Ridley (リドリー) is a fictional video game villain created by Nintendo for the Metroid series. He is a dragon-like extraterrestrial that acts as Samus Aran's nemesis due to his attack on her homeworld; despite being killed multiple times by her, he is always revived by the Space Pirates using cloning or robotics. Originally appearing as a subordinate of Mother Brain, the primary antagonist of multiple titles in the Metroid series, he appears in Metroid Prime and Prime 3 by himself in his Meta Ridley form. He is revealed to be very intelligent and capable of speech in the Metroid e-manga, though he does not speak in the Metroid video games.

Ridley originally appeared in the Nintendo Entertainment System video game Metroid, and was designed by Hiroji Kiyotake.^[1] 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 to appear to have 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.^[2] Steve Barcia, the executive producer of Retro Studios, called Ridley his favourite 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.^[3]

Throughout the series, Ridley has made a variety of changes in his appearance. He was originally roughly the same size of protagonist Samus Aran in the original Metroid title. In Super Metroid, he is significantly larger than in the original title, sporting purple skin, a large wingspan, glowing eyes, claws, and resembling a dragon or a pterodactyl. His Prime series cyborg form is referred to as Meta Ridley, while a robotic duplicate, Ridley Robot,^[4] is also shown in Zero Mission. The instruction manual for the original Metroid refers to Ridley as the last of his species, which was native to Zebes. His trophy description in Super Smash Bros. Melee confirms Ridley's gender as male. Series creator suggests that he was made the general of the Space Pirates due to how evil he is or how powerful he is.^[5]

Before the events of Metroid, Ridley led an attack on Samus Aran's home planet, killing all of its inhabitants except for Samus, who is rescued by the Chozo, an ancient, bird-like species of aliens. He first appears in Metroid as a comparatively diminutive creature, and one of three primary antagonists along with Kraid and Mother Brain. In the Zero Mission remake, he is accompanied by a robotic version of himself called Ridley Robot, but first, you fight a version that has arms out of his stomach, enabling Samus to shoot missles in his face.^[4] This robot is created as an image to demonstrate his power, but was incomplete and lacked the ability to walk or fly.^[6] Ridley is killed by Samus, but later revived as Meta Ridley for Metroid Prime, acting as the Space Pirate commander. Again killed in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, in which he appears in his standard Meta form and as a Phazon-enhanced version referred to ingame as Omega Ridley, he later appears in his regular form in Super Metroid where he kidnaps a creature called a Metroid and takes to Zebes with the intent of delivering it to Mother Brain. Ridley is killed once again by Samus, this time with no chance of being revived as the entire planet Zebes is destroyed at the end of the game. In Metroid: Other M, a clone of Ridley has been unintentionally created by the Galactic Federation during a program to engineer bioweapons, many of which deliberately based on the Space Pirates. He first starts off as a small furred, bird-like creature before undergoing metamorphosis twice; first as a large, lizard-like creature and then as his traditional form. Shocked to find "Ridley" somehow alive, Samus confronts this clone on the Bottle Ship, but Ridley narrowly escapes the battle, severely injured. Samus later discovers his corpse after he is killed by the Queen Metroid on the Bottle Ship. He turns up again in Metroid Fusion on the BSL station. He is infected with a parasite called the X Parasite, which kills the host and gains the ability to transform into Ridley. Other than the series protagonist Samus Aran and the titular Metroids, Ridley is the only character that has appeared consistently throughout most of the games in the Metroid series (the exceptions being Metroid II for the Game Boy, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes for the GameCube, and Metroid Prime Hunters for the Nintendo DS).

Ridley has made multiple appearances in the Super Smash Bros. series. He first appeared in Super Smash Bros. in the background of the Planet Zebes stage, then in Super Smash Bros. Melee during the opening sequence and as a collectible trophy, and made a more significant role in its sequel, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, where he appears as a boss battle during the game's single player mode the Subspace Emissary. He appears in both regular and Meta Ridley forms.^[7] Many fans believed that Ridley would be a playable character for Melee, and it was rumoured that he would appear along with Toon Link and Bowser Jr. for Brawl.^[8] Director of the Super Smash Bros. series, Masahiro Sakurai, stated in an interview with Nintendo Power that the development team never considered including Ridley as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.^{[citation needed]} His boss battle theme was included as a stage music in Brawl as well.^[8] Ridley appeared as a part of the Nintendo Monopoly set, where his image was put there in place of the Tennessee Avenue image.^{[citation needed]}

Ridley appears a few times in the Captain N: The Game Master comics from 1990. In these comics, he looks almost exactly like he appears in the NES version manual, though his face is more lizard-like. Both Kraid and Ridley are approximately human-sized. In the Captain N cartoon series, Ridley is depicted as one of a species. Nintendo Power featured two Metroid adaptations. The Super Metroid one has 60 pages, following the plot of the video game of the same name.^[9] The Metroid Prime one has 18 pages, and follows the plot of the video game of the same name.^[10] In the Metroid e-Manga created by Yoshio Sakamoto Samus first met Ridley while he was commanding the attack on her home colony of K-2L. As Ridley was observing the destruction of the colony, Samus met face to face with him. Her young mind overwhelmed by the carnage, but having recently been taught by the Chozo elder Old Bird that even unsightly creatures can be decent, she tried to befriend him, desperate for assurance that everything would be all right. His response could be interpreted that he either felt slight pity for Samus or was simply momentarily dumbstruck by her hysterical behavior. But either way, he abruptly turned to annihilate her. Samus' mother, Virginia Aran, then appeared amidst the confusion of the Pirate raid and was instead the one destroyed by Ridley's fire breath. This memory scarred Samus for life, and she therefore vowed to avenge her parents and destroy Ridley and all the Space Pirates.

Throughout the history of the Metroid series, series antagonist Ridley has received positive reception. He is regarded as a favourite amongst the Metroid series developers.^[5] Nintendo Power listed him as their sixth favourite Nintendo villain, citing both his involvement in Samus' parents' death as well as his determination, dying at Samus' hands many times yet still coming back.^[11] Computer and Video Games editor Mike Jackson described Ridley as a "fan favourite".^[12] IGN editor Jesse Schedeen called Ridley the real villain of the Metroid series, commenting that he would have to be included in a Metroid film if one were made due to him being too important to leave out.^[13] 1UP.com editor Nadia Oxford described the Nintendo Comics System version of Ridley as being more of a "squashed bug" than a "fearsome reptile".^[14] The 1UP.com staff listed the battle with Ridley in Super Metroid as being one of the most iconic in Nintendo history. They stated that his appearance in Super Metroid is more memorable than any other appearance in the Metroid series, and that his appearance added some familiarity to Metroid fans.^[15] GamesRadar listed him third on their list of video game villains who will never stay dead, calling him Samus' "great white whale" that even while he has tormented her through her life, she just cannot seem to kill him.^[16] Gaming Nexus criticized the lack of fellow Metroid villain Kraid in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, but stated that the developers made up for it by adding the best Ridley battle in the series' history.^[17] IGN editors Phil Pirrello and Richard George listed Ridley as the second most deserving Nintendo character for inclusion in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, stating that Samus was the only playable character in the game to represent the Metroid series, and that Ridley would broaden the series' range.^[18]