Who are the main villains of Metroid?
652308#16
Throughout the history of the "Metroid" series, Ridley has received positive reception as the series antagonist. He is widely considered one of the most renowned and best Nintendo villains of all time and is regarded as a favorite amongst both the "Metroid" fandom and the series's developers. Nintendo Power listed him as their sixth favorite Nintendo villain, citing both his involvement in the death of Samus's parents as well as his determination, dying at Samus' hands many times yet always coming back. Computer and Video Games editor Mike Jackson described Ridley as a "fan favorite." GameDaily called him the 16th greatest Nintendo character, commenting that he "beats Mother Brain by a mile as the coolest Metroid villain." 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. 1UP.com editor Nadia Oxford described the Nintendo Comics System version of Ridley as being more of a "squashed bug" than a "fearsome reptile." WatchMojo.com ranked Ridley at #3 in their Top 10 Nintendo Villains list. The 1UP.com staff listed the battle with Ridley in "Super Metroid" as among 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 return from the original game added some familiarity to "Metroid" fans. GamesRadar listed him third on their list of video game villains who will never stay dead, calling him Samus's "great white whale" that, even while he has tormented her throughout her life, she just cannot seem to kill. Gaming Nexus criticized the lack of fellow "Metroid" villain Kraid in "", but stated that the developers made up for it by adding the best Ridley battle in the series's history. 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 (despite it being one of Nintendo's most famous and revered), and that the inclusion of Ridley would broaden the series's range. Overall, he is seen as one of the best Nintendo characters in general. In 2018, Watchmojo.com ranked him #1 on their "Top 10 Most Anticipated New Characters In Smash Ultimate" list.
Ridley (Metroid)
652308#1
Often considered one of the most memorable Nintendo villains, Ridley has been a mainstay of the series, having appeared (through various incarnations) in almost every "Metroid" game to date (all but "", "Metroid Prime Hunters" and ""). He has also appeared in the "Super Smash Bros." series, however, he had not been made a playable character until "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate" in 2018, making it also the first game overall to have Ridley as a playable character.
Ridley (Metroid)
652308#15
Ridley appears a few times in the "" comics from 1990. In these comics, he looks almost exactly as he appears in the NES version manual and is depicted as an individual of a full-fledged species of identical creatures, an attribute he employs to impersonate a judge of the same species as him. "Nintendo Power" featured two "Metroid" adaptations. The "Super Metroid" comic follows the plot of the video game of the same name over the course of sixty pages, while the "Metroid Prime" comic does the same across eighteen pages. In the "Metroid" e-manga created by Yoshio Sakamoto, Samus first meets Ridley as a child as he leads the attack on her home colony of K-2L. As Ridley observes the destruction of the colony, Samus approaches 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 tries to befriend him, desperate for assurance that everything will be all right. Ridley appears to display a moment's pity toward her before abruptly revealing his true nature by preparing to annihilate her, out of either bloodlust or mercy. Samus' mother Virginia, however, arrives in the nick of time amidst the confusion of the Pirate raid and pushes her daughter out of the way of Ridley's fiery breath, dying instantly in the process. This memory scars Samus for life, and she summarily vows to avenge her parents and destroy Ridley and all the Space Pirates.
Ridley (Metroid)
652308#7
Ridley returns in his Meta form once again in "", where he, along with the Space Pirate legion under his command, are corrupted by Dark Samus. He encounters and battles Samus on Norion, a Galactic Federation-occupied world, and the two fight while free-falling down an air shaft. Ridley is later supercharged with Phazon, becoming "Omega Ridley", and is charged with guarding the Leviathan Seed on the Space Pirate homeworld. He is confronted once again by Samus, and despite being defeated, he survives the fight and is later cured of his corruption after Dark Samus' defeat later on. Between the "Prime" trilogy and "", the Space Pirates reorganize on Zebes and hatch another plan to clone and weaponize the Metroids, while Ridley gradually begins to regenerate from his past injuries, gradually shedding his cybernetics. In the remake of the second game, "", Ridley, in his semi-regenerated form of "Proteus Ridley", attacks Samus on SR388 to steal the last remaining Metroid. Samus and the baby Metroid work together to defeat Ridley.
