M2U-CL-Myutsu
So, let’s begin. And the beginning is the return of my Pros VS Cons system of rating characters. With some facts and issues in between.
The Facts/Pros:
-Mewtwo is ridiculously popular. No, I mean it. He’s not only the most requested character worldwide but he even tops newcomer requests for characters like Pac-Man, Megaman and King K Rool. As a result, he’s a character that many fans have clamored for since his conspicuous absence from Brawl.
-Mewtwo was not ever replaced by any character in Smash Bros. In fact, Mewtwo has been planned for every game, and likely even 4, if Sakurai’s comments hinting around the possibility of Mewtwo are anything to hear. While Sakurai is known for trolling, when it comes to a character of such a special situation, being requested so dearly, trolling the fans with Mewtwo being something else or trolling them about the character that’s most wanted in the world wouldn’t be a good PR strategy. As for how he’s been planned…
=An interview with Nintendo developers and Sakurai regarding Super Smash Bros 64 reveals that Mewtwo, Bowser and King Dedede were all planned for the first game, but in typical Sakurai fashion, were cut for timing issues.
=Mewtwo, along with Bowser and Dedede, were planned for Melee. While Bowser and Mewtwo made it in as newcomer, Dedede was cut for time constraints and 6 clones (Falco, Dr. Mario, Young Link, Roy, Ganondorf and Pichu) were placed in the game instead of the King.
=Dedede was eventually a newcomer for Smash 4, along with Meta Knight, giving two newcomers for Kirby. 5 characters, 4 being clones, were cut in Brawl, but the issue regarding these characters is the circumstances for their attendance taking a hit. It turns out that Dr. Mario, Roy, and Mewtwo were all planned for Brawl as their data was found on the disc as incomplete. While many speculate that they were imports, Mewtwo and Roy have special fanfares that go unused. Mewtwo appears to be the most complete of the unused characters, but the issue is what exactly caused him to not be in the final game. Many have speculated and said Lucario has directly replaced Lucario as a “clone”, but this is incorrect by factual levels.
Noticing a trend? Sakurai has trouble with time, because he takes his time making these games the best they can be.
-Lucario is not a clone of Mewtwo, straightforward and to the point. Even the move they are “considered to share” is different; Aura Sphere is a standard projectile and Shadow Ball travels as a Medusa Head pattern (coined from Castlevania’s Medusa enemies that flew in the titular path) and if 4’s to show anything, they’re barely alike in any way, shape or manner. Lucario is a physical fighter, and Mewtwo is a special one. Even moreso, Lucario’s Mega Evolution makes this even bigger of an obvious fallacy; Lucario’s Mega makes his Aura more powerful than before, something Mewtwo does not have. And speaking of Aura, I hope people get it that Aura=/=Mewtwo. Because the most aura Mewtwo gets ever in any single game is Aura Sphere, and many Pokemon learn Aura Sphere.
-Furthermore, to go onto the clone discussion, Clone Logic is dumb. By that Logic, a ton of characters are "Clones": Marth/Ike, Megaman/Sonic, Mario/Luigi, Charizard/Bowser, Kirby/Dedede, Little Mac/Greninja, the list goes on. Mewtwo and Lucario have different movesets, and they do not play the same at ALL, seriously. The Mega Evolution will only make this stand out.
-Lucario couldn’t have replaced Mewtwo if both were planned at the same time. That makes no sense to just do that in development and not get any bad PR, which Nintendo does not want. However, Brawl’s development is one thing that’s full of horrible planning, priority, bad balance, and poor Public Relations, which leads me to what actually managed to off Mewtwo and 6 other potential characters’ chances in Brawl…
-Sonic the Hedgehog. No, I kid you not. Sonic was not planned for Brawl at first, a widely known fact. He was only added as public demand grew to an insane level. Nintendo decided that he would give more profit to the game (which honestly was not a bad idea at first) but unlike Snake in Melee, they decided to not wait till next game and added him in as a late newcomer. However, being a third party results in not only a contract, but priority for his completion. What did this mean? This meant that pretty much most of the other newcomers and characters unfinished would get cut, so Sonic had to be rushed in an attempt to try and get them all done. This lead to a low quality Sonic in Brawl, and a mediocre representation as to how he played. However, it’s highly speculated that the three characters that managed to be completed that were likely already in development are Jiggs, Wolf and Toon Link, as they are late in the listings with Sonic.
