Mewtwo is all gas and no brakes, an amazing advantage state and an awful disadvantage state. He literally can't run away because when he turns around and goes into his run animation his tail sticks out and puts his hitbox closer than when he was just facing them.
"he has a lot of things going for him, but in the context of his kit and character, their ability is hindered in some shape or form." that's basically most of smash ultimate characters conundrum lol
@@l3mxn1 : It’s precisely because no one plays it that Mewtwo isn’t as good. If it was good, then wouldn’t pro players already be flocking to it like Aegis and Cloud? There’s a reason why Wadi, best SSBU Mewtwo player in the world, relegates Mewtwo as a secondary.
I think the main problems with Mewtwo is that a lot of people don’t like floaties and the tail hitbox can be very aggravating. Also, I think he could be helped a lot if he was still given backwards momentum from Shadow Ball.
Oh yeah that tail is annoying granted it’s a good high risk-high reward concept but there are way too many animations like his double jump, dash, and Aireals they expose the hit box more than it should.
@@Littletony525 I agree, but the annoyance that comes with it is what I think turns people off from him. It doesn’t actually make him bad it just makes him frustrating.
I feel like the more technical side of Mewtwo will be the key to unlocking his full potential. Wavebounce Shadow Ball, Teleport cancels, footstool Disable (especially out of shield), and more combo optimization could absolutely push the character further. Problem is that most of the players who do play Mewtwo are on Team Fundies, which includes Wadi. I could say that about many characters, and Mewtwo is just one of those many examples
Footstool disable is a good tool on paper for punishes but yeah there's no way that alone would be enough to push Mewtwo up much. Character is clearly designed as more of a hit and run character but he's just not great at it. He's alright but his playstyle is always going to be pretty unimpressive. Mewtwo fans should just be glad he's no longer garbage and is actually decent now
@@Sh1v3rIZAEBeen playing Mewtwo for years (10+) and Mewtwo is definitely more technical than he seems. I still havent seen a player use him to his full potential yet, SDX was the closest but left smash. It's not only footstools and teleport cancels, it's also slide back down b's, dtilt> IDJ into uAir>nair dragdowns which are greatly underused. Infact dtilt IDJ combos are just very underused with mewtwo and gives gim acess to his biggest combos. Also nair has 7 different ways it can sent opponents each with their own confirms and it makes it very hard to consistently control and get the best out of it because of that. All that coupled with his unique physics makes it unusual to control and adds a layer of difficulty Might not be the MOST technical but definitely far above average, there are reason why we dont see Mewtwo do his craziest stuff in tourny. That level of technicality is usually not worth all the weaknesses that comes with it and needs dedication to pull off. Fundies just arent enough for this character. He is definitely harder than Samus and Bowser individually OR combined. As Samus player myself, there is nothing that is hard to pull of as Samus. I still struggle with M2 after all these years. If he was that simple, people would use him as a secondary.
IMO, mewtwo's biggest irritation, is his drag down N-Air leaving the opponent facing a random direction, if it didn't then drag down N-Air would lead into disable and lead to some crazy set ups
@@joshdimaggio5764 I concur. It's very tilting not to know which way they're gonna get out of nair and not be able to follow up because of that. That is one of his biggest inconsistencies.
@@Sh1v3rIZAE Mewtwo like most RPG characters has a methodical moveset. In the movie he usually waits for his opponents to make a mistake. Moves like disable and confusion are meant pacifically punish mistakes or if their open to attack.
I think the big thing abt tail is that it changes mewtwo from big to huge when its already lighter than a feather. Your margin for error becomes so small that its hard for him to reach any kind of consistency, despite his super high highs
I think Mewtwo’s teleport was something that you didn’t talk about much. It is an ability with under-explored tech which has potential to mixup opponents and steal neutral or even advantage state from people. In a quarter of a second he can go from disadvantage off stage to center stage and there is nothing people can do about it. Factor in edge cancelling and you have a really scary character than can zone and camp like nobody’s business. The thing is he is treated like he should be able to play a more aggressive style but his entire kit revolves around bait and punish tactics. When played in this way Mewtwo shines.
I agree about his teleport. It has similar utility to Palutena's but more range, isn't an attack so can't be countered and since it goes in all directions and recovers pretty fast, you can just teleport out of most non true pressure if you've got the chance. Definitely one of the best up Bs in the game.
The way I see it is he his a character with a bait and punish style that has the possibility to play more aggressively against more defensive characters and overwhelm them thanks to his better frame data and kill power. That's the situations where his aggressive play shines in my opinion.
He's teleport has stupidly strict spacing which makes canceling really hard to do consistently. Theres a reason non of the pro players really do it in bracket. And the end lag on it means you can't just freely telepirt back to center stage unless your opponent is going off stage to edge guard
Some fun tech with Mewtwo's teleport, is to bait out a reflected shadow ball and use the intangibility to teleport through the reflected shadow ball and punish the end lag on the reflector
As someone who mained Mewtwo in sm4sh, seeing the addition of the tail hit boxes was a gut punch. Still the #1 reason i dont really play with him anymore, it just limits spacing options and makes fighting swordies hell
I think Mewtwo is underrated in a sense Ganondorf was in Melee: could take care of a lot of characters but loses to all the top tiers and is a giant target.
I think in a roster with 80+ characters it’s inevitable that some are going to fall through the cracks in usage, and Mewtwo is one of them (also see Lucario, Duck Hunt, Mii Swordfighter to name a few others). He seems to be a victim of circumstance, being a popular Pokemon but not necessarily enough compared to other Pokemon reps, being a veteran from Melee and thus having little novelty value, and not having any unique gimmicks or off the wall tools that inspire curiosity and experimentation. Combine that with his awkward competitive profile as explained in the video and you’ve got a character that just kinda exists in a lot of people’s minds.
@@AegisEdge he isn't the best. But it is still a really good charakter. I would say, that Mewtwo is a little worse in Ultimate than it was in Smash4, but the current toptiers are just better.
I play Mewteo as well. I got stomped by my brother playing falcon, but I trained a bit now I'm better and I usually beat him. F-tilt is a good spacing tool, shadow ball can be spammable but down special is a bit situational. Yeha he's floaty but I don't mind.
I think M2 being so floaty is what makes the tail hurtbox in Ultimate so noticeable. Even in S4 the floatyness got you hit like a beach ball a lot, but un Ultimate the tail hurtbox exaggerates the problem. I've been so close to committing to maining M2 for a while now, but keep finding myself liking Samus for some of the same traits (charge shot vs shadow ball)
GREAT VIDEO VARS!!! YES!!! A combination of being well thought out, well spoken, and well said. You have a great voice as well. Keep these videos coming, you hammered every nail with this one.
As a Mewtwo main, I agree with this video, it is true that the character has some significant drawbacks, it definitely does not takeaway the fact that his edge-guarding game is beastly. I still love him regardless and will continue to play him
I've always wanted to like Mewtwo, but he's just never clicked for me. His moveset is versatile and he's got great tools, but I've never been able to figure out what his playstyle is supposed to be. His kit doesn't really coalesce into a clearly defined archetype. I know he has a niche in counterplaying certain matchups, but it doesn't feel like he has an apparent fundamental approach to his design. His best tools feel sort of cobbled together on a character who's not really built around using them. He's weird and technical, but not in a way that makes me think "That's cool. I wanna learn how to do that."
This might just be my dumb "hot take" but I feel that Mewtwo is really hurt by not being able to play a standard Netrual game. He has all of the tools you need to win Netrual but because of his unique nature he can't play "footies" well and the longer Netrual goes, the more likely he loses it. Mewtwo wins fast and transitions to Advantage or loses slowly while taking chip damage that will kill him since he is too light. Again, at first glance on paper, Mewtwo has a OK Netrual and many ways to win it, but in practice, you either find a way to keep Netrual short or you often lose.
Mewtwo has been my main for awhile now, I feel like he’s one of the cast that the negatives get looked at too harshly.I never really have a hard time with the idea of the tail box, I just play the game and learn to overcome the disadvantages.I think mewtwo has a lot of options when the user starts getting into movement tech like wave bouncing and slingshots. I think it’s not as flash as some of the cast fight styles which doesn’t drive people to put in the time to see the skill ceiling is pretty high.good video,cheers
This kinda has a similar vibe to Elite Four Karen's quote from Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal or Heart Gold/Soul Silver. Players should use the characters they want to use, regardless of what other's opinions are. 😊
@Elliot Morley slingshots are a method of while in momentum being able to defend and create mix up movement options. I would strongly suggest you watch the slingshot video on youtube, it's hard to really explain without seeing it.cheers!
While trying out different characters in search of a main, I actually landed on Mewtwo. His move just feel like they hurt and it's great how aggressive he can be. Additionally I actually like floaty jumps for some reason.
His rapid jab feels like it's fucking the opponent UP. Maybe it's the sound design (along with it of course being the most damaging rapid jab in the game, if I'm not mistaken).
