Project V/Ridley



Ridley (Metroid) "Is she here... or here?!"

Ridley is one of the fifteen selectable fighters in Project V, representing the Metroid franchise. He had been selected due to his unpopularity in the Super Smash Bros. community and -- ironically -- his large size, with him being the largest fighter in the game. Ridley is the nemesis of Samus and a large, malevolent space dragon with a focus on destruction, having a very bloodthristy personality. Ridley can spew fire from his jaws to paralyze foes, swing around his barbed tail to knock away opponents, and combo opponents with his surprisingly fast attacks and his effective zoning techniques, which allows him to pummel foes from afar. He has been seen as a very valuable character prior to release, thanks to his ability to dish out damage and KO easily.

Despite high anticipation for Ridley in Project V, he currently ranks at #8 on the demo-dependant tier list, putting him in its lower half. Ridley has impressive range and camping ability, able to control the stage with his fiery breath and KO opponents with ease. Ridley also has an excellent grab game, able to toss foes off stage with ease. He even has indefinite recovery thanks to his very mobile dragon self, allowing him to free-fly. However, he is not flawless. Ridley is very large, meaning that he will take plenty of damage over the duration of a match and that he has difficulty defending against combos and getting juggled as a result. Furthermore, landing is difficult thanks to grounded pressure. Despite these flaws, he is considered very viable in tournaments and he even has a good matchup against Poison -- who is top tier.

Attributes
Ridley is a very large fighter with surprisingly moderate weight, having an array of attacks that can be used to pressure opponents, zone them out, or outright knock them out of the stage. Ridley's attacks have little start-up or ending lag, which makes it harder to punish Ridley in comparison to most characters. Ridley has slow walking speed, below average dashing speed, high air speed, and high jumps, making him rather weak on the ground but superb in the air. This is complimented by his widely ranged aerials, able to slash around his tail and flaws and even breathe forward fireballs to space out foes. Approaching Ridley is dangerous thanks to the amount of damage he can rack up, so opponents have to try and get at him with projectiles. With rage, Ridley is even more dangerous, and he can do lots of damage on shields, making him a really tough foe with great survivability.

Ridley has numerous flaws, however. He is too big, so he can't fit into smaller spaces and reach into them, although this isn't an existing problem on stages that lack any caves. He can only punish those who hide with fire. Because of his large hurtbox, attacking him is very easy and he's prone to being trapped in combos. With his only moderate weight, Ridley can be heavily punished with Smash attacks, which can launch him far away. These flaws do not take away Ridley's powerful essence on the battlefield; he can easily destroy opponents with his tough attacks and make use of his excellent recovery to make it back to the stage. Moreever, Ridley has several useful advantagious matchups; he can outlive Ike, defeat Poison with ease, and crush multiple low tiers and even Pirate Man and K. Rool.

Moveset
Ridley has a rather general moveset, mostly making use of his talons, his plasma breath, and his sharp tail. He has a mix of long range attacks and brutal physical attacks, swiping with his sharp nails and breathing fire over the battlefield to paralyze and burn opponents. Ridley has a long ranged grab; although his throws are mediocre he has a strong pummel and his down throw can set up combos. With low levels of lag on various attack, Ridley can chain several attacks together rather flawlessly. Ridley's Plasma Breath and Skewer moves are both very effective with zoning and range, with Skewer being a very unique tool for Ridley to use thanks to its multiple uses on the battlefield, from offense to defense.
 * Neutral Special: Plasma Breath.  Ridley will breath forward a row of fireballs that paralyze foes temporarily on contact and also deal burning damage.  If the button is held down, Ridley will breath out an array of random fireballs that explode on contact with opponents or the ground.  Shall Plasma Breath be charged, Ridley will breath out bigger fireballs and have them explode after a short period of time, knocking opponents away from Ridley.  If the attack is used too often, however, the flames will weaken until the player decides to use different moves with him.
 * Forward Special: Quick Snatch.  Ridley will dash forward and attempt to grab an opponent, skewering forward with his wings folded in to go as fast as he can.  Note that the grabs here are different from his default grabs.  If he grabs an opponent, the player can choose which direction to go in:
 * Up: Ridley swings his opponent around and then slams them into the ground with a throw.  Does moderate damage and can lead into combos easily.  If charged, the throwing distance becomes larger and doing this near a ledge can make this move meteor smash, as Ridley happens to throw the opponent diagonally downwards.
 * Forward: Ridley moves forward with his opponent clutched, looking for a wall to scrape them against for multiple hits.  If he can't find one, then he'll let go and whack them with his tail.  If charged, Ridley will execute the attack faster and deal more damage than normal, although the change isn't significant.
 * Down: Ridley grabs his opponent and lifts himself into the air, screaming as he explodes, taking a lot of damage to both himself and his opponent, which can be used in dire situations or if the opponent has taken much more damage than Ridley and the dragon can sacrifice survivability to KO them.  If charged, the attack KOs very early -- as early as 80%.
 * Recovery Special: Ascent.  Ridley will lift his heavy, scaly body into the air and be able to freefly.  There are no punishments like becoming helpless or running out of steam, Ridley can fly for as long as he wants.  Players that use his Ascent have to be aware that he doesn't control very well and that his Forward Special is replaced with a drilling move that can be used to punish opponents going after him in the air.  Ascent can't be charged, but the forward special in the air can.  Charging it will have the attack last longer and go a considerably further distance.
 * Crouch Special: Skewer. This is inarguably the most versatile move in Ridley's moveset, with it having a variety of uses.  If Ridley is on the ground, he will jab his tail in the direction the nearest opponent is, and if he's in the air, then the tail will rotate around and become able to extend more with the ground Skewer.  If Ridley is moving forward, then his tail will spring him into the air.  If he's moving backwards, then his tail will lift him up and jab itself into the ground several times.  If Ridley is heading downwards, the player can choose to move Ridley left or right as his tail strikes the ground.  Shall Skewer be charged, it will go a considerably longer distance and do more damage.

In competitive play
Due to time constraints, this is incomplete.