Mewtwo (PM)

Mewtwo in Project M and Project+
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Universe	Pokémon
Base game appearance	Melee
Moveset inspiration	Mewtwo (SSBM)
Alternate costume	Armored Mewtwo, Shadow Mewtwo (Project+)

Mewtwo is a playable character in the Brawl mod Project M. After being cut from Melee, it returns with significant buffs. In Project M, it is one of two characters that were not originally playable in Brawl, the other being Roy; in Project+, it is one of three, with Knuckles being the third. Mewtwo was the second Clone Engine character announced for Project M, based on Lucario.

Masachika Ichimura's protrayal of Mewtwo from Super Smash Bros. Melee was re-purposed for Mewtwo's appearances in Project M onward.

Mewtwo is ranked 3rd out of 41 on the official tier list at the top of the A tier, a significant improvement from its 20th out of 26 placing in Melee.

Attributes

As with Melee, Mewtwo is a character that defies most character archetypes in that it is a tall, floaty, slow middleweight with a long disjointed range much like Zelda. Its long tail gives it an advantage against most characters in the cast, similarly to other disjointed characters, due to it allowing it to space with ease. It also has good zoning capabilities as a result of its tail attacks and Shadow Ball. It also has many versatile finishers, such as its smash attacks and down aerial. It also has one of the best grab and throw games of the cast, having two chain throws (up and down), two KO throws (up and back), and two combo throws (forward and down). Mewtwo also has one of the best recoveries in the game due to its fast air speed, slow falling speed, float mechanic, high double jump, and all of its specials being useable for recovery. Mewtwo's greatest strength is its combo game, which is contributed to by its reach, float, frame data, low knockback attacks, and Teleport's new function going from Melee to PM, offering for versatile combos that can lead directly into its finishers.

However, despite the numerous buffs it received, Mewtwo still has flaws. Its greatest weakness remains its survivability; even with its heavier weight, it maintains its tall frame and floatiness, and when combined with the harsher environment, makes it easy to combo and KO Mewtwo vertically, more so than the slightly floatier Samus as a result of her extra weight. It also may have trouble KOing outside of combos, despite having many K.O options, due to its finishers generally being slow or having poor range. Mewtwo also has an extremely high technical learning curve to use all of its techniques to the fullest, requiring fast reflexes and nimble fingers.

Despite these weaknesses, Mewtwo's strengths and buffs significantly override them, making it among the most dominant characters in PM's metagame. However, after update 3.5 released, Mewtwo was notably nerfed, thus slightly reducing its success, though not enough to significantly harm it.

Changes from Melee to PM

Mewtwo was significantly buffed from Melee to Project M. It has almost twice as much range on its tail attacks, its comboing ability has improved considerably with the addition of the float and Teleport's new properties, its survivability has improved, and all attacks received improvements to either damage, knockback, or range. Confusion and Disable were also massively buffed, however, they are still considered situational. While Mewtwo has been nerfed in updates following version 3.0, the nerfs have not severely hurt its tournament results.

Aesthetics

• Animation for dropping through a soft platform now has Mewtwo's body flicker briefly.
• Mewtwo has been updated with universal changes introduced in Brawl:
  • Mewtwo now has an on-screen appearance, where it teleports onto the stage and stretches a hand, emitting its cry from the main Pokémon games.
  • Mewtwo now has a Wii Remote selection sound, which uses the aforementioned battle cry.
  • Mewtwo has two new taunts, bringing it up to the standard of three. It's taunt from Melee is assigned as a down taunt:
    • Up taunt involves Mewtwo floating in a sitting pose with closed eyes, similar to how it appeared at Dr. Fuji's lab in Mewtwo Strikes Back. Mewtwo keeps floating as long as the taunt input is held.
    • Its side taunt is similar to the on-screen appearance.
• Mewtwo's victory poses have been updated:
  • Its victory pose where it spins and folds its arms now has it say "愚かな." (Foolish.) which is taken from the Japanese version of Melee.
  • It also has a new victory pose where it spins in place, floating up, and ultimately disappearing. This replaces the victory pose from Melee where it emits a dark aura rom its fingers; while maintaining the voice from the original.
• Mewtwo has a new defeat pose. After losing a match, it floats while its turned away and looking back, similar to the artwork on the Pokémon selection screen of its appearance in Pokémon Stadium before battling it.

