Mewtwo

Mewtwo (, Mewtwo) is the Genetic Pokémon from the series. It debuted in the series' first generation, and is present as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Melee, Super Smash Bros. 4, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Origin
Mewtwo is a Psychic-type Pokémon that debuted in, and is categorized within the Pokédex at #150 as the "Genetic Pokémon". Unlike the overwhelming majority of Pokémon, Mewtwo was artificially created: a team of scientists performed genetic recombination on a sample of DNA derived from the Mew in order to create the most powerful Pokémon in existence. Its creation is documented in a researcher's journals scattered across an abandoned mansion on.

However, this process resulted in Mewtwo's appearance and mentality drastically differing from Mew's. Despite being a feline with embryonic features like Mew, it has a large, humanoid physique with a gray and purple coloration, instead of the pink, petite appearance of its genetic relative. Mewtwo also lacks Mew's capability to learn every, , and move, but its modified genome results in its base  total noticeably exceeding Mew's.

Although Mewtwo is reclusive like Mew, this is the only personality trait they share: due to being created solely for battle, Mewtwo has a tendency to be vicious and, upon encountering an opponent, fights savagely while thinking only of defeating them. In comparison, Mew has a gentle temperament and willingness to reveal itself to the pure of heart. After violently escaping captivity, Mewtwo decided to seclude itself from civilization; most notably, it has been seen residing in the deepest depths of 's, a small cave within ' , and a craggy, barren alternate dimension that is accessible via.

Due to being an immensely powerful genetic relative of a Mythical Pokémon, Mewtwo has the status of a in spite of its man-made origin. In-game, Mewtwo was designed to be the final Pokémon of Generation I, and has traits that highlight its status as such: not only is it difficult to find and capture, it belongs to the notoriously powerful Psychic type and sports the highest base stat total in the entire game, with especially high Special and Speed stats. Due to being arguably the strongest Pokémon in existence at the time, as well as its leading role in the franchise's first movie, Mewtwo quickly garnered a good degree of fame and popularity among the Pokémon fanbase. Since then, Mewtwo's power has diminished due to various mechanical changes, although owing to its Legendary Pokémon status, it still remains significantly stronger than most common Pokémon.

After receiving as a  in, Mewtwo's prominence underwent a resurgence in , with it being among the initial handful of Pokémon to gain access to. Unlike most Pokémon who can Mega Evolve, it has two Mega Evolutions, a trait shared with Charizard. In Mewtwo's case, it will Mega Evolve into the larger and bulkier Mega Mewtwo X while holding Mewtwonite X, which also changes it into a Psychic/Fighting-type. Conversely, it will Mega Evolve into the smaller and lighter Mega Mewtwo Y while holding Mewtwonite Y.

In the Pokémon anime and movies, is depicted as having been cloned from an eyelash of Mew and created at 's behest. Given a more sympathetic backstory than in the games, Mewtwo befriends a group of clones as a child, but the cloning process results in their premature deaths—with the exception of Mewtwo itself, due to having Mew's eternal life force. The trauma of losing its friends, coupled with being dismissed as a science experiment by its creators, causes Mewtwo to develop hatred towards humans and Pokémon subservient to humans. Thus, Mewtwo sets out to prove itself superior to natural lifeforms by creating an army of cloned Pokémon created from the genetic source material of various Pokémon trainers' Pokémon.

However, Mewtwo has a change of heart after witnessing sacrifice himself to stop a battle between its clone army and their originals; Mewtwo subsequently realizes that life is defined by one's actions instead of their origins. To this end, it begins to protect its fellow clones after whisking them away to 's, a mountain that is virtually inaccessible by humans. After stopping Team Rocket's attempt at recapturing it and subsequently erasing their memories of its existence, Mewtwo decides to travel the world in order to avoid detection and find a purpose in its life, whereas its fellow clones decide to live peacefully among natural Pokémon in the wild. This Mewtwo reappears in a episode of Pokémon Journeys.

Despite the species' one-of-a-kind nature originally, other Mewtwo have appeared in the and across the various Pokémon continuities ever since. Two other Mewtwo have fully-voiced appearances: one in the sixteenth movie that is capable of undergoing Mega Evolution, and one in both the  spin-off game and the live-action movie of the same name.

The gender of Mewtwo is unknown, although this is not depicted consistently in other media. In the anime, the telepathically-generated voice for the first Mewtwo is male (which is reflected in the Super Smash Bros. series), whereas the second Mewtwo featured in the sixteenth movie has a feminine voice. In comparison, the Detective Pikachu film's Mewtwo possesses an artificial, androgynous voice, but is referred to with male pronouns nonetheless.