-Oh, and if the trend of one character replacing another is any point, then wouldn’t Lucario get “replaced” by Greninja, who also is now being pinned as Mewtwo’s replacement? Even though Greninja plays like Strider, who doesn’t even remotely resemble Mewtwo in any way at all whatsoever? The logic behind it is flimsy and shoddy at best.
-Sakurai has dropped a hint about Mewtwo back at E3, when the roster was finalized already. The wording about this leads to the fact that Sakurai knows people want Mewtwo back in, and as a result, there’s absolutely no reason not to do so. However, he’s also noting that while the roster they have in mind is finalized, cuts are possible, which referred to any Smash character ever in the series. So far, Pokemon Trainer has been the only cut that is confirmed.
-So, with the newcomer for Pokemon revealed, many have speculated no more Pokemon characters. However, some main points are here to completely shoot that argument down.
=Brawl, as a whole, breaks this entire rule. The biggest examples come from Fire Emblem, Mother and Pokemon, ironically enough. Ike was revealed before unlockable veteran Marth. Lucas is the same with Ness. And Pokemon Trainer not only was revealed before Lucario, but ANOTHER veteran as well, Jigglypuff.
=Melee, as a whole, also breaks this entire rule. Bowser and Peach before Luigi and Dr. Mario is the main example of this occurring.
=Unlockable characters are pretty much a given at this point. Sonic and Megaman were revealed, but were unlockable. Unlocking characters, veterans and newcomers alike is not something foreign to Smash Bros, and with the way it’s looking right now, that seems to be the case. Only 29 characters have been revealed, and that seems fine considering the evolution of Smash’s Roster. The starting list will likely be 35, with a few more newcomers and veterans arriving. With those unlockables come Veterans and newcomers alike, and with the trend very likely being upheld, we can easily get another Pokemon Character.
-Mewtwo is a special case because of not only his status, but his renewed iconicness. Thanks to the Mega Evolution concept, Mewtwo has gained two new Mega Evolutions. With Game Freak essentially helping decide characters for Pokemon, it’d be a bad idea for them to have passed it up. Mewtwo’s even more special because of him being the only Legendary to Mega Evolve, allowing him to showcase Mega Evolutions, Legendary Pokemon and a famous icon from Pokemon. He’s also had two movies, now, a special (Mewtwo Returns) and is far more available than his current competition, Jigglypuff.
-In the condition that it’s a fight to see who stays, it’s likely to end in Mewtwo’s favor. Jigglypuff has seriously jumped out of the spotlight and now only clings onto dear life with the fact that she’s one of the original 12. However, that’s been shown to not always be helpful to her, as in Brawl she’s the last veteran returning to be completed according to disk data. That could very well be due to her spotlight and limelight time going away even before Brawl. Her inclusion in the original is because she was a model based on Kirby, and was easy to make for the development team given the time they had.
-Jigglypuff’s disadvantage is that the main reason it has been selected is because of the anime connection. It’s been iconic in the anime until a while back. Jigglypuff makes just minor, and minor appearances here and there. However, Mewtwo’s gotten more and more major roles.
-So certain to say we’ll get a grass type? Still doesn’t mean anything. We’re likely keeping Brawl’s count. Slots aren’t an issue, there was still a whopping plurality for Pokemon, outing above Zelda for two characters.
-6 characters for Pokémon are possible. It’s known that Sakurai doesn’t like to seriously go cut happy. So why would he get rid of 2 other Pokémon, one from Brawl as well? It’s very plausible given Brawl gave them technically 7 characters, as PT is counted as one by the disk. While 7 characters is very, very unlikely for us to see at the time and date, as with transformations gone, the characters we get are likely to be fleshed out.