Ridley (Metroid)
652308#4
Ridley's status within the ranks of the Space Pirates is unclear, with some sources stating that he is the leader of the entire Space Pirate race, whereas others portray him as simply the Pirates' military commander or even a mere enforcer within the Pirate military ranks, subservient to Mother Brain or Space Pirate High Command. Regardless, he is consistently depicted as a ruthless and cunning tactician who never passes up an opportunity to bring his considerable ferocity to bear on the battlefield, opting to overwhelm his opponents with an unwavering onslaught of attacks from his mouth, claws, and tail. He is also incredibly cruel, actively taking pleasure in the killing and torment of others; at one point in the official manga he taunts Samus by claiming he may have devoured her mother's corpse after killing her, and a Space Pirate log entry in "Metroid Prime" notes that being the mainstay of the Pirate security force is "a job he will certainly relish."
Ridley (Metroid)
652308#11
One of Adam's final missions to Samus is to finish off Ridley, whom Adam fears might be more dangerous than the Metroids if left unchecked, and claims Samus is the only one capable of stopping him. However, Samus later discovers his corpse after he is killed, having had his energy drained by the Queen Metroid on the Bottle Ship. His mummified corpse turns up again in "Metroid Fusion" on the BSL station, after having apparently been removed from the Bottle Ship by the Galactic Federation and placed in a sub-zero storage room for further research (potentially into further bioweapon applications). It is later infected by an X Parasite, allowing it to gain the ability to transform into Ridley's likeness, known as . Samus later defeats the Ridley mimic and absorbs its Core-X, regaining her signature Screw Attack. What was left of the cloned Ridley's remains were destroyed along with the X when the BSL station crashed into SR388.
Ridley (Metroid)
27262788#17
is the archenemy of Samus Aran, an intelligent and sadistic dragon-like extraterrestrial that despite being killed multiple times by her, is always revived by the Space Pirates (or accidentally by the Galactic Federation in "") using cloning or robotics. Other than Samus and the titular Metroids, Ridley is the only character that has appeared consistently throughout most of the games in the series (the exceptions being "" for the Game Boy, "" for the GameCube, "Metroid Prime Hunters" for the Nintendo DS, and "" for the Nintendo 3DS). He is directly responsible for the invasion of Samus' home planet, and the death of her parents, and is the franchise's primary villain, despite not typically acting as the main antagonist in an individual game.
Characters in the Metroid series
176480#16
Mother Brain was also the primary villain in the "Captain N: The Game Master" TV show. A Metroid-lookalike enemy, called the Komayto, was encountered by Pit in "Kid Icarus" for the NES. In "", a fighting game developed by Team Ninja for the Nintendo 3DS, one stage is a replica of the arena in which Samus fights Ridley in "Metroid: Other M" and features both as assist characters; Samus, however, is not featured as a playable character in "Dimensions", as Team Ninja's Yosuke Hayashi stated in an interview that "it would be better to let her focus on her job rather than kicking everyone's butt in ["Dead or Alive: Dimensions"]". A Wii U launch game "Nintendo Land" has a mini-game based on the series called "Metroid Blast".
Metroid
23067300#2
"Metroid: Other M" is an action-adventure game with three-dimensional graphics. Players take control of series protagonist Samus Aran, a bounty hunter who investigates a derelict space station, known as the Bottle Ship. The main environment is the vessel interior, known as the Main Sector, along with the other environments that are contained in "sectors" or gigantic spheres within the ship: the Biosphere, a lush, tropical region; the Cryophere, an arctic environment; and the Pyrosphere, a heated, lava-filled area. The gameplay revolves around solving puzzles to uncover secrets, platform jumping, and shooting enemies. The game unfolds in a linear manner, and the in-game map highlights the next objective.
Metroid: Other M
27262788#10
Metroid Prime and its alternate form Dark Samus is the main antagonist of the "Prime" subseries. It is a strange, black-carapaced, red-eyed creature with a humanoid face within its shell and the ability to control and horribly mutate anything it attaches to. Metroid Prime appears in "Metroid Prime" as the final boss, and after its defeat, reforms itself by stealing Samus' Phazon Suit to become Dark Samus, a black-colored doppelgänger of Samus.