Attributes

• Mewtwo is heavier (85 → 97), now being a semi-middleweight character instead of a lightweight. However, since Mewtwo now exceeds 86 units, it is now vulnerable to Fox's waveshine combos, as it is pushed back by the shine instead of knocked down.
• Mewtwo's tail is now significantly longer, greatly increasing the reach of any attacks that utilize its tail, such as its tilts. Additionally, only the inner half of the tail has a hurtbox (whereas in Melee the entire tail had a hurtbox), thus giving Mewtwo significant disjointed hitboxes for its tail attacks.
• Mewtwo can now hover in a similar manner to Peach's float:
  • Unlike Peach, Mewtwo can gain vertical height from its float.
  • Its float duration is shorter (for about a bit more than one second), and using it will cause Mewtwo to lose its midair jump.
  • Hovered aerials have their landing lag removed, akin to Peach's float cancel.
• Sidestep now involves Mewtwo vanishing, akin to its air dodge. It is significantly shorter than its Melee version, allowing Mewtwo to act out of it sooner.
• Mewtwo is now vulnerable to the grab release glitch.

Ground Attacks

• The minimum amount of hits delivered by the second hit of Mewtwo's neutral attack is now just one (as opposed to Melee's eight hits), making the move optionally much shorter, and therefore allowing Mewtwo to effectively follow-up.
• All tilts have less ending lag.
• Forward tilt's sweetspot is now located at the tip of the tail, while the rest of the attack is weaker. It no longer has a slash effect.
• Mewtwo's forward smash has a smaller sourspot, a much larger sweetspot, and the shadow blast is much larger, giving the move about twice the reach. The knockback of the sweetspot is also more powerful.
• Sourspot of forward smash possesses a neutral effect, making it more noticeable.
• The hits of up smash link better into each other. The final hit is additionally more powerful and deals slightly more damage.
• Down smash produces a slightly larger shadow blast to slightly improve its reach, and it now has a sweetspot on the inner half of the move that hits more powerfully, while the sourspot has the move's Melee power. Additionally, the latter half of the move has a weak lingering hitbox (instead of having no hitbox) and the attack has much less ending lag (having almost no lag after hitboxes cease).

Aerial Attacks

• All aerials have less landing lag.
• Neutral aerial connects better and is slightly stronger, increasing its overall utility.
• Forward aerial's hitboxes are more favorably placed, the hitbox being enlarged and moved closer to the tip of Mewtwo's fingers.
• Down aerial's hitboxes are more favorably placed and specific spacing is no longer required to avoid landing the sourspot, with the sourspot being smaller and placed higher, while the intermediate and sweetspot hitboxes are larger and make up a larger portion of the move. The attack additionally produces slightly stronger knockback.

Grabs and Throws

• Forward throw changed to crushing opponent in a Shadow Ball, then throwing them ahead. It has the same angle as the original throw, but racks up damage more reliably (now always dealing a fixed amount of damage), and produces much stronger knockback, now being a potential KO move when used near edges.

Special Moves

• Shadow Ball is stronger, and even when uncharged it has stronger knockback than before. It also travels considerably faster.
• Confusion's effect now sends victims upwards into a tumbling state after spinning them, is safe on hit (in Melee, every character could punish the attack on-hit with a back aerial) and produces a slight wind effect a small distance outside its grab to make it more difficult to punish. It also now acts as a proper reflector, with projectiles reflected by Confusion inflicting damage to the original user, further improving Confusion's utility. It can still pull opponents through platforms (although this is harder than in Melee as a midair jump must be input first) and the rise up can stage spike if the platform is solid.
• Teleport no longer puts Mewtwo into a helpless state if used before a midair jump, and acting out of it is possible with anything but an air dodge (or another Teleport), making it more useful for recovery mix-ups and combos.
• Disable has increased reach, now affects enemies from behind, and can no longer be reflected. It also has significantly increased power on midair foes, dealing 9% more damage.
• Mewtwo can no longer Teleport downward through soft platforms that it is standing on.
• Disable no longer deals knockback to already-dazed characters, nor does it increase their stun time. It does add slightly more damage, however, and the attack not causing knockback enables Mewtwo to follow up with other, stronger attacks.