As a Mewtwo main, I was afraid all this video was gonna be was - "He tall. He big. He light. He tail. HE BAD!" So, thank you for not making it that, lol. I think Mewtwo is very underrated. Part of it, like you said in the video, is that he does have a unique play style that is difficult to get right. But he's got some of the sickest combos and set ups in the entire game. I think a good player who really "gets" Mewtwo's game plan could go really far.
Biggest reason for people choosing other characters is that they offer similar high highs but without the crushing lows of the times your tail gets clipped. Mewtwo at his worst can feel like a punching bag getting hit by long range or disjointed attacks when any other character would be safe, and you constantly have to keep in mind that you're trying to mitigate this huge weakness of his whenever you're playing him whether on offence or defence.
Thinking about it after your reasoning, he is similar to Sora in terms of weaknesses. This lends him to being more of a “glass cannon” character. Hope to see Why No One Plays Lucario next.
I agree. Also Mewtwo feels like he is playing with one less tool than everyone else. His fspecial and dspecial are very unique but have such specific uses, especially dspecial, that also somewhat overlap each other. I believe if the dspecial was traded for an more useful tool he would fair much better as well. Maybe future sight as a projectile that spawns and moves towards him 3 seconds later could be used to cover space in a defensive way.
I was wondering why I was having a not so good time trying to pick up Mewtwo. The combination of his kit and moveset as well as his floatiness makes him hard to pick up quickly (for me at least)
Tbh, as someone who has played M2 since Sm4sh and Ultimate Day 1, I think this video could have genuinely benefited to some degree to have looked at the matchup spread Mewtwo has rather than basing it off calculated thought or some tournament videos. All the characters listed that he "struggles" against I felt was such an bold statement that I kinda screamed while watching bc the community of M2 players, unlike some other communities of characters who disagree about certain matchups, a Twitter spreadsheet broke down that we are in the top 5 most consistent communities that have opinions on who he can face and have a decent chance in. We Facing Joker, ROB, Cloud for example I haven't had a conversation with any M2 players who believe they can struggle at it so badly that it's considered losing or they felt immense pressure by facing them (myself included). I'm willing to give you slightly losing if we are to be generous here, but most of the community just agrees that for some of the high tiers and top tiers just even matchups we have to deal with and it's all dependent on the skill level understanding you have of your character.
I mained Mewtwo in smash 4, and while I still like playing him he's just lost so much in the transition. Not only did his hurtbox get bigger, but it became a bit harder to string together certain moves (both f-air strings and u-tilt into upsmash to name two) and confusion took a huge hit in its usefulness, stunning for shorter while also feeling worse for recovery mixups. I liked his sm4sh airdodge more as well, with the invisibility functioning as an occasional mixup, but I can't call that a strict downgrade. It didn't help that I moved to a town with a competitively stronger scene, so playing a glass canon was a fair bit more punishing
Great video! I really love these. Could you do Isabelle next? I find it fascinating how she was originally viewed as menacing when the game first released and is now widely considered hardly even playable. I may be wrong about her starting off as menacing but it always seemed that way to me. Again, great job :D
I don't think Mewtwo is a high tier character. I can see why you might believe he is though. I believe most characters exist on a sort of potential wave based on untapped potential, unknown/unused tech, and just plain lack of representation. This is where about 85-90% of the characters in smash ultimate live. Characters like Steve are OBVIOUSLY good, there's no wave or range for their potential in the downward trajectory. Ganon is OBVIOUSLY bad and there isn't much room for him to move up significantly without help. A character like Hero is Obviously mid because he's basically designed around luck. If you crit, get good menus he goes up, if you get unlucky and bad menus he is worse. Most of the cast however can potentially be much better or worse depending on several factors. It does feel like in the right hands, with stars aligned, perfect weather, the right breakfast, 1000s of hours of practice, and the will of the gods. Characters like Mewtwo, Incineror, Belmonts, Ridley, Mewtwo, K.rool, Meta Knight and Doc(literally to name a few), COULD perform on the level of a top/high tier. This in fact seems to be true at one moment in time. Most "low/lower mid" characters in the game have had at least 1 breakout performance at a major/super major. The reason why I don't think these characters actually are high or top comes down to consistency. Some characters just don't have the base design for consistent results. They aren't far away either. Characters like Mewtwo are 1-2 changes away from being high tier or better. The same could be said for characters like Pichu and Inklings were seemingly nerfed out of their claims to the top spots. Then of course there are some characters who seem gatekept by their design. Palutena is seemingly designed to be good after facing several nerfs the character still performs well at top levels when used. Peach who was also nerfed is the in that same boat. Ganon, little mac, and Kirby seem designed to be bad buffs or slight changes aren't the answer for them. They need redesigns. All in all, most of the characters live and die on small details.
I main Aegis and Ridley. While in training mode, I decided to mess with Mewtwo, and I found that he's a bloody blast to play! It's a shame that not many others play him
That's funny. I just recently started messing with Mewtwo, and his punish game and pressure feel really strong. I was wondering why he wasn't played more. A week and a half later here comes Vars
Mewtwo is definitely fitting that design of a glass canon with that exploitable hurt box. His original weakness in Melee was due to his stats not fitting with the pace of the game and its ironic that its basically the same way in this version The weight, floaty, and hurtbox size has always been a detriment to his unique kit but if all of those were adjusted he be an entirely new character but also practically an unstoppable space animal with a sword
I think a lot of people just think of melee and resent Mewtwo. Current Mewtwo is completely different and is a powerful glass cannon that actuallty has mobility, combos, range all in one.
Mewtwo reminds me a lot of Lucario in the same aspects that you brought out. Covers multiple archetypes and has a very versatile toolkit but also has inconsistency issues with how his aura scales. I believe both mewtwo and lucario respectively has a lot of hidden potential but they’re both unique in how they’re designed under this games engine.
I always just called Mewtwo "Smash's version of Street Fighter's Akuma" Extremely good tools, high damage, stupid pressure, mobility. Purple attacks. Counterbalanced by its health. Or in Smash's case, the weight.
After watching: I fully believe he is underrated. You said you think he is s potential high tier, and I do too. Probably A-. I think his faults are so obvious and people overlook his incredible strengths. They see big body tail hitbox low weight and put him in bottom tier. He is hard to play in that you have to be very much aware of what you can do and your opponent can do, due to being a big body light weight, you want to play safe and explode in advantage without over extending, and then you have to be that much more patient and observant in disadvantage to limit the damage as much as possible. His tools are so good though. Yeah, the tail hurtbox sucks, but the normals are still really good. His specials are also ridiculous. Shadowball is definitely one of the best projectiles in the game. Confusion is a reflector and a command grab. Disable also isn’t cheese, and is a legit hard read death sentence. It has situations where it is more consistent (covering platform techs) as well as proper setups (shadow ball > footstool > disable). Teleport is also crazy and is a tool out of disadvantage and the crazy stuff you can do cancelling it from ledge and plats is crazy. Confusion and Disable are crazy good but they are also hard to use. Compare this to DLC who have great abilities that are kinda brain dead.
I wish that Mewtwo's tail could be grabbed, but hits would deal damage without knock back unless they dealt high knock back. Hitting someone's ponytail doesn't send em flying, unless you yank it really hard
As a Mewtwo main I loved the video, definitely should’ve talked about slingshot, and teleport stuff. I won’t lie his Meta is massively unexplored imo. SB combos are insanely broken with how you can condition with SB and a reflecting command grab. His kit pretty much as everything you could want jn a character minus a few things. But he’s massively underrated and I think with someone actually playing the character he could be mid - high high tier
I still think Mewtwo is going to eventually find more respect later in Ultimate's competitive lifespan. He is so fluid and sick when played well. Also, people don't make enough use of shooting off multiple quick little aerial or B-reverse Shadow Balls to cover the space between you and the opponent before approaching... he has so much air speed that he can cover that distance very quickly and get good punishes.
the character is just too fair ( advantages and weaknesses ) in a game dominated by bullshit mechanics and moves that look like they came straight from the mind of a dreaming kind writing his Xmas list
Could you do a video on the Link trifecta? A lot of people say Adult Link is better than Toon Link, but more people play the latter while Young Link is also universally agreed to be the best out of all the three. I’d love to see your take on these three characters maybe all in one video?
Mewtwo should’ve never been touched from Smash 4. I have no idea why he was touched in transition. The airdodge had to go. That was clear. But nothing else was jank or wrong. It honestly feels like they were like “Oh, this character is only nine spots away from Bayonetta and she’s busted. He must be busted, too.”
He’s in the wrong game: ultimate is a pretty mashy game with tons of great out of shield options, and people don’t hold shield for long enough or consistently enough for mewtwo to be rewarded. And his downsides are pretty bad when you compare his kit to other high tiers that have similar levels of strength without having steep down sides like chrom, terry, wolf, etc. not to mention top tiers who are all stronger with well-rounded kits and no tail hitbox.
