Super Smash Bros. for 3DS: Why No Mewtwo?

I consider myself a Pokemon expert – at least when it comes to the games and competitive play.  I also have a bit of experience with the Smash Bros. series and Nintendo games as a whole, and I am here to bring my knowledge and corny jokes to you!

If you are fan of Smash Bros and/or Pokemon, then you have probably heard the question above: Why is Mewtwo not a part of the games anymore? Well, it really all comes down to one word: popularity.  

Back when Melee came out, Mewtwo was the bee’s knees – almost everybody knew who Mewtwo was. (The first Pokemon movie was still fresh on our minds, too.)  Even those who weren’t familiar with the series knew one thing: Mewtwo was a badass.  Really that was all they needed to know when they heard that Mewtwo was going to be a playable fighter in Melee.  Finally people could use psychic attacks and teleport all over the place.  Even though Mewtwo was not a high-tier character competitively, people seemed to like him and all was good in the world.

Then more Pokemon games came out, and even more came afterward. Mewtwo’s popularity dropped with each passing Pokemon game.  Newer and cooler Pokemon were arriving on to the scene, so Mewtwo just kind of faded away to the background.  Sure, the “hardcore” fans knew just how awesome Mewtwo was, but if you were anything less than that, Mewtwo became Mew-who?  (I told you there would be corny jokes.)  

Back in the day, Mewtwo was one of the only legendaries in the video games and that greatly boosted his popularity, but when the newer games came out, they introduced moreand more legendaries that were all-around cooler than Mewtwo.

Let’s skip ahead a few more years, to when Nintendo was just about to release Brawl.  No word on Mewtwo, but four new pokemon characters were announced for the roster, furthering the pain of Mewtwo fans.  When Brawl came out, some were hoping that Mewtwo was a secret character, but he was not.  Instead we got first-gen favorites Charizard, Ivysaur, and Squirtle, alongside Lucario, a Pokemon that was fairly new and extremely popular with all the fans.  It’s sad to say but Mewtwo just did not have the popularity to justify adding him to Brawl and Smash 4.  It wasn’t that he wasn’t cool, there was just not a lot Mewtwo could bring to the table.  He wasn’t as popular at the time, and he was bad from a gameplay aspect, so double-whammie.  

It’s clear that the more characters Smash adds, the more previous characters get neglected. This was apparent in Brawl as Metaknight, Snake, and Diddy Kong were gods, while favorites like Mario and Captain Falcon did horrible.  And even in the new Smash, some characters are amazing, while other characters are jokes. (But more on this in a later article.)

 Mewtwo (and his reputation as a favorite) probably would have suffered if he were forced into the newer games. Nintendo clearly plays favorites in the Smash games, and Mewtwo just is not one of them.  Maybe in the future Smash and Nintendo will pay a little more attention to the world’s most powerful Pokemon.