Editing Shadow Ball

|caption=Shadow Ball in ''Ultimate''.

When the special button is pressed, the Shadow Ball will begin charging. It can be fired at any time by pressing the special button again while charging. It will deal gradually more [[damage]] and [[knockback]] the bigger it gets. The player can cancel the move and save the charge by [[shield]]ing,  [[roll]]ing, [[spot dodge|spot dodging]], or, to cancel with no additional action, by lightly tapping the shield button. Mewtwo can also charge the move in the air, where canceling it will make Mewtwo stop its charging animation normally as opposed to shielding or rolling.

Unlike most auto-charge moves, even when Shadow Ball is fully charged, Mewtwo will continue to hold it until the player releases it or cancels. In ''Melee'', a charging Shadow Ball does [[electric]] damage and traps an opponent upon contact; from ''[[Super Smash Bros. 4]]'' onward, it no longer has a hitbox while charging. Once fired, the ball will travel in a wave-like path, which can make it hard to aim but equally difficult to avoid. A fully charged Shadow Ball does heavy damage and knockback, and if shielded, it will damage a shield by about half health. In ''Melee'', it produces a fiery explosion on contact with a surface, though the explosion is aesthetic only and lacks a [[hitbox]].

*Fully charged: to throw a fully charged Shadow Ball quickly in the opposite direction, press the special button and immediately tap the direction to face (but not at the same time, as that would result in using [[Confusion]] instead). In the air, it works the same way. This can be used as a [[recovery]] technique, as it will turn Mewtwo around to face the other direction so the recoil can send it towards the stage.

*Not full-charged (or not at all): as with all neutral specials, Shadow Ball can be used to change direction in the air. For this, use the aforementioned inputs in the reverse order: first tap the target direction to face, and then press the special button immediately. Combined with its ability to be quickly canceled with a shield button, this technique allows Mewtwo to be even more mobile in the air.

The player must have Mewtwo grab and forward throw another player (this works well with {{SSBM|Bowser}}). Then, they need to make the third character jump and [[air dodge]] into the resulting stream of Shadow Balls and press the grab button to catch one. This will not make the normal item-catching sound effect, so the player must look at the character's hands afterward to determine if the attempt was successful.

*{{SSBB|Lucario}}'s [[Aura Sphere]] is very similar in operation to Mewtwo's Shadow Ball, although Aura Sphere follows a straight path while Shadow Ball keeps an erratic pattern, and Lucario must be at about 150% damage for Aura Sphere to deal similar knockback and damage at full charge. In ''SSB4'', the charge no longer damages opponents (along with their hand-cupping positions being switched around), further distinguishing the move.