I used to play MewTwo when I played the game frequently. He just felt good to play for me. Used to play samus a lot but that got stale and MewTwo looked like a Samus but with more oomph and fun to be had. I was never super good at the game, never did any tourneys, but if I ever played it again I would go straight back to MewTwo. Thank you for talking about them though. Reminds of me the good times I had, all the clips you've shown of MewTwo doing well were fun to watch while you spoke facts.
My brother loves/mained Mewtwo so I've thought about this a lot: Mewtwo very much wants to be Akuma: Has OP tools to dominate neutral, high damage to blow you up, setplay to nuke you consistently, but can afford to make very few mistakes himself or he loses. That gameplan is all about abusing your OP neutral and maximizing every punish to get as much damage as possible with only as much risk as is needed. Usually with a sprinkle of cheese for when he's losing and has to take a big risk. Just like Akuma, in games where he is like this, he's busted. PM, Sm4sh. In games where he can't, he's still decent but just not worth playing: Ult, Melee. In sm4sh shadowball and his disjointed tail was enough to dominate neutral because of the limited movement and rarely did he have to trade, both because of his disjoint and the fact there were less frame trap situations he would want to mash in (and less characters who could mash in said situations if there were). He played the same airdodge or not mixup as (almost) everyone else. In PM he doesn't have as much of a disjoint and shadowball is weaker, but his pressure and punish game is exponentially stronger with acting out of up b, stronger combo starters, float aerials. In PM he's also heavier so even though being big and floaty he still dies early because every confirm works all the time on him, it's not as bad as it could be. In Ult his neutral isn't dominant (part of which is movement, part of which is lacking his needed disjoint), his risk is too high, and his punish isn't as strong as his defense is bad. You can go one of a few ways to fix him, but the problem is that he overlaps with other characters depending on how you do it. I would mention that he easily becomes degen depending on how he's buffed, but in Ult that clearly doesn't matter anyway lol. Sephiroth (who my brother also plays in Ult) is as compared in the video, extremely close to Mewtwo in a lot of ways. He's Mewtwo if you crank the disjoint to an absurd level and make him even weaker defensively. Palu is also a character with extreme overlap, again as stated in the video. Better physics but weaker kill power and neutral, but extremely close to being the same character when you look at their tools. (My brother hates her for that reason and refused to play her because she's a "less fun Mewtwo" even though his sm4sh Mewtwo main skillset would have been perfect for her.) If all you want a strong jack of all trades, Ult has plenty. There isn't a reason to play Mewtwo in most matchups, except as a secondary, and even then there are easier/stronger secondary choices with similar but better matchup spreads. My brother opted for a combination of Pika, Mewtwo, Lucina, and Sephiroth. But he started using Mewtwo less and less because he could basically cover everything without him.
I think Mewtwo's issue is definitely defence. I think a lot of this is due to the unintuitive use of his moves. Mewtwo is a glass cannon. MockRock starts his video on glass cannons with "Don't get hit" and how glass cannon characters tend to live by this. I think Mewtwo's issues stem from his lack of ability to do this. While fast, he cannot escape pressure with mobility the way Greninja can. His nair is fine out of shield, but the other options you'd expect a character to have are either missing or have limitations when used OOS. While tail is over-rated, it is a hinderance when trying to maneuver around other characters. This is made worse by Mewtwo's low gravity. Also when Mewtwo comes out of his teleport he doesn't have much momentum. Palutena has the same fall and fast-fall speed as Mewtwo, but she when she comes out of her teleport she has a lot more momentum. With Palu if you teleport and appear in mid-air it feels fine. With Mewtwo you feel like a sitting duck. In disadvantage you don't always get to teleport from your ideal range or position. Thank you for calling out tail tunnel vision.
They should give mewtwo an backdash attack when the tail hits the enemy when dashing bwck than it should count as hit as shielding hit like palus back air
Loved the video Vars. I would love to here your opinion on DonkeyKong though. I feel like he's in a unique position were a lot of people play him but he's always considered low tier.
12:11 THIS is EXACTLY how I feel about Rosalina!! I main her in Ultimate, but the Luma almost feels like a hindrance because if this... Mewtwo's tail is like if Luma was superglued to Rosalina :( 8:59 Mewtwo needs his fair and nair switched. If his fair was like Ness or Rosalina with a disjointed, multi hit long lasting hitbox while his nair was something clean like Peach's, i think he'd be much better at approaching or pressuring. This would certainly compliment his double jump.
I played mewtwo for a couple of months and I have to say, all the disadvantages you pointed out for the character is kinda of why I don’t play the character anymore. Obviously the tail is a problem but when u add in his high risk high reward gameplay and his average disadvantage state and matchup chart, it just isn’t really worth playing the character compared to others in the game
I dont even know about Mewtwo taking on the wierder characters. He loses to Pacman and Sonic and goes even with a couple other characters you mentioned in that list. Mewtwo isnt dishonest enough nor does he have the combination of attributes he needs to get the most use out of his moves.
Mewtwo is the kind of fighter where know your opponent is almost always life or death. If you can predict your opponent’s attacks and combos, you’ll do great. Mewtwo is mostly built as a Punisher, with potential to do more
As a mewtwo main, I would describe him as a spear. Perfect for damage and as a jack of all trades for attacking, but near no real options for defense or turning around disadvantage. You have to know what your opponents choices at all times or you will be overwhelmed into disadvantage. That's why I use Palu as a second, similar game style but Palu has that defense Mewtwo lacks for certain match ups
The first comment I made on this channel was coping very hard about Mewtwo in the "5 characters that need buffs" video. I truly believe that Mewtwo is slept on, but imo the main reason why people don't play him is because players feel like other characters can do all the stuff Mewtwo does, but better and easier to execute.
Ironically, I picked up Mewtwo because I was getting better results for less than I was with Lucario. I wasn't performing that much better, but it was a lot simpler for some reason. I don't play online though, I exclusively fight against CPU's from levels 7-9 depending on whether I think I've warmed up enough or not, so take anything I say with a grain of salt I guess.
I feel like the tail hurtbox is kind of an exaggerated problem, it’s definitely an inconvenience but the much more important aspect is the fact that mewtwo is a superlightweight with a hit box you’d expect of a superheavy. Mewtwo would be drastically better if its weight was more accurate to its cannon weight. Mewtwo is around 260 pounds, which is 80 more than inineroar, and 60 more than charizard, so it doesn’t really make sense mewtwo is 37 units lighter than both in smash, and tied with a 13 pound pikachu. I can understand charizard and incineroar both weighing more in smash to compensate for their slower mobility, but mewtwo weighing the same as pikachu is just disrespectful when you compare the size and mobility of them, as pikachu is smaller and faster, making mewtwo look like an objectively worse character without the offensive or defensive tools to make up for the unfortunate combination of being light and big.
MewTwo's weight is unrealistic because he's meant to be floaty due to levitation. But he's psychic. So he should really be heavier than his weight when getting hit but lighter when he is falling. Heavy weight, slow fall would properly express his psychic levitation.
Mewtwo is my worst good character, and yeah, a lot of this is pretty spot on, especially the part about having to awkwardly disengage while in disadvantage, and having a lot of rough blind spots on his "versatile" moves. I agree the tail hurtbox isn't AS big of a deal as it maybe seems, but it's still painful, especially if I try playing Mewtwo in the same sitting that I play Ridley. This is probably just a me issue, but I also find Mewtwo is a character that makes me overthink. Instead of just taking good, simple options, I feel compelled to do more weird stuff with Mewtwo and I have no idea why.
Weight is misleading, it should be thought of defence rather than how heavy a character is. In Pokemon Mewtwo has high weight and low physical defence. I think that is the justification here and a lot of other characters
Overall I think he has a lot of similar problems akin to my main, Ridley. Big payoff of a very good advantage state, but there will be a lot of games and times where you just cannot do a thing and can't exit disadvantage. And having many games where you just cannot have fun is not an enjoyable experience. and unlike Ridley (weight is not his problem, that's a scrub take, fight me) Mewtwo is extremely light and can get blown up easily.
Was basically going to say something to this effect. Sure, advantage state feels extremely fluid/satisfying, but disadvantage state quickly sucks the fun out of the character in an overwhelming way. If you care about results, you probably are going to want to prioritize consistency. There's no doubt Mewtwo hasn't been optimized, but I don't see how he really gets there (fox/pikachu matchups felt especially brutal). Followed Wadi's lead and started maining R.O.B. Admittedly not as much fun (gyro camp for dayz), but the consistency difference is like night and day.
Being a large character/large hurt boxes and being lighter than what the norm is. That is fundamentally unfair or going into a fight with unnecessary handicaps. This goes for both Mewtwo and Ridley. It also applies to dlc like Sephiroth. But he has enough good things to balance that issue out.
@@redshepherd32 Your mistake is that, unlike the other two, Ridley isn't *light*. Sure he is not a superheavy but he's at 107 units which is more than ROB.
