Mewtwo (SSBM)

Mewtwo (, Mewtwo) is an unlockable character in Super Smash Bros. Melee. It is one of eleven playable characters that can be unlocked in the game. It is voiced by in the game, reprising his role from the Japanese dub of Pokémon: The First Movie - Mewtwo Strikes Back.

Mewtwo currently ranks 20th on the Melee tier list, in the D tier, which is its worst placement in the whole series. Its positives include a long and safe recovery, potent chaingrabbing abilities, a large pool of mixup options, decent combo abilities, and among the best throws in the game. This gives it a decent advantage state to utilize and threatening once it begins to combo foes. However, Mewtwo suffers from an unusual combination of being a large target and a lightweight; this, combined with its floatiness, makes it vulnerable to early KOs. Additionally, Mewtwo lacks safe and reliable KOing options, with most of them having little reach, and many weak attacks, giving it relatively fewer approach and offensive options as other characters.

How to unlock
To unlock Mewtwo, the player has to play 20 hours of VS. matches. The time is reduced by the number of human players in said matches; 1 player requires 20 total hours, 2 players require 10 total hours, 3 players require 6 hours and 40 minutes, and 4 players require 5 total hours. The time can be further reduced to 4 hours by playing Lightning Melee, which speeds up the in-game timer to 125% of normal speed.

Alternatively, the player can play 700 VS. matches to completion to get a chance to fight Mewtwo.

When fought, Mewtwo appears on, with the music from Poké Floats playing.

Attributes
Mewtwo defies any typical character archetype; despite being a big target with some powerful moves and a very high air speed, Mewtwo has a rather slow dash, a low weight and a low falling speed. As a result of these traits, Mewtwo has among the longest wavedashes in the game, but a very poor SHFFL, despite its low lag and high speed aerials. Mewtwo also can effectively moonwalk, potentially aiding its edgeguard game.

Among Mewtwo's primary strengths is its versatile grab game. Despite possessing a merely average grab range, Mewtwo's throws can serve a variety of purposes; its forward throw is good for racking up damage or starting combos, while its down throw can potentially start chainthrows or be used as potential combo starters in tandem with one of its tilts. Mewtwo's back and up throws are also among the most powerful in the game, and both can KO reliably on some characters at 100%; the differences in their trajectories also gives Mewtwo varied options against both fast fallers and floaty characters (the up throw works better against the latter, while the back works better against the former).

Mewtwo also has interesting approach and combo options. Despite having among the worse SHFFLs, Mewtwo's high air speed, low falling speed, and fast, low lag, high hitstun aerials also gives it plenty of options in the air, easily and effectively comboing against many characters. Mewtwo can also perform double-jump cancels, which, when combined with L-Cancelling, is an exceptional substitute for SHFFLing, as Mewtwo can quickly perform a Forward Aerial and follow up with another option. Mewtwo also has a very long wavedash (the third longest in the game), making techniques such as wave-smashing and wave-grabbing considerably more useful for Mewtwo.

Mewtwo also has rather good range. Its forward smash can extend relatively far, and all of its tilts have long, disjointed hitboxes, allowing Mewtwo to effectively attack from a distance, especially when compounded with its long wavedash. Mewtwo also has one of Melee's strongest projectiles in Shadow Ball. When fully charged, it can KO reliably at roughly 100%; its jagged path also can make it difficult to dodge, and its recoil can potentially extend Mewtwo's recovery.

Mewtwo also has an outstanding recovery. While it cannot harm edgehoggers, a combination of a low falling speed, a high air speed, among the best jumping prowess, and long distance with its Teleport give Mewtwo a very long and safe recovery. Additionally, its neutral aerial slightly slows down its movement in the air, and slightly charged Shadow Balls can give recoil sufficient enough to send Mewtwo backwards a good distance. Lastly, its Confusion attack can act as a second jump (when used in the opposite direction of its momentum) and Disable can be used to stall its descent.

