The Metroid franchise has spawned countless bosses and enemies over the span of its 25 year history and one villain that always stands out among the rest is Space Pirate leader Ridley. Ridley has appeared and been defeated in six Metroid titles, so naturally many dismiss him as a typical villain who can manage to return from the dead every game with little explination (I’m looking at you Bower and Ganon!). I first saw this topic bought up around the release Metroid: Other M and since Metroid is my all time favourite series I found it very interesting noticing that each game had slight links to each other.
Before I begin I would like to mention that the Metroid franchise has an officially confirmed timeline featured on the bonus disc of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes which I took and slotted in the newer games, which is what I have based this entire theory on and therefore included as an image below for reference. So without further ado, prepare your selves for severe Metroid nerdiness and a few potential spoilers.
Ridley first appears in Metroid on the NES and its remake on the Game Boy Advance, Metroid: Zero Mission. It is in this game that Samus finally meets Ridley after he killed her parents when she was still child (a back story first mentioned in the Japanese manga but later referenced through a flashback in Metroid: Other M) It is during this game that Samus first fights Ridley, severely damaging him and bringing him close to death, however, the Space Pirates managed to retrieve the crippled Ridley and from there transport him to one of the Space Pirates vessels. It is on board this Frigate that work begins to restore Ridley and he is reconstructed using Metal Armour which is infused to his body, transforming him into ‘Meta Ridley’.
At some point before the end of the process however one of the other experiments being held on the vessel involving a Parasite Queen went wrong leaving many of the able bodied Space Pirates to abandon the Frigate. It is then that Samus arrives on the Space Pirate Frigate Orpheon at the beginning of Metroid Prime, encountering Ridley while escaping the self destructing ship, finding him still attached to life support machines before noticing Samus and fleeing, to which Samus gives chase. After losing Ridley and landing on Tallon IV, Samus goes through the events of Metroid Prime until Meta Ridley attacks her as she tries to enter the Impact Crater. Samus beats him and Meta Ridley is seen plummeting off the edge of the platform and is left with his true fate unknown.
Ridley doesn’t appear in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes but a new enemy, Dark Samus utilises the power of Phazon and uses its power to take over command of the Space Pirates, including Ridley. So with the Space Pirate troops now loyal to Dark Samus it orders them to invade the planet of Norion where Samus encounters Ridley once again in his Meta form, but since he isn’t fully recovered from the battle on Tallon IV he is easily defeated by Samus who is rescued by Rundas before seeing the fate of Ridley. Much later on in the game Ridley is encountered once again inside a Phazon Leviathan on the Pirate Homeworld.
After being defeated by Samus Meta Ridley was fully corrupted by the power of Phazon and took on the form of Omega Ridley. Samus overcomes Omega Ridley and it is unknown what happened to Ridley because after being defeated he doesn't disintegrate in the same way as the other bosses faced in the leviathans. At the end of the game Samus successfully destroys the planet of Phazze, the source of all Phazon, and the Phazon that had corrupted Samus fully disappears returning her to normal. It is likely that the same happened to the other creatures corrupted by Phazon since the source of it has gone, so Ridley would also be lifted from his corrupt form.
Ridley is now not encountered until Super Metroid where he appears to be fully recovered and no longer sports the metal armour of his other forms. He is first seen on the space station Ceres where he has killed all the scientists and is stealing the Baby Metroid that followed Samus from SR388. Ridley manages to escape with the Baby Metroid once Samus arrives; leaving Samus to give chase and follow him back the planet Zebes. Samus finds Ridley in the lowest depths of Norfair and they fight, this time being defeating and exploding, finishing Ridley once and for all.
Unknown to Samus the scientists had retrieved DNA of the baby Metroid from the power suit she was wearing while she was unconscious after the ending of Super Metroid. The DNA was transported to the Bottle Ship we some members of the Galactic Federation intended to clone Metroids to use as bio weapons, although one of the species accidentally cloned was Ridley, although they did not realise it was Ridley due to its appearance and decided to keep it as a pet. When Samus arrives on the bottle ship she meets the creature but also doesn’t see it as a threat.
Samus encounters the creature but only when it is fully grown into Ridley does she recognise it. Samus almost kills Ridley before he manages to flee. Before Samus can find and finish off Ridley he is seen, weak and heavily wounded, to be attacked by an even more powerful creature (which turns out to be a Queen Metroid) Samus later sees a husk of Ridleys corpse, but if she returns to the same area after the credits his remains are disappeared.
During the final game in the series Metroid Fusion Ridley is first seen as Samus stumbles into a chamber during her mission, only to find the frozen corpse of Ridley that the Galactic Federation brought from the bottle ship. X Parasite is then seen leaving the corpse and begins escaping, floating to another area of the lab. Samus later faces the X Parasite that is mimicking Ridley as it starts to mutate to become the powerful ‘Neo-Ridley’ which Samus has no trouble finishing, absorbing the X core, gaining the Screw Attack ability and finishing off her nemesis for good.
The end of Metroid Fusion brings the end of the Metroid franchises story arc and the threat of Ridley, for now... Hopefully there wasn't too much reading to put you off, if not make sure you comment below to let me know what you think and if you would like to see the site do more features like this. See you next mission!
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