Finally the character I used to play I used to be good with him but frankly resorting to camp with shadow ball every game got boring to me. I did a long break from the game and lost all my fundamentals with every character I played semi competently like Mewtwo and Shulk So I went back to my first main Wolf and him being easier was easier on my hands too.
As a mewtwo main, I agree with this. The tail hit box is very bad and most of his smash attacks cannot be contracted into jab lock combos like Pikachu or fox. But, his tail does good amount of damage and is easy to combo into. Some examples of jab locks: Fox: Up tilt, Arial, footstool, jab 1, jab 2, down smash Pikachu: up air, Arial, footstool, down tilt, up smash While these are very basic combos, mewtwo jab lock combos are very hard to attempt if going up against certain weights such as sheik, falco, and more. But metwo is easy to jab lock heavyweights. Thanks for reading, have a great day! :)
mewtwo disable also has some impossible to pull off comboes to garuntee it, and at one point in time had a single tick of nair>footstool>disable>nair>footstool>disable infinite
I love playing with MewTwo casually, but I struggle a lot with him, I think for many of the reasons you said. I agree with you that he's somewhat high-tier amongst the cast, but he is very difficult to use.
3:27 I was gonna say k rool up throw which deals around 20% but then i remembered about kazuyas stupid input throw that deals as much as a heavyweight f smash
When I played smash ultimate on the daily Mewtwo was my main. So I’m happy to see you make a video for him/them? But anyway, it’s so fun to just get in the opponents face and hit them with hard hitting moves and floating above range. It feels like a majestic dance against the opponent. But you are right on Mewtwo “having many aggressive opinions that cannot be used defensively.” Such a shame too because he could of been a more topheavy version of Paultena. He needs moves to use in disadvantage and areal cancels. It’s like having the coolest looking car but with no car battery. Also I know this might be controversial but I think it’s best to remove his Disable. It’s too gimmicky and does not really help unless the opponent is running at you or if you get a ledge roll predict. Mewtwo has a wide movepool so something like stored power (where it has to be charged like piranha plants poison) but it does a small amount of damage around him and knocks back opponents or something.
mewtwo is lucario with 130 percent aura from the start tested it myself shadow ball kills earlier than lucario at 100, yes he has weakness and hes weird but soras weird to play and hes top tier. and imo i think soras infinitely harder to master i think mewtwo is atleast in my opinion high to top tier by top tier i dont mean competing with palu or someone like that there top 10 but i mean sora snake mario the high high tiers i think mewtwo has more potential than people realise if lucario is viable (armadillo proved that) mewtwo is BEYOND viable
Been playing Mewtwo for a long time now and have always felt off when people mention the tail hurtbox because its not that often that dashing away gets me hit. But you put into words what has never clicked for me about why playing him can get really annoying at times, the trades, getting hit when you should get out of an interaction unscathed is infuriating. The gravity portion also opened my eyes quite a bit. As always great video!
Mewtwo trades so well though! I never mind trading in neutral, just reset and keep going, your not gonna die trading with someone, usually you'll deal more damage, and if you trade with fair at kill percent you will kill them. I do think that the retreating hit box is huge, if you've been a mewtwo main for a while you won't notice it, but if you were any other fast character, one of the fundamental ways you play fast characters is using their speed to create opening. if mewtwo didn't have that problem he would become much stronger. charcters like fox are able to get in on sword charcters by making them wiff, and then punishing them hard for it. something mewtwo should be able to do but can't.
@@bennettstokes195 heyo! yea I have totally gotten used to the retreating hurtbiox, when I play my pocket inkling I can really feel it. Trading is an issue for me constantly, probably from my uber aggressive play style. The main time it annoys me is when the opponent has a fresh stock, you’ll do some damage but if you get hit in the trade you’re going flying
@@thaejsooriya3313 yeah mewtwo is kinda rough right when they respawn, he’s not got great tools to deal with invincibility and so you kinda gotta give up a lot of stage control
@@bennettstokes195 yep definitely playing it safe around them coming off the angel platform is the way to go. Unfortunately I don’t have the patience for that😂 thats on me tho not Mewtwo
As a Mewtwo main, I fully agree with a lot of the things said in this video. Mewtwo essentially has everything it would want to be a top 10 (maybe even top 5) character. It'S fast, it has an amazing recovering, it has a lot of movement options, it has an amazing moveset, it can deal an insane amount of damage and quickly take stocks, and it has one of the best projectiles in the game. Unfortunately its weight, hit box, and floatyness greatly hold it back from achieving its full potential. I will forever die on the hill that Mewtwo is a high tier (at least on the low end of the tier list). The fact that it has a top tier kit and has the ability to dominate or go toe-to-toe with some of the uncommon/weird high and top tiers is too valuable to place it down into mid tier (this same philosophy can also be applied to characters like Chrom and Bayonetta who I also believe are at the very least on the low end of high tier). If Mewtwo had a smaller hit box, then I think it would be an uncontested and definitive high tier. As for why people generally don't play Mewtwo, I don't think it has much to do with its move set or the character itself. Mewtwo is one of the most popular Pokemon ever created, so it DEFINITELY has nothing to do with the character. This is just anecdotal evidence, but most people I play with who try out Mewtwo say its kit is alright. Definitely combo heavy, but you can also easily camp with it or get a few good hits in and get an easy stock. The main problem most people have with playing Mewtwo is its floatyness and how its hit box extends to its tail when attacking. Floaty characters (with some exceptions) tend to put most people off so it's not much of a surprise to see that same criticism be used against Mewtwo. The tail tends to be the ultimate deal breaker tho and is the number one reason as to why people don't bother to use Mewtwo.
For me, it's mostly because of the tail hurt box. I've always wanted to make mewtwo work but the tail hurt box screwed me over so much, it was frustrating. It's no reason as to why it's there.
If Mewtwo could act out of teleport and had less end lag on it, as well as a less suicidal air dodge, he would basically be fixed. His tail isn't so bad that making his floatiness and mobility options better couldn't be enough to compensate. This character was reworked in Project M and showed what even just a Peach float could do to make his jumps less predictable and slow.
I admittedly was part of the hurtbox fear club....but i love the character so much that I decided to play him in Ultimate when I got it and im having a blast. Him/Sora are so much fun to me cuz of the floatiness I always saw it as a huge benefit if you could play safe and DI well
I had no idea people didnt like him in melee, i always felt that was one of his strongest showings. I mained Marth, but Mewtwo and Samus were always my backups.
Mewtwo is all gas and no brakes, an amazing advantage state and an awful disadvantage state. He literally can't run away because when he turns around and goes into his run animation his tail sticks out and puts his hitbox closer than when he was just facing them.
"he has a lot of things going for him, but in the context of his kit and character, their ability is hindered in some shape or form."
that's basically most of smash ultimate characters conundrum lol
Mewtwo is definitely one of those character I feel could go up in the tier list, if we saw more players experiement with him.
Same with my main Greninja!
@@asuuki2048 greninja is a lot better imo
@@AaronVillalobos Yes, but the problem is nobody plays him. Even though he is really fast with a good up move and slash.
Coming from a greninja main.
@@l3mxn1 : It’s precisely because no one plays it that Mewtwo isn’t as good. If it was good, then wouldn’t pro players already be flocking to it like Aegis and Cloud?
There’s a reason why Wadi, best SSBU Mewtwo player in the world, relegates Mewtwo as a secondary.
I think the main problems with Mewtwo is that a lot of people don’t like floaties and the tail hitbox can be very aggravating. Also, I think he could be helped a lot if he was still given backwards momentum from Shadow Ball.
Oh yeah that tail is annoying granted it’s a good high risk-high reward concept but there are way too many animations like his double jump, dash, and Aireals they expose the hit box more than it should.
He's not even the only one with a tail attack and I don't even think the others have a hurt box like he does 😭
The tail hit box is really not that bad, you don't need to play around it that much. I agree with the video , mewtwo is a high tier.
@@Littletony525 Delusional
@@Littletony525 I agree, but the annoyance that comes with it is what I think turns people off from him. It doesn’t actually make him bad it just makes him frustrating.
I feel like the more technical side of Mewtwo will be the key to unlocking his full potential. Wavebounce Shadow Ball, Teleport cancels, footstool Disable (especially out of shield), and more combo optimization could absolutely push the character further. Problem is that most of the players who do play Mewtwo are on Team Fundies, which includes Wadi. I could say that about many characters, and Mewtwo is just one of those many examples
Footstool disable is a good tool on paper for punishes but yeah there's no way that alone would be enough to push Mewtwo up much. Character is clearly designed as more of a hit and run character but he's just not great at it. He's alright but his playstyle is always going to be pretty unimpressive. Mewtwo fans should just be glad he's no longer garbage and is actually decent now
@@Sh1v3rIZAEBeen playing Mewtwo for years (10+) and Mewtwo is definitely more technical than he seems. I still havent seen a player use him to his full potential yet, SDX was the closest but left smash.