In Super Smash Bros.
Mewtwo does not appear in Super Smash Bros. in any capacity. However, according to a page on Smabura-Ken (the game's Japanese site), it was planned for inclusion in the roster as a playable fighter, but was removed from the game along with Bowser and King Dedede for unknown reasons.

In an official poll held on Smabura-Ken regarding characters for a potential sequel, Mewtwo placed sixth with 35 votes; it was tied with James Bond from GoldenEye 007.

As a playable character
Mewtwo made its Super Smash Bros. series debut as an unlockable character in Super Smash Bros. Melee. It can be unlocked after playing 20 cumulative hours of Versus Mode matches (5 hours for 4 players) or playing 700 Versus Mode matches.

Mewtwo is very floaty and possesses a decent combo game, a very good wavedash and grab game, above-average dodges, a strong projectile in Shadow Ball, and one of the best recoveries in Teleport. Mewtwo also possesses a reflection-capable move in Confusion, while Disable stuns any close-range opponent that directly faces Mewtwo. On the other hand, Mewtwo has a flawed combination of large size and light weight; this not only results in it being an easy target to hit and combo, but also especially easy to KO despite its recovery and defensive prowess. Mewtwo also has general awkwardness in its mobility and moveset, the latter of which is burdened with minimal utility and a small number of KOing options.

As a result of its weaknesses and flaws outweighing its strengths, Mewtwo infamously sat in the bottom-tier of Melees tier list for most of the game's lifespan, to the point that it was even considered the worst character in the entire game at several points in Melees lifespan. However, the efforts of resulted in Mewtwo being reassessed as a low-tier character; this has been reflected with its current ranking of 20th out of 26 on the tier list, placing it in the D tier.

Trophies
As a playable character, Mewtwo has three trophies - a main trophy acquired by clearing with Mewtwo on any difficulty, and the two Smash trophies are by clearing  and All-Star Mode, respectively.

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Mewtwo did not return in Super Smash Bros. Brawl as a playable character, despite not being a clone like the other cut characters. Although Mewtwo was unpopular among Melee's competitive community, its departure nevertheless resulted in a significant amount of fan outcry, as the majority of players saw it as an unjustified cut. Brawl also introduced, a fellow Pokémon series fighter, who was widely perceived by fans as being a replacement for Mewtwo around the time of Brawl's release; however, other than their similar neutral specials Shadow Ball and Aura Sphere, their movesets are vastly different.

Unfinished data
While Mewtwo does not appear as a playable character in Brawl, there are several empty files on the game disc bearing its name. These include a graphic effects file, a victory theme , and a Wii Remote selection sound (which no other cut character has). While it is possible that some of these files are leftover data imported from Melee for referential purposes, the prevailing theory is that Mewtwo was planned to be playable, but ended up being cut. As Mewtwo has the most unused content of any scrapped character, it can be assumed that Mewtwo was a late cut to Brawl's roster.

Trophy
Mewtwo appears in Brawl as a collectible trophy, obtained by completing All-Star Mode on Intense difficulty. The trophy describes Mewtwo's appearance in the Pokémon games, but makes no reference whatsoever to its appearance in Melee.

As a playable character
During development of the game, an appearance of Mewtwo's was reportedly considered by Masahiro Sakurai. During the Pokémon X and Y Developer Roundtable at E3 2013, an audience member asked if developers wanted to see Mega Mewtwo in the next Super Smash Bros. game. While the developers stated that they had nothing to report about the question, Sakurai, who was in the audience at the time, reportedly said "We are thinking about it."

Despite this, Mewtwo did not initially make the final cut of the game as a playable character, returning only as a collectible trophy. Mega Mewtwo X and Mega Mewtwo Y also appear together as a singular trophy in.

Mewtwo was later announced in the Super Smash Bros. for Wii U: 50-Fact Extravaganza as a playable character, becoming the first fighter in Super Smash Bros. history to be made available as downloadable content.

Consumers who registered both and  on Club Nintendo before March 31, 2015 could download it for free as of April 15th, while others were able to purchase it beginning on April 28th. Its moveset is mostly unchanged from Melee, aside from the addition of its own Final Smash, consisting of Mega Evolving into Mega Mewtwo Y before performing its,.

Upon its return to the series, Mewtwo was poorly regarded by the competitive scene, as its already light weight was lowered further and its already large hurtbox became slightly taller. However, Mewtwo did see improvements to Confusion and Disable, two of its most arguably least used moves: the former now functions as a traditional reflector, while the latter's stun effect has a longer duration.