-Squirtle and Ivysaur are likely getting a similar fate with PT. Having two starters of the same type is quite literally blasphermy, and with us getting at least one newcomer a game, and at least one Pokemon cut every single Smash Bros game, you can bet we’re losing at least one of them, since the cycle is caused by Game Freak’s decision in planning and promotion with it. (Note that Fire Emblem’s developers do not do this, but Sakurai does take their input). Pokemon is a mega-franchise that will showcase what would be desired best to show Pokemon, and Mewtwo fits the bill. HOWEVER, this does not mean Ivysaur or Squirtle are deconfirmed. Neither have been shown, therefore, until we see that 5th Pokemon, it’s a tossup. However, they appear as a pair; if one is deconfirmed, then the other may likely share the same fate, and if one is confirmed, it’s likely the other will be as well.
-Mewtwo is the most iconic legendary Pokemon. The Pikachu of legendaries. Some reasoning:
-One of the most iconic in the original games, still is today thanks to his resurgence with Megas.
-Mewtwo’s been planned for every freaking Smash game. If you didn’t get that earlier, please look above. Interviews have confirmed it, disk data has confirmed it. No way getting around it.
-Mewtwo has THREE Pokemon Specials, two being movies. He’s kind of like Ron Burgundy in Smash Bros. Oh, wait, what’s that? HE IS ALSO GOING TO BE IN THE NEXT POKEMON MOVIE, WHICH FEATURES MEGA EVOLUTIONS ALONG WITH DIANCIE.
-Mewtwo still fits the bill for playable. He’s appearing in X&Y (Like every single other playable character from Pokemon), is a rather important point in the game (showcases Mega Evolutions as their literal poster boy), is one of the games Legendaries, a very iconic element of Pokemon, is a new inclusion (Mega) that would work well in fighting (speculated to be a reason why Greninja may have been selected over anyone else). For Smash, he presents a unique playstyle that works with being a ranged fighter with excellent throws. Oh man, those throws. Even compared to the rest of the cast, he’s still quite unique, having an original moveset that no other character really copies from at all exactly. This original moveset is also why his cut was very controversial… many questioned it because the only other cuts were clones.
-Too many Megas? Spacies would like to see you. We got 3 Landmasters that were different, Megas are just like that. But then again they are to power up that character’s playstyle.
-Jigglypuff and Mewtwo can still coexist. Redundancy, but it’s important to note that some character will get cut in this process. Mewtwo, in addition, is a villainous character, something that Pokemon has mostly lacked. And Pokemon had the most playable characters as a series in Brawl, but no villain at all.
-Greninja is the Main Pokemon poster boy of Gen VI. Mewtwo’s the other side. I fail to see how Greninja detrimentally hurts Mewtwo when Squirtle has something to worry about.
-Mewtwo’s absence in the Direct helps him, it doesn’t hurt him. Why? The Trailer in the Direct pretty much showed off a large majority of the Pokeball Pokemon, killing off many, MANY potentials, such as Zoroark and the like. Mewtwo was not shown at all in the Direct. As for the actual gameplay? Mewtwo was not shown anywhere in gameplay. A large variety of other Pokemon were shown… Meowth, Deoxys, Zoroark, many other potentials with high chances… and Mewtwo wasn’t present. He’d likely turn into a Pokeball if he wasn’t playable to at least please fans.
-Ivysaur and Squirtle have a shot, though with another water type, it’s skeptical. Starters getting repeated has not occurred in Smash, and types have only been repeated once, with Pichu, who was the standout ridiculous iconic character at the time.
-Time constraints. Although seeing how we know the game’s been in development for two years, and there’s been two freaking teams working on this, I think time constraints aren’t going to be the largest issue.
-Sakurai’s pulling pranks on us. Ridley’s very controversial, but one cannot deny that it was very trollish. Same with Greninja looking like Mewtwo. Neither are 100% deconfirmed for various reasons.
-Muhrelevancy and muhrecency? Those are in Mewtwo’s favor, being relevant and recent, but someone will list them.
So… Logic Bullet over.