It's not only footstools and teleport cancels, it's also slide back down b's, dtilt> IDJ into uAir>nair dragdowns which are greatly underused.
Infact dtilt IDJ combos are just very underused with mewtwo and gives gim acess to his biggest combos. Also nair has 7 different ways it can sent opponents each with their own confirms and it makes it very hard to consistently control and get the best out of it because of that. All that coupled with his unique physics makes it unusual to control and adds a layer of difficulty
Might not be the MOST technical but definitely far above average, there are reason why we dont see Mewtwo do his craziest stuff in tourny.
That level of technicality is usually not worth all the weaknesses that comes with it and needs dedication to pull off. Fundies just arent enough for this character. He is definitely harder than Samus and Bowser individually OR combined. As Samus player myself, there is nothing that is hard to pull of as Samus. I still struggle with M2 after all these years.
If he was that simple, people would use him as a secondary.
IMO, mewtwo's biggest irritation, is his drag down N-Air leaving the opponent facing a random direction, if it didn't then drag down N-Air would lead into disable and lead to some crazy set ups
@@joshdimaggio5764 I concur. It's very tilting not to know which way they're gonna get out of nair and not be able to follow up because of that. That is one of his biggest inconsistencies.
@@Sh1v3rIZAE Mewtwo like most RPG characters has a methodical moveset. In the movie he usually waits for his opponents to make a mistake. Moves like disable and confusion are meant pacifically punish mistakes or if their open to attack.
I think the big thing abt tail is that it changes mewtwo from big to huge when its already lighter than a feather. Your margin for error becomes so small that its hard for him to reach any kind of consistency, despite his super high highs
I think Mewtwo’s teleport was something that you didn’t talk about much. It is an ability with under-explored tech which has potential to mixup opponents and steal neutral or even advantage state from people. In a quarter of a second he can go from disadvantage off stage to center stage and there is nothing people can do about it. Factor in edge cancelling and you have a really scary character than can zone and camp like nobody’s business. The thing is he is treated like he should be able to play a more aggressive style but his entire kit revolves around bait and punish tactics. When played in this way Mewtwo shines.
I agree about his teleport. It has similar utility to Palutena's but more range, isn't an attack so can't be countered and since it goes in all directions and recovers pretty fast, you can just teleport out of most non true pressure if you've got the chance. Definitely one of the best up Bs in the game.
When I play Mewtoo I pretend to be his character from the first Pokémon movie. He’s psychic type so I envision being a step ahead of my opponent.
The way I see it is he his a character with a bait and punish style that has the possibility to play more aggressively against more defensive characters and overwhelm them thanks to his better frame data and kill power. That's the situations where his aggressive play shines in my opinion.
He's teleport has stupidly strict spacing which makes canceling really hard to do consistently. Theres a reason non of the pro players really do it in bracket. And the end lag on it means you can't just freely telepirt back to center stage unless your opponent is going off stage to edge guard
Some fun tech with Mewtwo's teleport, is to bait out a reflected shadow ball and use the intangibility to teleport through the reflected shadow ball and punish the end lag on the reflector
As someone who mained Mewtwo in sm4sh, seeing the addition of the tail hit boxes was a gut punch. Still the #1 reason i dont really play with him anymore, it just limits spacing options and makes fighting swordies hell
Why would they do that to Mewtwo? Seems like Smash hates him.
@@DrNotEmpathetic I didn't know a lot of people didn't play him. He's one of my mains.
I think Mewtwo is underrated in a sense Ganondorf was in Melee: could take care of a lot of characters but loses to all the top tiers and is a giant target.
I think in a roster with 80+ characters it’s inevitable that some are going to fall through the cracks in usage, and Mewtwo is one of them (also see Lucario, Duck Hunt, Mii Swordfighter to name a few others). He seems to be a victim of circumstance, being a popular Pokemon but not necessarily enough compared to other Pokemon reps, being a veteran from Melee and thus having little novelty value, and not having any unique gimmicks or off the wall tools that inspire curiosity and experimentation. Combine that with his awkward competitive profile as explained in the video and you’ve got a character that just kinda exists in a lot of people’s minds.
Mewtwo had the largest drop out of any character in Smash 4 on the first Ultimate tier list
I actually think Mewtwo is underrated.
I play Mewtwo myself and waited every day for this video. Thank you!
He still isn’t great though
@@AegisEdge he isn't the best. But it is still a really good charakter.
I would say, that Mewtwo is a little worse in Ultimate than it was in Smash4, but the current toptiers are just better.
@@vanikura2302Yh in smash 4 he was quite annoying
I play Mewteo as well. I got stomped by my brother playing falcon, but I trained a bit now I'm better and I usually beat him. F-tilt is a good spacing tool, shadow ball can be spammable but down special is a bit situational. Yeha he's floaty but I don't mind.
“By all accounts this move is broken… but it’s on mewtwo. “
The entire mewtwo kit
I think M2 being so floaty is what makes the tail hurtbox in Ultimate so noticeable. Even in S4 the floatyness got you hit like a beach ball a lot, but un Ultimate the tail hurtbox exaggerates the problem. I've been so close to committing to maining M2 for a while now, but keep finding myself liking Samus for some of the same traits (charge shot vs shadow ball)
GREAT VIDEO VARS!!! YES!!! A combination of being well thought out, well spoken, and well said. You have a great voice as well. Keep these videos coming, you hammered every nail with this one.
As a Mewtwo main, I agree with this video, it is true that the character has some significant drawbacks, it definitely does not takeaway the fact that his edge-guarding game is beastly. I still love him regardless and will continue to play him
I think Mewtwo has valid strengths for people to pick up, but his losing matchups are so common I don't think it's worth it
I've always wanted to like Mewtwo, but he's just never clicked for me. His moveset is versatile and he's got great tools, but I've never been able to figure out what his playstyle is supposed to be. His kit doesn't really coalesce into a clearly defined archetype. I know he has a niche in counterplaying certain matchups, but it doesn't feel like he has an apparent fundamental approach to his design. His best tools feel sort of cobbled together on a character who's not really built around using them. He's weird and technical, but not in a way that makes me think "That's cool. I wanna learn how to do that."
This might just be my dumb "hot take" but I feel that Mewtwo is really hurt by not being able to play a standard Netrual game. He has all of the tools you need to win Netrual but because of his unique nature he can't play "footies" well and the longer Netrual goes, the more likely he loses it. Mewtwo wins fast and transitions to Advantage or loses slowly while taking chip damage that will kill him since he is too light. Again, at first glance on paper, Mewtwo has a OK Netrual and many ways to win it, but in practice, you either find a way to keep Netrual short or you often lose.
I hope you know this is one of my all time favorite series. You are an amazing TH-camr and I’m very glad I found you
Mewtwo has been my main for awhile now, I feel like he’s one of the cast that the negatives get looked at too harshly.I never really have a hard time with the idea of the tail box, I just play the game and learn to overcome the disadvantages.I think mewtwo has a lot of options when the user starts getting into movement tech like wave bouncing and slingshots. I think it’s not as flash as some of the cast fight styles which doesn’t drive people to put in the time to see the skill ceiling is pretty high.good video,cheers
This kinda has a similar vibe to Elite Four Karen's quote from Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal or Heart Gold/Soul Silver. Players should use the characters they want to use, regardless of what other's opinions are. 😊
I love this comment but what’s wave bouncing?
And what’s slingshots? I wanna do that with Mewtwo. Is that just the grab reverse throw?
@Elliot Morley slingshots are a method of while in momentum being able to defend and create mix up movement options. I would strongly suggest you watch the slingshot video on youtube, it's hard to really explain without seeing it.cheers!
Mewtwo in the right hands is a force to be reckoned with
While trying out different characters in search of a main, I actually landed on Mewtwo. His move just feel like they hurt and it's great how aggressive he can be. Additionally I actually like floaty jumps for some reason.
It's because you're gay.
His rapid jab feels like it's fucking the opponent UP. Maybe it's the sound design (along with it of course being the most damaging rapid jab in the game, if I'm not mistaken).
As a Mewtwo main, I was afraid all this video was gonna be was - "He tall. He big. He light. He tail. HE BAD!" So, thank you for not making it that, lol. I think Mewtwo is very underrated. Part of it, like you said in the video, is that he does have a unique play style that is difficult to get right. But he's got some of the sickest combos and set ups in the entire game. I think a good player who really "gets" Mewtwo's game plan could go really far.
Biggest reason for people choosing other characters is that they offer similar high highs but without the crushing lows of the times your tail gets clipped. Mewtwo at his worst can feel like a punching bag getting hit by long range or disjointed attacks when any other character would be safe, and you constantly have to keep in mind that you're trying to mitigate this huge weakness of his whenever you're playing him whether on offence or defence.
Was randomly clicking on your video and then saw 2 of my VODs lol ! Thank you I guess ! Great vid :)
Thinking about it after your reasoning, he is similar to Sora in terms of weaknesses. This lends him to being more of a “glass cannon” character.
