Mewtwo

For fighter info, see Mewtwo (SSBM).

Mewtwo
Official artwork of Mewtwo.
Universe	Pokémon
Debut	Pokémon (1998, Red/Blue) (1999, Yellow)
Appears in	SSBM
Console of origin	Game Boy
Species	Mewtwo
Eye color	Purple
Homeworld	Kanto

Mewtwo (ミュウツー, Myūtsū) is a fictional creature from the phenomenally popular and expansive Pokémon media empire. It was introduced as the "final Pokémon" in the very first game in the franchise. Mewtwo enjoys a good degree of fame and popularity in the Pokémon fan community for being a far more human-like character than most of the other species, and it was included in Super Smash Bros. Melee as a playable character.

Character Description

Among the 151 Pokémon introduced in this First Generation period were the likes of Pikachu and Jigglypuff, and the final Pokémon in the game were Mewtwo Pokémon #150 and Mew as #151. Mewtwo was made to be by far the most powerful Pokémon of all during the First Generation, to such an extent that its presence in the RPGs made the games unbalanced, giving it infamy until the playing field in the RPGs of subsequent generations were better balanced and Mewtwo deemed less overpowered. Even today in the Fourth Generation of RPGs, Mewtwo remains among the most powerful of all Pokémon species, currently belonging to the "uber" tier in competitive battle.

Mewtwo is a fairly anthropomorphic creature with a pale purple body and vaguely feline qualities. In the movie, Mewtwo can talk and can control its evil clones to fight the original Pokémon to the death. Like all Pokémon, Mewtwo's design concepts are illustrated in the Pokémon RPGs via the various Pokédex entries available within the games. The Pokédex states it was artificially created by horrific genetic manipulations of DNA from the legendary Pokémon Mew by human scientists, and was created with a body endowed with psychic battle abilities raised to the ultimate level. As a result, this one of a kind man-made species is one of the most powerful entities in the world. However, the scientific power of humans failed to endow it with a compassionate heart. Thus, it has one of the most savage hearts among Pokémon, carrying a disposition vastly different from that of Mew, and thinks only of defeating its foes. Its cold glowing eyes strike fear into the hearts of its enemies. It usually remains motionless to conserve energy, so that it may unleash its full power 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 cerulean cave near Misty's hometown of Cerulean City 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 eventually 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 psycho-kinetic 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 human-like character than any typical species of Pokémon.

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.

In Super Smash Bros. Melee

As a Playable Fighter

Main article: Mewtwo (SSBM)

Mewtwo made it's 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 unlocked after either playing 20 cumulative hours of Vs. Mode matches (5 hours for four players), or playing 700 Vs. mode matches.

An easy way to unlock Mewtwo is to leave a versus match overnight. Upon return, just finish the match, and the Mewtwo challenge will begin. Defeat the challenge to unlock Mewtwo.

In the Pokémon RPGs, from Pokémon Gold and Silver onward, every Pokémon species has a 1/8192 chance of being alternatively-colored, and such individuals are called "Shiny Pokémon" by fans. The shiny Mewtwo's coloration is green instead of purplish pink, and this is one of Mewtwo's alternate costumes in the game.

As a Collectible Trophy

By tradition, Mewtwo as a playable character is featured on its personal three 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. Its Classic mode trophy reads:

A genetically created Pokémon, Mewtwo is the result of many long years of research by a solitary scientist. Although Mewtwo was cloned from the genes of the legendary Pokémon Mew, its size and character are far different than its ancestor. Its battle abilities have been radically heightened, making it ruthless.

• Pokémon Red & Pokémon Blue, 9/98

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Mewtwo trophy render.

As a Collectible Trophy

Mewtwo appears in Brawl as a collectible trophy. This trophy can be obtained by completing All-Star mode on Intense difficulty. The trophy describes Mewtwo's appearance in the Pokémon games, and makes no reference whatsoever to its appearance in Melee:

A Genetic Pokémon. This legendary Pokémon was based on a recombination of Mew's DNA, created by a scientist after years of research. However, Mewtwo greatly differs from Mew in both size and personality and is said to be the most twisted and savage Pokémon ever. Mewtwo has incredibly high combat abilities and uses Psychic- type attacks.

• Pokémon Red/Blue
• Pokémon Diamond/Pearl

Hacked Data

Hacking has revealed Mewtwo to have been partially programmed, possessing its own character model and victory tune.^{(citation needed)} It is 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 it was planned for Brawl but was scrapped in development.^{(citation needed)} Other sounds have reportedly been found such as Shadow Ball, Teleport, and a loud yelling noise with Mewtwo's voice, possibly suggesting he even had a Final Smash programmed.^{(citation needed)} This is possible proof that Mewtwo was left out due to time constraints. After this, The Smash Back Room played a mass joke on Smashboards, even making a character discussion thread about Mewtwo and posting about how overpowered he supposedly was.^{(citation needed)}

Another possibility is that the programmers of Brawl decided that they wanted a Generation IV Pokémon (in this case, Lucario) instead of Mewtwo, due to the large number of Generation I Pokémon that were confirmed to be playable. This is consistent with the pattern of characters being added to represent the latest game in their franchise. Other examples of this include the addition of Lucas to advertise Mother 3 and the removal of Roy, who had been the hero of the most recent Fire Emblem game when Melee was released, in favor of adding Ike, the hero of the most recent Fire Emblem games when Brawl was released.

Trivia

• Mewtwo was planned to be playable in Super Smash Bros. for the N64; unfortunately, it was left out due to time constraints. It shares this trait with Peach, Bowser, Pit, King Dedede, and Meowth. Out of these characters, Meowth is currently the only character who was not a Smasher in at least one game.
• Mewtwo along with Roy, Dr. Mario, Pichu, and to a lesser extent, Young Link, does not return in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. It is supposedly 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 focus on its "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 fighter that was not a clone in Super Smash Bros. Melee to be excluded from its sequel.
• In the Pokémon universe, Mewtwo was created as the strongest Pokémon in the world. Ironically, Mewtwo is one of the worst fighters in Melee, according to the tier list.
• Mewtwo bears a slight resemblance to Giegue, the final boss of the first Mother game and the young form of Giygas from Mother 2. Similarly, Pokémon Trainer greatly resembles Ninten, the main protagonist of said game (and, by extension, Ness). A number of people involved in the development of Mother later went on to develop the Pokémon games. Also, in the Subspace Emissary, Pokémon Trainer is initially partnered with Lucas, a character from Mother 3.
• Despite Mewtwo's weight in the games, it is fairly light in Melee, and ironically, Charizard is heavier than Mewtwo, although in the RPGs, Charizard is lighter.