However, Mewtwo underwent a considerable turning point thanks to game updates. Update 1.1.3 increased Mewtwo's grounded and aerial speeds, as well as improving its already potent forward smash and aerial attacks. Although update 1.1.5 provided very few changes, they were effective regardless: Mewtwo's weight was marginally increased, its already fast dashing speed was increased to the point of becoming the seventh fastest in the game, and both its up smash and neutral aerial were made safer thanks to adjustments to their ending lag and hitbox sizes, respectively.

As a result of these very substantial buffs, opinions on Mewtwo drastically improved, as it has managed to earn some noteworthy representation and consistently achieves high placings at all levels of play. Thanks to this newfound success, Mewtwo is currently ranked 10th out of 54 on the tier list, placing it in the A tier and assessing it as a top-tier character.

Trophies
After being added as downloadable content, Mewtwo gained the following two trophies:

Prior to being added as downloadable content, Mewtwo only had the following two trophies:

As a playable character
Mewtwo returns as an unlockable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Much like in Melee, it is one of the very last characters to be unlocked, as all three of its unlock methods (Smash battles, 's unlock tree, and World of Light) designate it as one of the last characters encountered.

Trivia

 * Like Charizard in Super Smash Bros. 4 and Lucario, Mewtwo draws inspiration from a particular member of its species depicted in the Pokémon anime. In Mewtwo's case, it is based on the from Pokémon: The First Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back and the TV special Mewtwo Returns, although it also makes some references to the  from Mewtwo — Prologue to Awakening and Genesect and the Legend Awakened:
 * It is voiced by Masachika Ichimura in Super Smash Bros. Melee, the Japanese voice actor for the first Mewtwo, which is emulated by Keiji Fujiwara in SSB4. Its quotes in the Japanese versions of both games have it boast about its power and question its existence, much like the first Mewtwo did on several occasions.
 * Despite its two counterparts having English voice actors, Mewtwo from Super Smash Bros. series has yet to receive a proper English voice actor. In non-Japanese versions, Mewtwo's voice clips are mostly modified grunts from its respective Japanese voice actor. It shares this trait with Cloud Strife, the Luminary, and Sephiroth.
 * Mewtwo is the only one of the four who does not hail from Square Enix, and is also the only one who is not a third-party character.
 * It can use like the first Mewtwo. Its presence in Mewtwo's moveset is notable, as it appeared in the first movie before it even appeared in the.
 * It can undergo into Mega Mewtwo Y like the second Mewtwo.
 * It can use its signature move,, like the second Mewtwo. However, Psystrike has a unique design and functions differently in the Super Smash Bros. series compared to how it looks and functions in the games and the anime.
 * Incidentally, Psystrike's animation was updated in to resemble its depiction in the Super Smash Bros. series.
 * Its character introduction tagline in SSB4, "Mewtwo Strikes Back!", references The First Movie's full English title.
 * Its Boxing Ring character title, "A Legend Reawakens", references Genesect and the Legend Awakened's English title.
 * Mewtwo is the only playable in the Super Smash Bros. series. It is also the only playable Pokémon without evolutionary relatives and whose gender is unknown.
 * Despite this, it does possess a form of kinship with another Pokémon. In Mewtwo's case, it is one half of the.
 * Mewtwo's status as a lightweight in the Super Smash Bros. series contradicts its weight in the, where it is listed as weighing 269 pounds/122 kg. This is seemingly attributed to its telekinetically-induced anti-gravity. A similar case applies to Rosalina.
 * Mewtwo and Lucario are the only playable Pokémon whose on-screen appearances do not involve them emerging from a.
 * Mewtwo is the only playable Pokémon in the Super Smash Bros. series who is not voiced by its international voice actors in non-Japanese versions. Pikachu, Pichu and Charizard retain their Japanese voice actors in almost all international media.
 * In all its appearances, Mewtwo only holds one item with its hands. In this case, it is the Parasol while descending. Otherwise, it uses telekinesis to make items float in front of it.
 * By default, Mewtwo has the fastest air speed of every Melee newcomer.
 * Mewtwo also has the 3rd fastest air speed to Jigglypuff and Yoshi, despite having the same air speed as the latter in Melee, thus also making it the second fastest Pokémon character in every Smash game where it is playable.
 * Mewtwo is the only character cut in the transaction from Melee to Brawl that is not a moveset clone of another character.
 * Mewtwo is the only playable character to be known to be planned for more than one installment without being playable, those being the original Super Smash Bros. and Brawl.