Meta Ridley

For Ridley's regular form, see Ridley.

For fighter info, see Ridley (SSBU).

Meta Ridley
Official artwork of Meta Ridley from Metroid Prime.
Universe	Metroid
Debut	Metroid Prime (2002)
Smash Bros. appearances	Brawl Ultimate
Most recent non-Smash appearance	Metroid Prime Remastered (2023)
Console/platform of origin	Nintendo GameCube
Species	Unknown (cyborg)
Gender	Male
Place of origin	Zebes
Designed by	Andrew Jones
Article on Metroid Wiki	Meta Ridley

Meta Ridley (メタリドリー, Meta Ridley) is Ridley cybernetically-enhanced and reborn through Space Pirate technology. He is far more fierce and powerful than his organic counterpart.

Origin

Meta Ridley first appeared in Metroid Prime. After being badly wounded by Samus in Metroid, Ridley was revived by the Space Pirates using cybernetic technology. He was equipped with additional weapons, including a mouth beam, missiles and energy bombs. Samus first sees him while trying to escape the Frigate Orpheon. She quickly pursues him in her ship to the world of Tallon IV, but loses him. She briefly sees him in the Phendrana Drifts, but their final confrontation comes when Samus attempts to access the Impact Crater. Meta Ridley's weak points are his mouth and chest. Eventually, Meta Ridley's wings burn, so he battles Samus on the ground, and is still lethally fast. Despite this, Samus defeats him, and the Chozo statuary adorning the Artifact Temple around them blast Meta Ridley, seemingly destroying him.

Meta Ridley returns in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. When the Space Pirates attack Norion, Samus sees Ridley wipe out several Galactic Federation Marines. He briefly harasses her as she goes through an exposed rail while in Morph Ball form. When she goes to activate a reactor, Meta Ridley pounces her and they begin a free fall battle down the reactor shaft. Again, Meta Ridley is defeated and Samus is saved at the last minute by fellow bounty hunter Rundas. Ridley, however, still survives. When Samus goes to the Pirate Homeworld to destroy the Leviathan Seed, a large living meteor that corrupts planets with Phazon, she finds that Ridley is guarding the core. He is now enhanced by Phazon and appears as Omega Ridley, but is defeated nonetheless. In Metroid: Samus Returns, Ridley is in a new form called "Proteus Ridley", a transitional state between his Meta and organic forms. He ambushes Samus on SR388 in an attempt to steal the last Metroid, though fails and is defeated again. By the events of Super Metroid, he has fully regenerated to his organic form.

As with Ridley, many of Meta Ridley's attacks are new in Brawl; however, there are a couple attacks that are retained: In Metroid Prime, one of the attacks that Ridley uses is shooting fireballs at Samus. The fireballs that Meta Ridley shoots in Brawl are designed similarly to how they are designed in Metroid Prime. In Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, right in the middle of the fight between Samus and Ridley, Meta Ridley will grab Samus and try to perform a powerful attack. One of the attacks involves charging up a fireball and firing it at Samus. In Brawl, Meta Ridley charging and firing his fireball is very similar to how he performed it in Metroid Prime 3, only without grabbing a player while doing it.

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Role in The Subspace Emissary

Meta Ridley
Meta Ridley's art for Brawl
A boss in	Brawl
Universe	Metroid
Location	The Subspace Bomb Factory (Part II)

Meta Ridley as he chases down the Falcon Flyer.

After R.O.B., Captain Falcon, Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Pikachu, Samus and Olimar make their way out of the doomed Isle of the Ancients via the Falcon Flyer, they are pursued by the resurrected Meta Ridley, who is out for revenge on Samus and Pikachu. As such, he serves as the seventh and penultimate boss.

Meta Ridley's attacks can additionally send the Falcon Flyer reeling about. In this battle, he is attacking the ship as well and the player has two minutes to beat him, similar to the battle in Metroid Prime 3. He has completely different moves from Ridley and the player has to jump whenever he hits the ship or the player could fall. He is later defeated and the massive amounts of Subspace Bombs explode, covering the island in Subspace, taking everything in it, including the remains of Meta Ridley. Tabuu later revives Meta Ridley in The Great Maze to attack the heroes (oddly, Ridley and Meta Ridley each appear separately in The Great Maze), but is defeated once again, presumably for good.

