Mewtwo


 * For fighter info, see Mewtwo (SSBM).

Mewtwo (Japanese:ミュウツー, Myūtsū) is one of the 493 fictional species of Pokémon creatures hailing from the phenomenally popular and expansive Pokémon media empire. It was introduced as the "final Pokémon" in the very first games in the franchise, hence hailing from Pokémon's First Generation, and was introduced alongside Pikachu and Jigglypuff. Mewtwo enjoys a good degree of fame and popularity in the Pokémon fan community for being far more of a humanlike character than most of the other species, and it was included in Super Smash Bros. Melee as a playable character.

Character description
The very first Pokémon games were the Red and Blue versions of the main RPGs, released in Japan in 1996 for the original Game Boy, and it was these games and the original 151 species of Pokémon introduced herein that propelled the Pokémon franchise into an absolutely immense cultural phenomenon. Among the 151 Pokémon introduced in this First Generation period were the likes of Pikachu and Jigglypuff, and the final two Pokémon in the games were Mewtwo as Pokémon #150 and Mew as #151. Mewtwo was made to be far away the most powerful Pokémon of all during the First Generation, enough that its presence in the RPGs made the games unbalanced, giving it infamy until the playing field in the RPGs of subsequent generations were made far better balanced and Mewtwo was made less overpowered. Even today in the Fourth Generation of RPGs Pokémon Diamond & Pearl, however, Mewtwo remains one of the most powerful of all Pokémon species in battle.

The Pokémon franchise features several separate continuities within its various media, which are primarily the full series of Pokémon handheld RPGs and spin-off games, the Pokémon anime continuity consisting of a long-running anime with one movie adventure per season, and the various Pokémon manga series which primarily includes the Pokémon Adventures manga. In each of these continuities, Mewtwo is portrayed quite differently. In the first generation of RPGs, Mewtwo is a genetically twisted "super-clone" of the rare and powerful Mew, created by scientists looking to make the most powerful of all Pokémon, but they failed to endow Mewtwo with a caring heart. Mewtwo hides away in a cave near Misty's hometown of Cerulean, and the player's trainer protagonist may enter the cave and try to capture the very powerful being for himself. In the Pokémon Adventures manga, which is a different and rather darker take on the Pokémon franchise, Mewtwo was created much the same way, but it is infused with the DNA of both Mew and its scientist creator, a "Gym Leader" trainer named Blaine who works for the criminal Team Rocket organization in the manga series. At first a rogue, Mewtwo is later caught by Blaine, and it is later released.

Perhaps what most contributes to Mewtwo's popularity in the Pokémon community is its rather large and dramatic role in the anime continuity. Mewtwo in this appearance is physically structured different from its normal game appearance, with a larger body-to-head ratio, and it possesses an inhuman amount of psychic power, able to levitate itself with enough proficiency to simulate flight, remotely levitate and hurl about others with mere hand motions, employ powerful psychokinetic attacks, and use telepathy to communicate with people and Pokémon with full knowledge of human language; it can telepathically speak coherently like a human, with the simulated voice of an adult human male. This, coupled with a disposition that allows for the virtues and failings of a human being, makes Mewtwo seem a far more humanlike character than any typical specie of Pokémon; therefore, many people refer to Mewtwo as "he" rather than "it" like what is normal with most other Pokémon species, but, that said, it should still be rreferred to as "it".

Mewtwo, in its starring role in the first Pokémon feature film, Pokémon the First Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back, is portrayed as a Frankenstein-inspired laboratory experiment gone awry, destroying the laboratory of its creators in a rage over the idea that it is merely a lab specimen and a shadow of Mew, and it is portrayed in an outright villainous light as it plots and plans revenge against the humans on a global scale. [On the contrary, however, the original Japanese version of the film portrays Mewtwo as a confused, yet aggressive, individual who simply plans to prove that its existence has meaning, rather than trying to eradicate mankind.] When Mew appears, Mewtwo engages in an epic duel with it to prove that Pokémon clones can be superior, but when main anime trainer Ash Ketchum appears to selflessly sacrifice himself by throwing himself in the psychic crossfire, Mewtwo has a change of heart and sees that humans are indeed capable of virtue. Mewtwo uses its psychic powers to cleanse from everyone's mind all their immediate memories of it and departs for a natural place to live in peace. Mewtwo's anime saga continues in the OVA sequel released in 2002, Pokémon: Mewtwo Returns, where it must contend with its vengeful creators at Team Rocket looking to recapture and use it to take over the world, but Ash Ketchum once again appears and goes out of its way to help the super-clone. Mewtwo is deeply moved and personally thanks Ash, and it departs once again to live a night life amongst the rooftops of a "faraway city". Since then Mewtwo's holographic likeness has appeared in Pokémon's tenth anniversary special, The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon.

It is likely that this impressive track record among Pokémon species is what influenced HAL laboratory to include Mewtwo as a new playable character in Super Smash Bros. Melee along with mascots Pikachu and Jigglypuff, and this fighting game was developed and released while the Pokémon franchise was in its second generation in 2001. Mewtwo is physically modeled off its appearance in the Pokémon RPGs, rather than its larger-sized appearance in the anime continuity, and in the game's Japanese display in all versions Mewtwo is given spoken Japanese-language deep-voice samples as its victory taunts (compare with Marth and Roy). Unfortunately, Mewtwo's design as a fighter makes it one of the least able fighters in Melee, ironic considering its immense power and battling prowess in the normal Pokémon games. In spite of that, Mewtwo remains forever popular and famous in the Pokémon fan community, and considered by many fans to be the most missed from Melee.