Revisions

v3.01

• Grab release animation sped up to avoid potential grab release combos or re-grabs.
• Up tilt animation cleaned up.
• Model optimized to no longer cause significant lag.

v3.5

• Tail is 15% shorter.
• Infinite jabs deal slightly more damage.
• Up tilt deals slightly more damage at the body.
  • Its trajectory and knockback has been altered.
• Down tilt has less endlag.
• Down smash has more endlag.
• Forward aerial has slightly more startup.
• Up aerial has slightly more startup and more endlag.
• Shadow Ball has become smaller.
  • It also has more startup.
• Confusion deals more knockback.
• Can no longer act out of teleport if used after second jump.
• Can no longer teleport through stage corners.
• Disable can no longer clank with opponent's attacks.

v3.6

• Shadow Ball and its trail received a makeover. This slightly distinct it from Aura Sphere, which was the basis for the move.
• All of Mewtwo's sound and graphical aspects have been carried over from Melee.

Moveset

Up to date as of version 3.6.

		Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack			6%	Extends its right arm, blasting out a bit of shadow energy, and then extends its left arm, shooting out repeated pulses of dark energy.
			3% (loop)
Forward tilt			6% (near), 8% (mid), 10% (far)	Whips its tail forward with minimal knockback. Good for combos. Can be angled up or down.
Up tilt			9% (nearest), 8% (near), 6% (far), 5% (farthest)	Quickly backflips, striking foes with its tail. Causes diagonal knockback, and can juggle at early percentages.
Down tilt			9% (near), 8% (mid), 5% (far)	Crouches and sweeps its tail in a across the floor in a semi-circle.
Dash attack			9% (clean), 6% (late)	Lunges forwards while releasing shadow energy out of both hands. Deals minimal knockback.
Forward smash			20% (blast), 12% (arms)	Thrusts both its hands forward and releases a huge blast of shadow energy from them. Similar to Mario's forward smash, being most powerful the farther away the enemy is. Sweetspot deals both good damage and knockback.
Up smash			1% (hits 1-7), 10% (hit 8)	Holds its palm up, releasing a storm of shadow energy that hits multiple times. It's possible to SDI out of the initial hits to avoid the last hit, which deals the most damage and knockback.
Down smash			17% (inner half), 15% (outer half), 7% (late hit)	Extends its arm downwards and launches a burst of dark energy from its fingertip near its feet. Has moderate starup and little endlag. The attack only hits the side Mewtwo is facing.
Neutral aerial			1-2% (hits 1-8), 4% (hit 9), 5% (landing)	Releases a field of electricity from its body, damaging any opponent in range. The final hit causes stronger knockback and launches opponents.
Forward aerial			14%	Swipes its left hand forward, engulfed in shadow energy. Causes strong vertical knockback, but has short range.
Back aerial			13% (body), 11% (tail)	Whips its tail behind itself, knocking back opponents at mid-to-high percentages.
Up aerial			10% (clean near), 12% (clean far), 7% (late near), 9% (late mid), 11% (late far)	Performs a backflip in midair, striking opponents with its tail. Excellent range and can juggle at lower percentages.
Down aerial			14-16% (clean), 10-12% (late)	Performs a backflip and thrusts one foot downwards, meteor smashing the opponent. The sweetspot is Mewtwo's foot, with the sourspot being its underbelly.
Grab			—	Grabs an opponent with psychokinesis. Decent range.