Hope to see Why No One Plays Lucario next.
I agree. Also Mewtwo feels like he is playing with one less tool than everyone else. His fspecial and dspecial are very unique but have such specific uses, especially dspecial, that also somewhat overlap each other. I believe if the dspecial was traded for an more useful tool he would fair much better as well. Maybe future sight as a projectile that spawns and moves towards him 3 seconds later could be used to cover space in a defensive way.
Down Special (Disable) is absolutely Broken on Mewtwo. Disable outranges Swordies and gives him I-Frames.
@@Mika-xw1xp Yeah, what I'm hearing is "its very situational" like I said.
I was wondering why I was having a not so good time trying to pick up Mewtwo. The combination of his kit and moveset as well as his floatiness makes him hard to pick up quickly (for me at least)
I didn’t know a lot of this, but I definitely *feel* like I had more success with Mewtwo in Smash 4 than Ultimate, just couldn’t put my finger on why.
Tbh, as someone who has played M2 since Sm4sh and Ultimate Day 1, I think this video could have genuinely benefited to some degree to have looked at the matchup spread Mewtwo has rather than basing it off calculated thought or some tournament videos. All the characters listed that he "struggles" against I felt was such an bold statement that I kinda screamed while watching bc the community of M2 players, unlike some other communities of characters who disagree about certain matchups, a Twitter spreadsheet broke down that we are in the top 5 most consistent communities that have opinions on who he can face and have a decent chance in. We
Facing Joker, ROB, Cloud for example I haven't had a conversation with any M2 players who believe they can struggle at it so badly that it's considered losing or they felt immense pressure by facing them (myself included). I'm willing to give you slightly losing if we are to be generous here, but most of the community just agrees that for some of the high tiers and top tiers just even matchups we have to deal with and it's all dependent on the skill level understanding you have of your character.
I mained Mewtwo in smash 4, and while I still like playing him he's just lost so much in the transition. Not only did his hurtbox get bigger, but it became a bit harder to string together certain moves (both f-air strings and u-tilt into upsmash to name two) and confusion took a huge hit in its usefulness, stunning for shorter while also feeling worse for recovery mixups. I liked his sm4sh airdodge more as well, with the invisibility functioning as an occasional mixup, but I can't call that a strict downgrade.
It didn't help that I moved to a town with a competitively stronger scene, so playing a glass canon was a fair bit more punishing
Damn, you live in a town with a notable and strong competitive scene? I didn't think places outside of cities would have that.
Great video! I really love these. Could you do Isabelle next? I find it fascinating how she was originally viewed as menacing when the game first released and is now widely considered hardly even playable. I may be wrong about her starting off as menacing but it always seemed that way to me.
Again, great job :D
Give Mewtwo Yoshi's jump cancelling and you have a monster
I don't think Mewtwo is a high tier character. I can see why you might believe he is though.
I believe most characters exist on a sort of potential wave based on untapped potential, unknown/unused tech, and just plain lack of representation. This is where about 85-90% of the characters in smash ultimate live. Characters like Steve are OBVIOUSLY good, there's no wave or range for their potential in the downward trajectory. Ganon is OBVIOUSLY bad and there isn't much room for him to move up significantly without help. A character like Hero is Obviously mid because he's basically designed around luck. If you crit, get good menus he goes up, if you get unlucky and bad menus he is worse.
Most of the cast however can potentially be much better or worse depending on several factors. It does feel like in the right hands, with stars aligned, perfect weather, the right breakfast, 1000s of hours of practice, and the will of the gods. Characters like Mewtwo, Incineror, Belmonts, Ridley, Mewtwo, K.rool, Meta Knight and Doc(literally to name a few), COULD perform on the level of a top/high tier. This in fact seems to be true at one moment in time. Most "low/lower mid" characters in the game have had at least 1 breakout performance at a major/super major.
The reason why I don't think these characters actually are high or top comes down to consistency. Some characters just don't have the base design for consistent results. They aren't far away either. Characters like Mewtwo are 1-2 changes away from being high tier or better. The same could be said for characters like Pichu and Inklings were seemingly nerfed out of their claims to the top spots.
Then of course there are some characters who seem gatekept by their design. Palutena is seemingly designed to be good after facing several nerfs the character still performs well at top levels when used. Peach who was also nerfed is the in that same boat. Ganon, little mac, and Kirby seem designed to be bad buffs or slight changes aren't the answer for them. They need redesigns.
All in all, most of the characters live and die on small details.
you're the only essay writer making sense in this comment section
@@olivermaddaford6689 thanks
I really like Mewtwo and wanted to use him as my secondary for Ness, but I chose Roy for his smaller hurtbox and ease of use instead.
Ayoo J-job clip moment
I main Aegis and Ridley. While in training mode, I decided to mess with Mewtwo, and I found that he's a bloody blast to play! It's a shame that not many others play him
U main Aegis and Ridley ? U must be a very bad human being lol
Mewtwo's advantage state is a dream... if you can get it that is.
That's funny. I just recently started messing with Mewtwo, and his punish game and pressure feel really strong. I was wondering why he wasn't played more. A week and a half later here comes Vars
Mewtwo is definitely fitting that design of a glass canon with that exploitable hurt box. His original weakness in Melee was due to his stats not fitting with the pace of the game and its ironic that its basically the same way in this version
The weight, floaty, and hurtbox size has always been a detriment to his unique kit but if all of those were adjusted he be an entirely new character but also practically an unstoppable space animal with a sword
I think a lot of people just think of melee and resent Mewtwo. Current Mewtwo is completely different and is a powerful glass cannon that actuallty has mobility, combos, range all in one.
He is a risky glasscannon. Thats the reason why I don't play him as much as I want to, but resort to even safer zoners like ROB and Toon Link.
Mewtwo reminds me a lot of Lucario in the same aspects that you brought out. Covers multiple archetypes and has a very versatile toolkit but also has inconsistency issues with how his aura scales. I believe both mewtwo and lucario respectively has a lot of hidden potential but they’re both unique in how they’re designed under this games engine.
So Lucario _did_ effectively replace Mew2 in Brawl...
I always just called Mewtwo "Smash's version of Street Fighter's Akuma"
Extremely good tools, high damage, stupid pressure, mobility. Purple attacks. Counterbalanced by its health. Or in Smash's case, the weight.
Weight+Size.
Mewtwo has some of the best tools in the game but I didn't know how much his disadvantages hurt him. Can we see Toon Link soon?
I was legit waiting for this, now I gotta watch :D!
After watching:
I fully believe he is underrated. You said you think he is s potential high tier, and I do too. Probably A-.
I think his faults are so obvious and people overlook his incredible strengths. They see big body tail hitbox low weight and put him in bottom tier.
He is hard to play in that you have to be very much aware of what you can do and your opponent can do, due to being a big body light weight, you want to play safe and explode in advantage without over extending, and then you have to be that much more patient and observant in disadvantage to limit the damage as much as possible.
His tools are so good though. Yeah, the tail hurtbox sucks, but the normals are still really good. His specials are also ridiculous. Shadowball is definitely one of the best projectiles in the game. Confusion is a reflector and a command grab. Disable also isn’t cheese, and is a legit hard read death sentence. It has situations where it is more consistent (covering platform techs) as well as proper setups (shadow ball > footstool > disable). Teleport is also crazy and is a tool out of disadvantage and the crazy stuff you can do cancelling it from ledge and plats is crazy.
Confusion and Disable are crazy good but they are also hard to use. Compare this to DLC who have great abilities that are kinda brain dead.
I wish that Mewtwo's tail could be grabbed, but hits would deal damage without knock back unless they dealt high knock back. Hitting someone's ponytail doesn't send em flying, unless you yank it really hard
As a Mewtwo main I loved the video, definitely should’ve talked about slingshot, and teleport stuff. I won’t lie his Meta is massively unexplored imo. SB combos are insanely broken with how you can condition with SB and a reflecting command grab. His kit pretty much as everything you could want jn a character minus a few things. But he’s massively underrated and I think with someone actually playing the character he could be mid - high high tier
I still think Mewtwo is going to eventually find more respect later in Ultimate's competitive lifespan. He is so fluid and sick when played well. Also, people don't make enough use of shooting off multiple quick little aerial or B-reverse Shadow Balls to cover the space between you and the opponent before approaching... he has so much air speed that he can cover that distance very quickly and get good punishes.
funny you posted this video when the world champ uses Mewtwo as his insignia character
the character is just too fair ( advantages and weaknesses ) in a game dominated by bullshit mechanics and moves that look like they came straight from the mind of a dreaming kind writing his Xmas list
Hes Huge and Light, just make him heavy and remove the hurtbox and its a good char.
Could you do a video on the Link trifecta?
A lot of people say Adult Link is better than Toon Link, but more people play the latter while Young Link is also universally agreed to be the best out of all the three.