Trophy Stands appear frequently due to the limited time, even on easy difficulties, especially if the character is equipped with a strong Trophy Stand producing Sticker.

As a playable character

Main article: Meta Ridley (SSBB)

Like all Brawl bosses, Meta Ridley can be played as in Boss Battles through hacking, which will assign debug controls to Player 3. Most of his moves are unavailable, making him very bare-bones, and thus significantly weaker compared to his boss appearance.

Moveset

Like all bosses Meta Ridley is controllable in Boss Battles Mode by hacking. The start button self-destructs him. Unlike any other boss (besides Petey Piranha) however, Meta Ridley starts in a T-pose until moving, which is probably the reason he starts moving immediately when the level starts when controlled by an AI.

Move	Input	Description
Mega Fire Ball	/	Meta Ridley flies from the left, then returns with his eyes glowing a fiery red. This signals that he is about to shoot a massive fireball with huge KO potential, even OHKOing on Very Hard (depending on player's position) and Intense at low HP. It will hit anyone on the front of the Flyer, dealing up to 54%. Contact with Meta Ridley's beak will deal less knockback and damage as the fireball itself. This move is rarely used, but because of this, it can be thought of as a surprise attack. When controlled by a human he will instantly shoot the fireball without his eyes glowing.
Falcon Flyer Slam		Meta Ridley flies off the screen to the left, then attacks the Falcon Flyer, making it shake. Anyone standing on the Flyer will take damage (up to 32%). The left side swings beneath the blast zone, however every part of the attack (Meta Ridley's dive and the slam) launches the player away from the blast zone; this results in it only KOing players with intangibility (such as grabbing the ledge or dodging). It's best to jump as Meta Ridley flies away to evade the attack. When controlled by a human, he can only use this attack once.
Swoop		Meta Ridley roars, and then quickly swoops over the Falcon Flyer, dealing high damage (up to 23% on the down swing, 47% along the length, 14% at the very end) . Again, jumping proves the best defense. When controlled by a human, he won't roar.
Claw Sweep	Unusable	Meta Ridley flies off the screen to the left, then sweeps low with his claws. On the higher difficulties it can inflict high damage if all hits chain (even approaching 100%) but it has relatively low knockback.
Rapid Fire Shot	Unusable	Meta Ridley flies off the screen to the left, roars, and then shoots multiple fireballs. The fireballs are swift but can be reflected, and characters with reflecting abilities can jump up to Meta Ridley's face and bounce several fireballs at him, inflicting heavy damage. Other characters will have to sidestep, air dodge, or hang off the edge of the stage to evade this attack. Each fireball can inflict up to 26% and KO as low as 65% on Intense.
Falcon Flyer Pull	Unusable	Meta Ridley grabs the back of the Falcon Flyer and tries to drag it down below the blast zone while shooting large fireballs. Meta Ridley pulls the Falcon Flyer down slowly, giving players time to jump to avoid being KOd. The fireballs deal up to 40% or 88% if hit point-blank, with the former able to KO below 50% on Intense and the latter being a one-hit KO on Intense. A strong attack, such as a reflected fireball, will shake him off.
Falcon Flyer Smash	Unusable	Meta Ridley flies up off screen, then drops and lands on the Falcon Flyer, causing it to move off the bottom of the screen. The player must jump when he uses this or they will be carried past the bottom blast line. Air dodging during the jump is also recommended, if Meta Ridley hits the player while they are still close to the ship, they can be spiked into it and launched towards the upper blast zone, KOing at low percents. If the player is far enough above the ship and are hit by Meta Ridley, they'll take damage and negligible knockback.

HP and damage taken

HP Values
The Subspace Bomb Factory (Part II) / The Great Maze	225			245			260			285			310
Round	1-3	4-6	7-9	1-3	4-6	7-9	1-3	4-6	7-9	1-3	4-6	7-9	1-3	4-6	7-9
Boss Battles	137.2	143	157.8	154	165	184.4	172	187.5	211	190	205	235.5	226	253	292.5

Damage taken	×1.0	×1.0	×1.2	×1.5	×0.7	×1.0	×1.3	×1.0	×1.0	×1.0	×1.0

Like all bosses in Brawl, Meta Ridley gains an additional ×0.6 damage resistance modifier when fought in co-op mode, effectively gaining 67% more health. This modifier is applied whenever the second player is in-game, and is no longer applied if the second player loses all their stocks.