Pummel			3%	Zaps the foe with a small jolt of electricity.
Forward throw			1% (hits 1-5), 8% (throw)	Crushes its foe by compressing them into a tiny Shadow Ball. It is Mewtwo's only move that has been changed in terms of animation, compared to its old forward throw in Melee, where it fired multiple Shadow Balls at its foe.
Back throw			11%	Telekinetically tosses its opponent behind itself. Has good KO potential at high percentage and one of the strongest back throws in the game.
Up throw			12%	Uses Psychic to swirl the opponent around its body before launching them upwards. One of the strongest up throws in the game. Can be used to set up combos against fast fallers.
Down throw			5% (hit 1), 6% (throw)	Slams the opponent to the ground and whips them with its tail. Mewtwo's fastest throw, the tail will also hit behind Mewtwo after the initial attack.
Floor attack (front)			7% (tail), 5% (sides)	Telekinetically gets itself up and spins around, striking opponents with its tail. Anyone who comes in contact with Mewtwo will be electrocuted.
Floor attack (back)			6% (tail), 5% (sides)	Telekinetically gets itself up and spins around, striking opponents with its tail. Anyone who comes in contact with Mewtwo will be electrocuted.
Floor attack (trip)			6% (tail), 5% (sides)	Telekinetically gets itself up and spins around, striking opponents with its tail. Does not deal electric damage.
Edge attack (fast)			8% (tail), 6% (body)	Flips onto the stage, striking opponents with its tail.
Edge attack (slow)			10%	Telekinetically walks on the side of the stage, then suddenly jumps on the stage and swipes forward.
Neutral special		Shadow Ball	3-25% (shot), 0-1% (charging hits)	Mewtwo concentrates shadow energy into a large sphere, which can be canceled partway by pressing either the L or the R button. The attack itself is a powerful projectile that travels in a wavy path, exploding when it comes to contact with a surface (though the explosion doesn't do anything). If used in the air, Mewtwo will recoil backwards a great amount, which can help or hinder its recovery.
Side special		Confusion	10%	Mewtwo grabs an opponent and telekinetically spins them around in front of itself before releasing them forward. This move is also capable of reflecting projectiles and causing damage to the projectiles' original users. The platform glitch returns in PM as well: using this move on an enemy that is standing on a platform (or thin piece of stage) will pull them through it.
Up special		Teleport	—	Mewtwo quickly vanishes and reappears in a different location. Can be directed with the analog stick. Mewtwo can also act out of Teleport almost immediately with anything outside of an air dodge. Teleporting from the ground retains Mewtwo's midair jump while teleporting after a using midair jump is used puts Mewtwo in a helpless state. Mewtwo is completely intangible while teleporting
Down special		Disable	1% (grounded foes), 10% (aerial foes)	Mewtwo releases a short-range beam from its eyes that briefly stuns the opponent. When used on an airborne opponent, the attack causes more damage as well as horizontal knockback.
Final Smash		Psystrike	6%/15% (startup), 3% (hits 1-21), 15% (hit 22)	Similar to Lucario's Aura Storm; Mewtwo maniacally laughs and flies above the stage, unleashing a powerful beam of dark energy. The beam is wider and deals more damage, but is slower to angle. If all hits from the beam connect, it will almost always one-hit KO most characters.

