Metroid: The Best Ridley Design

#MetroidDread #Metroid #MetroidRidley
Download Dragon City for free, become a Dragon Master and claim the exclusive rewards:https://mtchm.de/2zcp3
---
Twitter:   / artistmarkflynn  
Patreon:   / theartistmarkflynn  
---
Special Thanks to these gameplays:
Nintendo Unity    • Evolution of Ridley Battles & Appeara...  
ReligiousJedi    • Metroid Prime Trilogy: Metroid Prime ...  
---
There’s been a lot of love for Metroid on this channel recently. With Metroid Dread releasing, it only seems right that we focus on Ridley. One of the series’ most popular and important characters.

On the surface Ridley appears like he may be a mindless creature, roaming space with blood on his mind. While the latter is true to an extent, Ridley is an intelligent foe. Mapping out plans and acting with clear focus, he’s determined. His core design is unnerving, to match his threatening attack patterns. Despite being one of Nintendo’s most beloved Villains, he didn’t always look so threatening.

Often depicted as a dragon like alien mixed with a Pterodactyl, Ridley is a scary looking enemy. He's been a thorn in Samus’ side since the series debuted. With the space pirate coming back to haunt her in many shapes, art styles, materials and forms. Today we’ll examine his design evolution, how big he actually was and conclude with the design that is top tier.

As always, want to help the channel out? Click the like button and subscribe to the channel. Much appreciated.

Alongside Kraid and Mother Brain, Ridley was one of the first Metroid antagonists. You’d think given his legacy, his first appearance would be an epic one.

Yeah, maybe not.

Ridley’s first appearance is a little anticlimactic if you know the character in the modern day. He appears to be a dragon like Dinosaur with a large lower body and a small wing span. He'd establish design staples such as the spiked tail, claws and the purple colour scheme. His sprite was similar in scale to Samus’, making him seem like a regular enemy more than a big boss battle.

Game Art for Metroid wasn’t consistent. He was Blue in the American official artwork and you can see at a glance how little these designs match up. Ridley’s head is the biggest change, rarely resembling a dragon or dinosaur at all. Instead looking like a leech or multi-eyed insect. Outside of that, he has the key features from in-game, including a small set of wings. I love this depiction of Ridley and how much it stands out from his future iterations. Whilst it maintains the tail and wings that would become design staples, it’s far more Alien as a concept. It's much harder to comprehend what he actually is. I’d love to see this design come back, even if it was a different enemy or a Ridley copycat.

Maintaining the blue, the Japanese artwork took the design in a different direction. It displayed Ridley in a chibi childlike form, with adorable little wings, big purple eyes, and a snaggletooth here and there. It's hard to believe these three depictions are the same character. It's an eye opener to how Nintendo once operated with a disconnected global strategy. From a Purple mesh of pixels, to a cute pocket-sized dragon, Ridley needed to find his identity.
---
0:00 Opening
2:55 Ad
3:54 Rest of Video
---
#Ad