Characters in the Metroid series
176480#14
The "Metroid" series has been noted and praised for its unique style of video game music. Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka, composer of the original "Metroid", has said he wanted to make a score that made players feel like they were encountering a "living organism" and had no distinction between music and sound effects. The only time the main "Metroid" theme was heard was after Mother Brain is defeated; this is intended to give the player a catharsis. At all other times, no melodies are present in the game. The composer of "Super Metroid", Kenji Yamamoto, came up with some of the games' themes by humming them to himself while riding his motorcycle to work. He was asked to compose the music for "Metroid Prime" to reinforce the series continuity. "Metroid Prime"'s Dolby Pro Logic II surround sound was mixed by a member of Dolby. Developers from Retro Studios noted how the 6 MB memory budget for all sound effects of a level in "Metroid Prime" was crucial in producing a quality soundtrack, as each sound had to be of very high quality to be included. Composer Kenji Yamamoto utilizes heavy drums, piano, voiced chants, clangs of pipes, and electric guitar. "" took advantage of the increase in the amount of RAM that took place when the series switched from the GameCube to the Wii; this allowed for higher quality audio samples to be used and thus allowing a better overall audio quality. Kenji Yamamoto, who composed the music to "Super Metroid" and the "Prime" trilogy, copied the musical design of the original "Metroid" in "Metroid Prime 3", by keeping the music and themes dark and scary until the very end, when uplifting music is played during the credits.
Metroid
27262788#19
A hostile group known as , or , serve as the antagonists of the "Metroid" series. They are a group of "interstellar nomads" resembling humanoid reptiles, insects or crustaceans, who plunder colonies and ships and exist in an insect-like hive society. Considering their appearance throughout the series, especially the "Prime" series, they could be considered arthropod-like reptiles. A single Pirate may have many biological differences between individuals of their own species, most likely because of their willingness to perform self-experimentation and mutation. Important leaders include Ridley, the Space Pirate commander, Mother Brain, the biomechanical defense of Zebes controlled by the Space Pirates, and Kraid, a recurring boss. The organization also includes a winged, mantis-like species, the Ki Hunters. The Space Pirates are interested in Metroid research, especially in using Metroids for energy generation, as soldiers, and for experimentation – their Phazon experiments produced all the Metroid variants seen in the "Prime" games with the exception of "Metroid Prime" itself. The organization is destroyed during the climax of "Super Metroid", however a group within the Galactic Federation itself resurrects the Space Pirates, along with Ridley and the Metroids, to be used as bio-weapons explaining their continued presence in "Other M" and "Fusion".
Characters in the Metroid series
27262788#4
The Metroid larva is chronologically the last Metroid of its race following the events of "" and "". Samus describes how a Metroid larva hatched from an egg and immediately imprinted upon her, believing her to be its mother. She brought the larva to Ceres Space Colony, where scientists learned that they could harness its power. Just after she left the colony, she received a distress call and returned to find the scientists dead and the larva stolen. The Baby Metroid is used as the driving theme of the game as Samus tirelessly searches through Zebes and eventually the Space Pirate's base on Tourian for her Metroid hatchling. Once encountering the enlarged Baby Metroid in Space Pirate clutches, it attacks Samus and nearly drains all her energy. During the final battle against Mother Brain, the Baby Metroid comes to aid of Samus by recharging her energy, but Mother Brain destroys it in retaliation. Samus avenges its death by destroying Mother Brain with an extremely powerful weapon given to her by the Metroid. After a planet-wide self-destruction, Samus for once mourns the death of a Metroid.
Characters in the Metroid series
923180#0
Metroid Prime Hunters is a first-person action-adventure video game published by Nintendo and developed by its Redmond-based subsidiary Nintendo Software Technology for the Nintendo DS handheld game console. It was released in North America in March 2006, with other territories later. It is a part of the "Metroid" series, and the story takes place between the events of "Metroid Prime" and "". Players assume the role of series protagonist Samus Aran, a bounty hunter who investigates a mysterious message that originated from the Alimbic Cluster.
Metroid Prime Hunters