In competitive play

Notable players

Active

•  Apoc - Ranked 10th in Iowa.
•  Casino Wolf - The best active Mewtwo player in the world. Ranked 1st on the Arizona Power Rankings and 44th on PMRank 2019.
• Day - The best Mewtwo in Japan. Sent Charby to losers at PM in Japan VI.
•  Dru2 - Ranked 1st on the Arkansas Project M Power Rankings.
•  HM04 - Ranked 4th on the Connecticut Project M Power Rankings.

Inactive

•  EmuKiller
•  Frozen - Formerly ranked 13th on PMRank 2016.
•  Fuzz - Formerly ranked 7th on PMRank 2018. Placed 3rd at The Bigger Balc.
•  Kaos
•  Lunchables
•  Mew2King

Alternate costumes

Project M

Mewtwo's design received a large overhaul from Melee to Project M. Where Melee based its design from Generation I and II (games for the Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Nintendo 64), its new design reflects Generation IV (games that were for the Wii and Nintendo DS, and made around the same time as Super Smash Bros. Brawl). It matches Brawl's more realistic environment like other characters.

It retains all of its costumes from Melee, while also gaining a new gray color scheme and alternate costumes based upon its armor set seen in Mewtwo Strikes Back.

Mewtwo's alternate costumes in PM

• Default: Mewtwo's design as it first appeared during Pokémon's 4th generation.
• Green: The color scheme of a shiny Mewtwo from Pokémon. This costume is the only one to change its eye color, from purple to green.
• Red: A possible color scheme in Pokémon Stadium if transferred Pokémon are given a nickname.
• Blue: Another possible color scheme in Pokémon Stadium if transferred Pokémon are given a nickname.
• Gray: An original "dark" costume.
• Default (Armor): Based off how it appeared in Mewtwo Strikes Back.
• Gold (Armor)
• Black and Red (Armor): Another "dark" costume, inspired by the color scheme of Team Rocket.

On the back of the gray and gold armor color schemes is the inscription "PKMN-150" (which is its National Pokédex number in the games), while the black one instead features the Team Rocket logo.

Project+

In Project+, Mewtwo received even more costumes, bringing to the mod's standard of 15 costumes.

Three are more recolors, one for its default skin and three for armored Mewtwo, with the third armor recolor as a hidden alternate costume.

Four new alternate costumes are included inspired by Shadow Mewtwo from Pokkén Tournament. Extra details include the crystal attached to its shoulder and the crystalline tip on its tail.

Mewtwo's alternate costumes in P+

Z-Secret Costume: Shadow Armored Mewtwo (based on the color scheme of Shadow Pokémon from Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness)

R-Secret Costume: Mega-Mewtwo X

Trivia

• At the time of Mewtwo's creation as a character in the mod, it was not possible to convert animations from Melee and import them into Brawl. As a result of having to do them all from scratch, Mewtwo's animations alone took approximately 700 hours to create. Project M Backroom member SiLeNtDo0m credits Haloedhero with the animation work in this forum post.
• In Project M, when Kirby copies Mewtwo, he copies Disable rather than Shadow Ball. According to Project M Backroom member Gimpyfish, this is due to the difficulty of programming a new projectile for a pre-existing character.
  • An unreleased Project M build shows though that a proper Shadow Ball ability for Kirby was in development and well under way. This was eventually fixed in Project+, where Kirby properly copies Shadow Ball from Mewtwo.
• Before Project+ came to be, there were some minor oddities with Mewtwo's voice clips during battle, distinctions shared by fellow clone engine fighter Roy. This is no longer the case, as they now have their own soundback with enhanced voice and sound effects. The following oddities were removed:
  • Mewtwo's SFX were of a significantly lower quality than Melee, although an unofficial patch for 3.5 proved that this was unnecessary for the official release.
  • Mewtwo's voice could be heard when it entered Metal form.
  • Prior to the v3.6 Beta, Mewtwo's sound effects replaced Galleom's, resulting in atypical behaviour when fighting him. After 3.6, its sound effects were then shared with Lucario.
• Mewtwo was "leaked" in version 2.6 of Project M, with a screenshot of Mewtwo and Pikachu on Pokémon Stadium 2 being used as a screen texture on said stage. However, it was barely noticed. These were changed to be different pictures after version 3.0.
• Like Roy, anything that would normally be exclusive to Mewtwo (namely, a codec conversation) reuses that of Mario's.
  • Interestingly, Mewtwo uses many data slots that were originally used for Pokémon Trainer. Clearing Classic Mode with it, Charizard, Squirtle or Ivysaur will play Pokémon Trainer's "Congratulations" video and Mewtwo's "Congratulations" screen, and any records with any of the four characters are added to Mewtwo's records. The Pokémon Trainer's name is changed to "Mewtwo" except in the Sound Test and his character introduction in The Subspace Emissary.
  • Furthermore, clearing Classic mode with Mewtwo grants the player the Mewtwo trophy.
• When accessing replays in Brawl, Mewtwo shows up as an iconless character under the name "Pokeystatue".
• Whenever Mewtwo appears while Lucario is in the stage in All-Star mode, its hands will have an aura effect.
• If one were to delete the custom file used for the announcer calls in Project M and selects Mewtwo in-game, it reveals to use an unused clip for the Fighting Alloy Team.
• Coincidentally, Mewtwo's Final Smash is named Psystrike, which would become Mewtwo's Final Smash in Super Smash Bros. 4 and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, although it functions very differently.