I’d love to see your take on these three characters maybe all in one video?
Mewtwo should’ve never been touched from Smash 4. I have no idea why he was touched in transition. The airdodge had to go. That was clear. But nothing else was jank or wrong. It honestly feels like they were like “Oh, this character is only nine spots away from Bayonetta and she’s busted. He must be busted, too.”
Because he was busted. Literally mostly every else was fine, except his weight, of course.
He’s in the wrong game: ultimate is a pretty mashy game with tons of great out of shield options, and people don’t hold shield for long enough or consistently enough for mewtwo to be rewarded. And his downsides are pretty bad when you compare his kit to other high tiers that have similar levels of strength without having steep down sides like chrom, terry, wolf, etc. not to mention top tiers who are all stronger with well-rounded kits and no tail hitbox.
I personally think Mewtwo is insanely underrated
Not that it’s relevant but Mewtwo is fun as all hell
I used to play MewTwo when I played the game frequently. He just felt good to play for me. Used to play samus a lot but that got stale and MewTwo looked like a Samus but with more oomph and fun to be had.
I was never super good at the game, never did any tourneys, but if I ever played it again I would go straight back to MewTwo.
Thank you for talking about them though. Reminds of me the good times I had, all the clips you've shown of MewTwo doing well were fun to watch while you spoke facts.
Mewtwo has an S tier moveset with C tier Body and physics
My brother loves/mained Mewtwo so I've thought about this a lot: Mewtwo very much wants to be Akuma: Has OP tools to dominate neutral, high damage to blow you up, setplay to nuke you consistently, but can afford to make very few mistakes himself or he loses.
That gameplan is all about abusing your OP neutral and maximizing every punish to get as much damage as possible with only as much risk as is needed. Usually with a sprinkle of cheese for when he's losing and has to take a big risk.
Just like Akuma, in games where he is like this, he's busted. PM, Sm4sh. In games where he can't, he's still decent but just not worth playing: Ult, Melee.
In sm4sh shadowball and his disjointed tail was enough to dominate neutral because of the limited movement and rarely did he have to trade, both because of his disjoint and the fact there were less frame trap situations he would want to mash in (and less characters who could mash in said situations if there were). He played the same airdodge or not mixup as (almost) everyone else.
In PM he doesn't have as much of a disjoint and shadowball is weaker, but his pressure and punish game is exponentially stronger with acting out of up b, stronger combo starters, float aerials. In PM he's also heavier so even though being big and floaty he still dies early because every confirm works all the time on him, it's not as bad as it could be.
In Ult his neutral isn't dominant (part of which is movement, part of which is lacking his needed disjoint), his risk is too high, and his punish isn't as strong as his defense is bad.
You can go one of a few ways to fix him, but the problem is that he overlaps with other characters depending on how you do it. I would mention that he easily becomes degen depending on how he's buffed, but in Ult that clearly doesn't matter anyway lol.
Sephiroth (who my brother also plays in Ult) is as compared in the video, extremely close to Mewtwo in a lot of ways. He's Mewtwo if you crank the disjoint to an absurd level and make him even weaker defensively.
Palu is also a character with extreme overlap, again as stated in the video. Better physics but weaker kill power and neutral, but extremely close to being the same character when you look at their tools. (My brother hates her for that reason and refused to play her because she's a "less fun Mewtwo" even though his sm4sh Mewtwo main skillset would have been perfect for her.)
If all you want a strong jack of all trades, Ult has plenty.
There isn't a reason to play Mewtwo in most matchups, except as a secondary, and even then there are easier/stronger secondary choices with similar but better matchup spreads.
My brother opted for a combination of Pika, Mewtwo, Lucina, and Sephiroth. But he started using Mewtwo less and less because he could basically cover everything without him.
glass canons with big bodies just dont work
I think Mewtwo's issue is definitely defence. I think a lot of this is due to the unintuitive use of his moves.
Mewtwo is a glass cannon. MockRock starts his video on glass cannons with "Don't get hit" and how glass cannon characters tend to live by this. I think Mewtwo's issues stem from his lack of ability to do this. While fast, he cannot escape pressure with mobility the way Greninja can. His nair is fine out of shield, but the other options you'd expect a character to have are either missing or have limitations when used OOS. While tail is over-rated, it is a hinderance when trying to maneuver around other characters. This is made worse by Mewtwo's low gravity.
Also when Mewtwo comes out of his teleport he doesn't have much momentum. Palutena has the same fall and fast-fall speed as Mewtwo, but she when she comes out of her teleport she has a lot more momentum. With Palu if you teleport and appear in mid-air it feels fine. With Mewtwo you feel like a sitting duck. In disadvantage you don't always get to teleport from your ideal range or position.
Thank you for calling out tail tunnel vision.
They should give mewtwo an backdash attack when the tail hits the enemy when dashing bwck than it should count as hit as shielding hit like palus back air
Loved the video Vars. I would love to here your opinion on DonkeyKong though. I feel like he's in a unique position were a lot of people play him but he's always considered low tier.
12:11 THIS is EXACTLY how I feel about Rosalina!! I main her in Ultimate, but the Luma almost feels like a hindrance because if this... Mewtwo's tail is like if Luma was superglued to Rosalina :(
8:59 Mewtwo needs his fair and nair switched. If his fair was like Ness or Rosalina with a disjointed, multi hit long lasting hitbox while his nair was something clean like Peach's, i think he'd be much better at approaching or pressuring. This would certainly compliment his double jump.
been playing mewtwo a lot recently,this is gonna be interesting
I played mewtwo for a couple of months and I have to say, all the disadvantages you pointed out for the character is kinda of why I don’t play the character anymore. Obviously the tail is a problem but when u add in his high risk high reward gameplay and his average disadvantage state and matchup chart, it just isn’t really worth playing the character compared to others in the game
LETS GO! I've been asking for this!
Not sure if it would’ve been realistic, but I wish landing an attack on Mewtwo’s tail would deal no knockback
I dont even know about Mewtwo taking on the wierder characters. He loses to Pacman and Sonic and goes even with a couple other characters you mentioned in that list. Mewtwo isnt dishonest enough nor does he have the combination of attributes he needs to get the most use out of his moves.
I enjoy playing MewTwo but his holier than thou attitude is a big weakness on the battlefield
Mewtwo is the kind of fighter where know your opponent is almost always life or death. If you can predict your opponent’s attacks and combos, you’ll do great.
Mewtwo is mostly built as a Punisher, with potential to do more
As a mewtwo main, I would describe him as a spear. Perfect for damage and as a jack of all trades for attacking, but near no real options for defense or turning around disadvantage. You have to know what your opponents choices at all times or you will be overwhelmed into disadvantage. That's why I use Palu as a second, similar game style but Palu has that defense Mewtwo lacks for certain match ups
Awesome video man, Mewtwo is my secondary. He's legit for all the reasons you covered. When in doubt, I choose Mewtwo and he rarely disappoints.
The first comment I made on this channel was coping very hard about Mewtwo in the "5 characters that need buffs" video. I truly believe that Mewtwo is slept on, but imo the main reason why people don't play him is because players feel like other characters can do all the stuff Mewtwo does, but better and easier to execute.
Ironically, I picked up Mewtwo because I was getting better results for less than I was with Lucario. I wasn't performing that much better, but it was a lot simpler for some reason. I don't play online though, I exclusively fight against CPU's from levels 7-9 depending on whether I think I've warmed up enough or not, so take anything I say with a grain of salt I guess.
As a mewtwo main, I love that people don't play him, shadow ball camping goes crazy 😂
I miss Brawl when no one played Ike.
I feel like the tail hurtbox is kind of an exaggerated problem, it’s definitely an inconvenience but the much more important aspect is the fact that mewtwo is a superlightweight with a hit box you’d expect of a superheavy. Mewtwo would be drastically better if its weight was more accurate to its cannon weight. Mewtwo is around 260 pounds, which is 80 more than inineroar, and 60 more than charizard, so it doesn’t really make sense mewtwo is 37 units lighter than both in smash, and tied with a 13 pound pikachu. I can understand charizard and incineroar both weighing more in smash to compensate for their slower mobility, but mewtwo weighing the same as pikachu is just disrespectful when you compare the size and mobility of them, as pikachu is smaller and faster, making mewtwo look like an objectively worse character without the offensive or defensive tools to make up for the unfortunate combination of being light and big.
MewTwo's weight is unrealistic because he's meant to be floaty due to levitation. But he's psychic. So he should really be heavier than his weight when getting hit but lighter when he is falling.
Heavy weight, slow fall would properly express his psychic levitation.
Mewtwo is my worst good character, and yeah, a lot of this is pretty spot on, especially the part about having to awkwardly disengage while in disadvantage, and having a lot of rough blind spots on his "versatile" moves.
I agree the tail hurtbox isn't AS big of a deal as it maybe seems, but it's still painful, especially if I try playing Mewtwo in the same sitting that I play Ridley.
