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.
Ridley (Metroid)
Ridley originally appeared in the Nintendo Entertainment System video game "Metroid" as one of the two Space Pirate figureheads charged with protecting Mother Brain at the base on Zebes, where they are cloning Metroids with the intention of converting them into biological weapons. Both he and his counterpart, Kraid, are defeated by Samus. Ridley's remains are collected from the ruins of the base on Zebes and taken aboard the frigate "Orpheon", where he is cybernetically reconstructed as "Meta Ridley". As shown in "Metroid Prime", Samus confronts him aboard the ship and pursues him to the planet Tallon IV, where she hampers his operations to exploit the planet's widespread contamination of Phazon, fighting and leaving him for dead a second time. Mike Sneath, one of three senior character artists for "Metroid Prime", was responsible for designing the Meta Ridley version of Ridley seen in "Metroid Prime". It took him about "20 to 25 days" to model and texture Meta Ridley, citing the wings as having taken a few days of his time, commenting that it took him a while to get the shaders to work to give his wings the appearance of having a "holographic energy." He was not involved with designing the battle with Meta Ridley, which was left up to the game designers. Andrew Jones, the lead concept artist for "Metroid Prime", had little to do with the design of Ridley. The initial design submitted was rejected by Nintendo, while the second design the artists submitted was approved. Steve Barcia, the executive producer of Retro Studios, called Ridley his favorite enemy from "Metroid Prime" due to the quality of the battle and his fan appeal. He added that such a battle was rare for a first person shooter, which helped to set "Metroid Prime" apart.