Moveset gallery

• 

  Meta Ridley slams the Falcon Flyer downwards.

• 

  Meta Ridley rushes past the Falcon Flyer.

• 

  Meta Ridley grinds his tail along the Falcon Flyer.

• 

  Meta Ridley spits multiple small fireballs.

• 

  Meta Ridley, while clutching onto the Falcon Flyer and dragging it downwards, breathes out a large fireball.

• 

  Meta Ridley drops onto the Falcon Flyer, cauing it to briefly plummet offscreen.

• 

  Meta Ridley prepares to release a very large fireball.

• 

  Meta Ridley releases the very large fireball towards the Falcon Flyer.

Glitches

Meta Ridley when loaded with debug controls.

• During Meta Ridley's attack where he drags the Falcon Flyer down while shooting fireballs, if he is defeated right when he lets go, the Falcon Flyer will continuously fall, instead of bouncing back up as normal.
• If loaded with debug controls in Boss Battles, Meta Ridley will spawn with a blind pose. If an attack command is inputted, it will return to normal.

Trophy

Meta Ridley's trophy in Brawl

Meta Ridley

The meta form of Ridley, revived using the Space Pirates' genetic engineering and cybernetic technologies. His thin chest plate--and weak point--is protected by a highly resistant membrane. Meta Ridley is highly mobile and features a multimissile system, a bomb launcher, and powerful wings. Ice attacks are particularly effective in dealing damage to him.

The meta form of Ridley, revived using the Space Pirates' genetic engineering and cybernetic technologies. His thin chest plate--and weak point--is protected by a highly resistant membrane. Meta Ridley is highly mobile and features a multi-missile system, a bomb launcher, and powerful wings. Ice attacks are particularly effective in dealing damage to him.

: Metroid Prime

In Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

Black Ridley in for Wii U.

Ridley appears as the Pyrosphere's stage boss. After taking enough damage, he increases his strength by absorbing energy from the generators underneath the main platform on either side, consequently darkening his skin and giving off a purple glow. His appearance in this form is taken from Metroid: Other M when he renders himself invulnerable to Samus's Plasma Beam, but in for Wii U, this change merely increases his strength. The 50-Fact Extravaganza gives this form the name "Meta Ridley", although this usage of the name has no basis in the Metroid games. This is actually an alteration made by the English translation of the video; in the Japanese version, this form of Ridley is named 黒リドリー, which is more accurately translated as "Black Ridley".

Meta Ridley's theme song, Vs. Meta Ridley, returns unchanged from Brawl and appears as a song on Pyrosphere.

• 

  Black Ridley in the 50-Fact Extravaganza

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Meta Ridley as he appears in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Meta Ridley appears as an alternate costume for Ridley, using his design in the original Metroid Prime as the basis of his model. Meta Ridley also has a silver and green palette swap as a reference to Mecha Ridley, the final boss of Metroid: Zero Mission.

Spirit

• 

  268. Meta Ridley

Trivia

The two cut Ridley costumes (top) and the final costumes (bottom).

• Meta Ridley is considered to be very difficult to turn into a trophy, because of the time constraints during the fight, and because when idle he spends his time in the air off stage at low health, meaning if he is turned into a trophy when not performing an attack that puts him over the Falcon Flyer, his trophy will fall off the stage and be unobtainable unless immediately grabbed in midair by the player.
• Meta Ridley is the only Subspace Emissary boss who:
  • Has a time limit. However, there is no time limit for fighting Meta Ridley in The Great Maze and Boss Battles Mode.
  • Has the same HP values when re-fought in The Great Maze.
  • Is fought on a stage that isn't completely flat.
  • Became an alternate costume for a separate fighter.
• The music that plays during the Meta Ridley fight is Vs. Ridley instead of Vs. Meta Ridley, which plays while the fighters are escaping from the factory.
• In Ultimate, when zooming in behind Meta Ridley's wings, his right-wing does not fully connect to his back.
• Despite being shown in the reveal trailer, Ridley did not have his Meta Ridley costumes available in the E3 demo for Ultimate; instead, the demo featured two palette swaps of normal Ridley that used the same colors as their respective Meta Ridley costumes. These palette swaps were not included in the released game.