Mewtwo's biggest flaw is its frailty. A combination of a large frame and floatiness makes Mewtwo easy to juggle and KO. Mewtwo's defense game is also mixed; its air dodge makes it invisible and opponents cannot guess where it will appear and its rolling dodges are fast and cover much distance, but Mewtwo's large frame makes it prone to shield stabbing, and its spot dodge is also rather poor. Mewtwo also has possibly the worst tech ability in the game; although its rolling tech covers a long range, it is very slow compared to that of other characters, and as a consequence, Mewtwo is particularly easy to tech-chase.

Mewtwo also suffers from a lack of reliable KO options; all of its strongest moves have either poor range or low speed. Its back and up throws are powerful, but they require Mewtwo to grab the opponent first, and the latter throw's KOing capabilities are extremely dependent on the opponent's falling speed (for example, and  would survive the longest despite having the third highest vertical endurance). While having a wide variety of other KO potential attacks, most of its attacks suffer from range and/or speed problems, such as its forward air, down smash, down air, and Shadow Ball. Mewtwo also has highly situational specials. While Confusion can temporarily distract opponents, it has high ending lag and relatively little use; additionally, while it can reflect projectiles, they still remain property of the original character's (meaning they won't hurt whoever it came from). Disable only works in close ranges, and cannot combo effectively into other attacks.

Version history
NTSC 1.01

Moveset
For a gallery of Mewtwo's hitboxes, see here.

Battering item special moves
For its dash attack while holding a battering item, Mewtwo spins the item in front of itself for a total of 20 possible hits, overall dealing more damage but much less knockback than other characters' dash attacks. Unlike most characters' dash attacks, Mewtwo's dash attack while holding a Lip's Stick does not produce any of the "magic dust" that Flowers the opponent.

Stats
NTSC

PAL

Most historically significant players

 * See also: Category:Mewtwo players (SSBM)


 * - A player with many secondaries, with Mewtwo being one of his most notable. Won and placed 33rd at  with solo Mewtwo.
 * - Considered to be the best Mewtwo player of all time, created the influental Shadowclaw combo video. Placed 13th at, 17th at , and 33rd at and.
 * - Best Mewtwo player in Japan and among the best in the world. Placed 7th at and 33rd at . Won sets against, ,  and.

Tier placement and history
Mewtwo has traditionally placed very low in tier lists, with a minuscule playerbase dedicated to using it. It was initially seen as the worst character in the game, according to the first tier list (dated October 2002), and hovered around the bottom 4 spots for many years, once even falling back into last place (eighth tier list; July 2006). Many competitive players immediately noticed its unfavorable combinations of being a floaty lightweight without many KO moves, awkward neutral game and hitbox placements, and poor disadvantage state, and simply wrote Mewtwo off.

Mewtwo eventually moved out of the bottom tier due to increasing tournament placings by, who would not only eventually be considered the best Mewtwo player of all time, but become one of the best players in the world in his prime. However, Taj's success as a player was not anchored on Mewtwo alone - he relied almost exclusively on his co-main late into brackets unless he knew his opponent to be very unfamiliar with the Mewtwo matchup. This indicated that even back then, Mewtwo was not viable as a solo main and faltered at the highest level.

Eventually, Taj would become far less active, leaving the character without good representation for several years. However, players such as and  have recently represented Mewtwo in larger competitive tournaments, despite not reaching the same success as Taj. Mewtwo still sits at 20th place on the most recent tier list; with these two players innovating with the character, the competitive Melee community recognizes that Mewtwo has some potential despite its tier placement. However, it is unlikely that this will carry Mewtwo much higher than it currently is.

In
Mewtwo can appear in Classic Mode as an ordinary opponent, as an ally or in a team with Ness or Bowser in team battles or as a metal character in the penultimate stage. In Mewtwo's appearances, it either appears on Pokémon Stadium or, with the Poké Floats theme playing; when fighting alongside , however, it appears in Fourside, and when fighting alongside , it appears on.

In Adventure Mode
Adventure Mode makes no concessions to Mewtwo when it is unlocked, making it the only character that does not appear alongside the many Pikachus in Stage 7.