This is probably just a me issue, but I also find Mewtwo is a character that makes me overthink. Instead of just taking good, simple options, I feel compelled to do more weird stuff with Mewtwo and I have no idea why.
Mewtoo? Don't you mean "Midtoo?"
Weight is misleading, it should be thought of defence rather than how heavy a character is. In Pokemon Mewtwo has high weight and low physical defence.
I think that is the justification here and a lot of other characters
Overall I think he has a lot of similar problems akin to my main, Ridley.
Big payoff of a very good advantage state, but there will be a lot of games and times where you just cannot do a thing and can't exit disadvantage. And having many games where you just cannot have fun is not an enjoyable experience.
and unlike Ridley (weight is not his problem, that's a scrub take, fight me) Mewtwo is extremely light and can get blown up easily.
Was basically going to say something to this effect. Sure, advantage state feels extremely fluid/satisfying, but disadvantage state quickly sucks the fun out of the character in an overwhelming way. If you care about results, you probably are going to want to prioritize consistency. There's no doubt Mewtwo hasn't been optimized, but I don't see how he really gets there (fox/pikachu matchups felt especially brutal). Followed Wadi's lead and started maining R.O.B. Admittedly not as much fun (gyro camp for dayz), but the consistency difference is like night and day.
I main ridley and second mewtwo, and I completely agree with this take lol. Part of why I found mewtwo fairly easy to pick up
@@agrungedrummer gyro camp for days!! 👌🏕
Being a large character/large hurt boxes and being lighter than what the norm is. That is fundamentally unfair or going into a fight with unnecessary handicaps. This goes for both Mewtwo and Ridley. It also applies to dlc like Sephiroth. But he has enough good things to balance that issue out.
@@redshepherd32 Your mistake is that, unlike the other two, Ridley isn't *light*. Sure he is not a superheavy but he's at 107 units which is more than ROB.
Finally the character I used to play
I used to be good with him but frankly resorting to camp with shadow ball every game got boring to me.
I did a long break from the game and lost all my fundamentals with every character I played semi competently like Mewtwo and Shulk
So I went back to my first main Wolf and him being easier was easier on my hands too.
As a mewtwo main, I agree with this. The tail hit box is very bad and most of his smash attacks cannot be contracted into jab lock combos like Pikachu or fox. But, his tail does good amount of damage and is easy to combo into. Some examples of jab locks:
Fox: Up tilt, Arial, footstool, jab 1, jab 2, down smash
Pikachu: up air, Arial, footstool, down tilt, up smash
While these are very basic combos, mewtwo jab lock combos are very hard to attempt if going up against certain weights such as sheik, falco, and more. But metwo is easy to jab lock heavyweights.
Thanks for reading, have a great day! :)
I wreck absolute shop in smash as mewtwo.
mewtwo disable also has some impossible to pull off comboes to garuntee it, and at one point in time had a single tick of nair>footstool>disable>nair>footstool>disable infinite
I love playing with MewTwo casually, but I struggle a lot with him, I think for many of the reasons you said. I agree with you that he's somewhat high-tier amongst the cast, but he is very difficult to use.
3:27
I was gonna say k rool up throw which deals around 20% but then i remembered about kazuyas stupid input throw that deals as much as a heavyweight f smash
Doing the hurtbox stuff with Mewtwo's tail is almost like putting a hurtbox on a semi swordie lol.
Def underrated. I think he's at least bottom of high tier or top of mid tier.
When I played smash ultimate on the daily Mewtwo was my main. So I’m happy to see you make a video for him/them? But anyway, it’s so fun to just get in the opponents face and hit them with hard hitting moves and floating above range. It feels like a majestic dance against the opponent. But you are right on Mewtwo “having many aggressive opinions that cannot be used defensively.” Such a shame too because he could of been a more topheavy version of Paultena. He needs moves to use in disadvantage and areal cancels. It’s like having the coolest looking car but with no car battery. Also I know this might be controversial but I think it’s best to remove his Disable. It’s too gimmicky and does not really help unless the opponent is running at you or if you get a ledge roll predict. Mewtwo has a wide movepool so something like stored power (where it has to be charged like piranha plants poison) but it does a small amount of damage around him and knocks back opponents or something.
mewtwo is lucario with 130 percent aura from the start
tested it myself shadow ball kills earlier than lucario at 100, yes he has weakness and hes weird but soras weird to play and hes top tier. and imo i think soras infinitely harder to master
i think mewtwo is atleast in my opinion high to top tier by top tier i dont mean competing with palu or someone like that there top 10 but i mean sora snake mario the high high tiers i think mewtwo has more potential than people realise if lucario is viable (armadillo proved that) mewtwo is BEYOND viable
what a weird week. i started playing m2, see a bunch of m2 combo comps on my reccomended without me looking anything up about it, now this
I love your videos keep up the good work
Been playing Mewtwo for a long time now and have always felt off when people mention the tail hurtbox because its not that often that dashing away gets me hit. But you put into words what has never clicked for me about why playing him can get really annoying at times, the trades, getting hit when you should get out of an interaction unscathed is infuriating. The gravity portion also opened my eyes quite a bit. As always great video!
Mewtwo trades so well though! I never mind trading in neutral, just reset and keep going, your not gonna die trading with someone, usually you'll deal more damage, and if you trade with fair at kill percent you will kill them. I do think that the retreating hit box is huge, if you've been a mewtwo main for a while you won't notice it, but if you were any other fast character, one of the fundamental ways you play fast characters is using their speed to create opening. if mewtwo didn't have that problem he would become much stronger. charcters like fox are able to get in on sword charcters by making them wiff, and then punishing them hard for it. something mewtwo should be able to do but can't.
@@bennettstokes195 heyo! yea I have totally gotten used to the retreating hurtbiox, when I play my pocket inkling I can really feel it. Trading is an issue for me constantly, probably from my uber aggressive play style. The main time it annoys me is when the opponent has a fresh stock, you’ll do some damage but if you get hit in the trade you’re going flying
@@thaejsooriya3313 yeah mewtwo is kinda rough right when they respawn, he’s not got great tools to deal with invincibility and so you kinda gotta give up a lot of stage control
@@bennettstokes195 yep definitely playing it safe around them coming off the angel platform is the way to go. Unfortunately I don’t have the patience for that😂 thats on me tho not Mewtwo
As a Mewtwo main, I fully agree with a lot of the things said in this video. Mewtwo essentially has everything it would want to be a top 10 (maybe even top 5) character. It'S fast, it has an amazing recovering, it has a lot of movement options, it has an amazing moveset, it can deal an insane amount of damage and quickly take stocks, and it has one of the best projectiles in the game. Unfortunately its weight, hit box, and floatyness greatly hold it back from achieving its full potential.
I will forever die on the hill that Mewtwo is a high tier (at least on the low end of the tier list). The fact that it has a top tier kit and has the ability to dominate or go toe-to-toe with some of the uncommon/weird high and top tiers is too valuable to place it down into mid tier (this same philosophy can also be applied to characters like Chrom and Bayonetta who I also believe are at the very least on the low end of high tier). If Mewtwo had a smaller hit box, then I think it would be an uncontested and definitive high tier.
As for why people generally don't play Mewtwo, I don't think it has much to do with its move set or the character itself. Mewtwo is one of the most popular Pokemon ever created, so it DEFINITELY has nothing to do with the character. This is just anecdotal evidence, but most people I play with who try out Mewtwo say its kit is alright. Definitely combo heavy, but you can also easily camp with it or get a few good hits in and get an easy stock. The main problem most people have with playing Mewtwo is its floatyness and how its hit box extends to its tail when attacking.
Floaty characters (with some exceptions) tend to put most people off so it's not much of a surprise to see that same criticism be used against Mewtwo. The tail tends to be the ultimate deal breaker tho and is the number one reason as to why people don't bother to use Mewtwo.
In my opinion, I love playing mewtwo. And oddly I’ve found that most of the characters that WaDi plays are fun and balanced, so I enjoy those as well
For me, it's mostly because of the tail hurt box. I've always wanted to make mewtwo work but the tail hurt box screwed me over so much, it was frustrating. It's no reason as to why it's there.
If Mewtwo could act out of teleport and had less end lag on it, as well as a less suicidal air dodge, he would basically be fixed. His tail isn't so bad that making his floatiness and mobility options better couldn't be enough to compensate. This character was reworked in Project M and showed what even just a Peach float could do to make his jumps less predictable and slow.
4:30
Dude literally forgot about Cloud's Bair.
I admittedly was part of the hurtbox fear club....but i love the character so much that I decided to play him in Ultimate when I got it and im having a blast. Him/Sora are so much fun to me cuz of the floatiness I always saw it as a huge benefit if you could play safe and DI well
Actually I'm pretty sure King K Rool's up throw is the most damaging in the game
I had no idea people didnt like him in melee, i always felt that was one of his strongest showings. I mained Marth, but Mewtwo and Samus were always my backups.