As a playable character

 * Main article: Mewtwo (SSBM)

Mewtwo makes its Smash-series debut as an unlockable character in Melee; it is interesting to note that it could have appeared in the previous game in some form but didn't. It is much more difficult to unlock than most other secret characters in Melee, however; it can be battled to be unlocked after either playing 20 man-hours worth of Vs. Mode matches (meaning if four players at a time always play, it will take five hours), or playing 700 Vs. mode matches. Many believe the second method, though taking long to complete, is easier than the first by a fair margin.

Mewtwo uses its trademark psychic powers as its special B moves: its B move is Shadow Ball, a chargeable sphere of Ghost-element energy that can be unleashed anytime as a powerful projectile, similar to Samus' Charge Shot, but Shadow Ball follows a much more jagged path in the direction it is shot out, and characters in the vicinity of Mewtwo's charging Shadow Ball can be damaged; its Smash B is Confusion, a minor Psychic-type trick that spins and trips up an opponent; its Up & B is Teleport, which is a non-attacking Psychic-type third jump that is long and safe; and its Down & B move is Disable, a Normal-type move which affects an opponent in front of it and leaves the opponent in the dazed state that normally occurs when a shield is broken. Shadow Ball aside, these moves bear little resemblance to their appearances in Pokémon RPGs.

Mewtwo's fighting style is modeled around its psychic power. It never walks, instead hovering across the ground (and as such makes no sound while moving in the Flat Zone) and it never holds anything, instead making things float near it and nearly all of its attacks are either made of or enhanced by psychic energy, with only a few attacks being purely physical.

Mewtwo, at the highest meta-game, holds the dubious honor of being one of the worst fighter in Melee, holding bottom place in the current Tier list. This is attributable to its being easy to hit and it's ability to be knocked out at lower percentages.. Mewtwo has a large collection of interesting tricks: its throws can kill, its projectile is powerful, it features a superbly long and safe recovery that allows it to edge-guard by jumping off the stage after the opponent and being able to recover afterward, it has a long wavedash, its airdodge turns it invisible so opponents can't tell which direction it's going in, it can moonwalk, and its DAir is a meteor smash.

In the Pokémon RPGs, every Pokémon species has an extremely rare alternatively-colored version, and such individuals are called Shiny Pokémon. Shiny Mewtwo's coloration is green instead of purplish pink, and this is one of Mewtwo's alternate costumes in the game.

In Single-player
Mewtwo does not appear specifically in the game's single-player Adventure mode. it is only featured in three of the Event Matches:


 * Event 40: All-Star Match 4: Mewtwo is the fourth of five opponents you must fight in this series of staged battles. Your character battles it on the Final Destination stage, and your character has 2 stock while Mewtwo has 1. With a timer of four minutes, you must defeat it and the other five characters one-by-one with the overall time and life you have: Marth, Luigi, and Jigglypuff beforehand, and Mr. Game and Watch afterwards.
 * Event 44: Mewtwo Strikes!: In this unique match, your character is pit against Zelda in an untimed match on the Battlefield stage, where each character has one stock, but she must be kept alive. Fifteen seconds into the match, the real opponent, Mewtwo, will appear and join Zelda, and you must KO Mewtwo without KO'ing Zelda.
 * Event 51: The Showdown: The final Event Match pits your character against a team of Giga Bowser, Mewtwo, and Ganondorf on the Final Destination stage (friendly fire turned off), with all four characters having 3 stock each.

Trophies
By tradition, Mewtwo as a playable character is featured on its personal 3 trophies. Its normal trophy is acquired by beating the Classic mode with Mewtwo on any difficulty, and its Smash Red and Smash Blue trophies are acquired the same way by beating the Adventure and All-Star modes, respectively.

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Mewtwo along with Roy, Dr. Mario, Pichu, and, to a lesser extent, Young Link, do not return in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. It's replaced by Lucario, a Pokémon that also has starred in a movie and is capable of communicating via telepathy. Lucario's Aura Sphere is even seen to operate very similarly to Mewtwo's Shadow Ball. Lucario's moves are also very bulky and, similar to Mewtwo's psychic traits, Lucario's moves focus on his "Aura" abilities. However, with the exception of their forward Smash and the aforementioned Aura Sphere/Shadow Ball, all of their attacks are considerably different from each other. Mewtwo is the only character who was not a clone in Super Smash Bros. Melee to be excluded from its sequel.

Removal
Mewtwo has found to have been partially programmed, possessing its own character model and victory tune (as did Roy, suggesting they were both further along production than other removed characters); however, unlike Roy, there was a Classic Mode image containing Mewtwo. This picture was discovered when the game was hacked, thus suggesting that Mewtwo was slated to be in Brawl, but later removed for unknown reasons. It is also possible that this data simply existed for referential purposes by the programmers, or that data was imported from Melee for some reason. Further hacking has revealed that Mewtwo's sound when selected on the character selection screen is also intact, supporting the theory he was planned for Brawl but scrapped in development.

Trophy
Mewtwo does, however, appear in the finished Brawl as a collectible trophy. You can obtain this trophy by completing All-Star mode on Intense difficulty.