In All-Star Mode
In All Star Mode, Mewtwo and its allies are fought on Battlefield, as all other Pokémon stages are already used by and. On the stage, the music from Poké Floats plays.

In Event Matches
Mewtwo appears in the following Event Matches:
 * Event 40: All-Star Match 4: Mewtwo is the fourth opponent fought in this series of staged battles. The selected character battles it on the stage with a stock of 2 while Mewtwo has 1. With a timer of four minutes, the player must defeat it and the other four characters one-by-one with the overall time and damage:, , , and.
 * Event 44: Mewtwo Strikes!: In this event, the player is initially placed on Battlefield, against . After fifteen seconds, however, Mewtwo appears on stage and will fight the player. The player's goal is to KO Mewtwo; while Zelda can be attacked, KOing her will result in failure.
 * Event 51: The Showdown: In the game's final event match, the player must fight against a team consisting of Mewtwo, and Giga Bowser. All characters have three lives, with no time limit.

Trophies
In addition to the normal trophy about Mewtwo as a character, there are two trophies about it as a fighter, unlocked by completing the Adventure and All-Star Modes respectively with Mewtwo on any difficulty:

Trivia

 * Mewtwo picks up and uses items via its telekinetic power, never actually touching them outside grasping the Parasol while falling. One of its idle poses involves it spinning its held item around.
 * This results in Mewtwo having poor usage of the ; unlike all other characters, it spins the Hammer sideways around itself, and so is vulnerable from above while using it.
 * Oddly, when air dodging with an item, the item is visible while Mewtwo is not, spinning in a tight, flickering circle once every 4 frames.
 * When hit, shooting a charged Super Scope blast, or using Disable, Mewtwo's irises turn yellow, similar to how 's body turns yellow when shooting charged Super Scope shots.
 * Mewtwo being of light weight (85 units) contradicts its Pokédex information, where it is supposed to outweigh any non-overweight human. In fact, it is outweighed by every human character in Melee (excluding, , and in PAL regions). This is explained in one of its trophies as a result of it constantly using its psychic powers to stay afloat.
 * Mewtwo's fully charged Shadow Ball is seen hitting in the introduction to Melee, making it one of the five hidden characters, along with, , Young Link, and , to have some kind of involvement in the intro.
 * Mewtwo, like Marth and Roy, when faced in Classic or All-Star mode, is fought on a stage that does not match its universe (either or ). However, the music that plays when fighting it is from Poké Floats.
 * Mewtwo is also the only character in Melee whose down smash only hits on one side; this concept has been used by several characters in later games.
 * Mewtwo is the only Legendary Pokémon that existed at the time of the release of Melee that wasn't a Poké Ball Pokémon in that game.
 * Mewtwo's design in this game looks quite different than in later games from SSB4 onwards; it's design lines up more with Ken Sugimori's original art for Mewtwo from Pokémon Red and Green, with a larger head and bulging eyes, smaller and thinner body, shorter tail and a slightly hunchbacked appearance, while later appearances portrayed it as being more humanoid in appearance, with a slightly smaller head and eyes, a taller, muscular, and more upright body, with a longer tail as it appears in Pokémon: The First Movie.
 * Mewtwo is the first playable Pokémon character whose alternate costumes merely change its color altogether, rather than giving it an accessory for it to wear.
 * Mewtwo's All-Star congratulations image is likely a reference to Giygas in EarthBound Beginnings (known as "Giegue" in the North American localization), due to it bearing a strong resemblance to Giygas's appearance in that game.
 * One of Mewtwo's Japanese quotes, "Why am I here?", is a well-known one among Japanese Pokémon fans, as throughout the Japanese version of the first Pokémon movie, Mewtwo Strikes Back, it asks this question and others regarding its own existence.
 * Despite its light weight in Melee, Mewtwo is still the heaviest Pokémon fighter in the game. This would change with the additions of Lucario, Ivysaur and Charizard in Brawl.
 * Furthermore, Mewtwo actually weighs more in Melee than it does in its later Smash appearances.