below).

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Reveal

During a Nintendo Direct streamed on June 12th, 2018, during E3 2018, Masahiro Sakurai talked at length about the upcoming Smash game, revealing major details and mechanics. One of the biggest reveals of the announcement was the inclusion of Ridley from the Metroid series, who players have long clamored to have in the series. At the end of the stream, Sakurai revealed the release date to be December 7th, 2018.

The Ridley reveal caused a huge stir online, and many social media users created image macros about the reveal only minutes after the Direct (examples shown below).