Super Smash Bros. Brawl: why Lucario was seen as Mewtwo’s replacement

When Nintendo released Super Smash Bros. Brawl on Wii in 2008, Mewtwo , who’d been in Super Smash Bros. Melee, was gone. Lucario became the new marquee Pokémon fighter instead. Nintendo never officially said Lucario was a direct replacement, but a lot of players saw it that way anyway. The timing matched up, both characters filled that serious humanoid lane, and the Shadow Ball versus Aura Sphere comparison was obvious enough that people kept making it.

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It wasn’t hard to see why that hit a nerve. Mewtwo was already one of Pokémon’s defining faces: a Generation 1 Legendary created from Mew’s DNA, with a tragic backstory that carried over into the games, the anime, the movies, and the trading cards. Lucario made perfect sense as Brawl’s Diamond and Pearl-era addition, but many fans still felt like it had stepped into Mewtwo’s old spot. If you paid any attention to Smash roster arguments at the time, this became one of the biggest Pokémon controversies the series had.

That reaction stuck around for years, even though Mewtwo was never a dominant tournament pick in Super Smash Bros. Melee. For a lot of fans, this had less to do with tier lists and more to do with losing an icon. Reports tied to Super Smash Bros. Brawl datamines only added to that reading: files pointed to a late cut, with Mewtwo-related effects, victory music, sound files, and even Wii Remote selection data hinting at time pressure rather than a simple one-for-one swap. Mewtwo finally returned as DLC in 2015 in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, and later joined the base roster in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

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