Neo-Ridley

Ridley-X is the ninth boss Samus faces aboard the Biologic Space Laboratories research station in Metroid Fusion.

Biography
The first time Samus sees Ridley on the Main Deck, he is frozen inside a locked-up, ice-cold room. Eventually, Samus enters the back of this room and sees Ridley shatter, with an X Parasite floating away from the body. As she continues exploring the station, she meets a Core-X in the form of Ridley, causing him to be known as Ridley-X. This "new" Ridley has extremely enlarged talons on both hands and feet. This may be the fact that the Core-X saw fit to make these improvements to create an obviously bigger and better Ridley.

The presence of an X-based Ridley and Space Pirates on board the BSL station is enigmatic, given that the pirates were thoroughly routed and Ridley defeated in Super Metroid.

It is possible that surviving pirates and some incarnation of Ridley invaded the station after the X broke loose, and were themselves infected. The BSL lab performs cloning experiments - with this in mind, it is possibly a Ridley clone which has been infected.

Given the X's ability to mimic their prey as well as infect it, perhaps the BSL station contained the remains of Ridley (in the deep freeze) and some Space Pirates, which the X then found and imitated. In the same manner, perhaps the X parasites had encountered the Space Pirates and Ridley previously on the planet below (possibly looking for more Metroid specimen(s) after the destruction of Zebes) and were imitating them based upon this information.

The battle
Ridley-X will ram itself into Samus, try to grab Samus with its talons, and shoot large moving fireballs from his mouth. His large size is also difficult to get around, making the battle requiring a fair amount of maneuvering. All the battle involves is firing Super Missiles or using the Charge Beam against the beast. The Charge Beam is preferred, because containing the Plasma Beam, the Charge Beam will pass through Ridley, causing continuous damage.

As he takes more damage, he will change colors from blue to purple to red. Once Ridley-X is defeated, he will transform into a Core-X. Once Samus defeats it, she obtains the Screw Attack, the second last power-up on the station. Also, Ridley X is the loudest boss in the game.

Gallery
[[Category:X]]