Ridley (Metroid)
Often considered one of the most memorable Nintendo villains, Ridley has been a mainstay of the series, having appeared (through various incarnations) in almost every "Metroid" game to date (all but "", "Metroid Prime Hunters" and ""). He has also appeared in the "Super Smash Bros." series, however, he had not been made a playable character until "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate" in 2018, making it also the first game overall to have Ridley as a playable character.
Dr. Wily
"Computerworld" named Wily as one of gaming's "baddest villains", praising his persistence despite his failure at the conclusion of each "Mega Man" game. 1UP.com editor Jeremy Parish shared the sentiment, stating "the fact that his schemes ultimately boil down to creating eight themed robots with a fatal weakness to one another's powers casts his 'genius' descriptor into doubt. Still, you have to admire his persistence." GameDaily named him one of their favorite older characters in video games and one of the "Top 25 Evil Masterminds of All Time", ranking him second on their list while stating "using good robots to do bad things is sheer genius." They additionally cited his rivalry with Mega Man as one of the ten greatest in video games, describing it as one "still going strong to this day." In a later article, they listed the "evil mastermind" as one of their top 25 video game archetypes, using Wily as an example. IGN listed him as the 13th Best Video Game Villain, calling him one of the most "hopelessly persistent" video game villains.