Street Fighter 6/Ken/Introduction

Introduction

Former US National Fighting Champ, and ex-VP of the Masters Foundation. Accusations of orchestrating a criminal plot have forced Ken to abandon his family and business and go into hiding.

The original shotoclone, Ken is very similar to his old training partner Ryu. Both characters have very similar movesets, but Ken carves out a path all his own. With emphasis on aggression and close-range combat, Ken acts as a more offense focused alternativve to the Shoto playstyle.

Ken shares the iconic Hadoken and Shoryuken with Ryu, but there's about where their kits begin to diverge. Ken's signature special is his command sprint Quick Dash, which can be used both as a pressure tool and to empower his other specials. If certain specials are used out of Quick Dash, they gain enhanced properties rivalling that of Overdrive moves. In particular, while his normal Tatsumaki is a decent combo ender, Dash Tatsumaki gives incredible corner carry off of any clean hit. Each of these enhanced specials act as different combo enders or extenders, and each one gives something valuable to Ken's kit, whether that be corner carry, strong okizeme, or even sideswapping mid-combo.

Excellent corner carry is a running theme in Ken's kit. While he pokes with 5MK, 2MK and 5HP, Ken looks for a clean hit to Drive Rush. After a confirm, Ken can carry you all the way to the corner and set you up for some truly nasty corner pressure. Any successful hit leads into powerful corner combos that deal great damage and give good okizeme, allowing him to loop pressure continuously. The Jinrai Series of kicks acts as great rekka pressure options in this scenario, and even come with built-in mixup tools. All of this adds up to Ken being a neutral and offense monster, capable of easily tagging the opponent and dragging them into the corner off of any successful opening.

Ken's largest weakness is his difficulty confirming into his important combos. Ken's 5MP > 5HP Target Combo is a great combo starter, but 5MP has incredibly short range and requires Ken to be very close to his opponent to connect. This can make it difficult to meaningfully capatilize on certain opportunities and may force Ken into much less rewarding enders compared to other characters. As well, leanring his Quick Dash combos can be somewhat tricky, and his long recovery on some important pokes makes it very easy to whiff punish him if he plays carelessly. Overall, Ken is another great character to learn Street Fighter with. If you like aggression, strong combo expression, and enjoy kicking so hard you set things on fire, you really can't go wrong with Ken.

Strengths

Weaknesses

Corner Carry: Ken has many options to push the opponent to the corner, like OD Tatsu or Run Tatsu. Back Throw has massive corner carry after the side switch, instantly cornering the opponent from midscreen. He can also swap sides with Lv.1 Super or juggles into OD/Run Dragonlash, making him a threat even when cornered. Anti Airs: With an invincible Shoryuken, a long range Run~Shoryuken, a powerful Lv.3 Super, and a consistent 2HP, Ken has no shortage of anti-air options at any range. Drive Gauge Depletion: Ken's heavy normals have good range, speed, and pushback. And with his ability to cancel 5HP into Jinrai Kicks, he can remove 1 Drive bar from blocking opponents to limit their resources. Punish Game: Ken has an above average ability to convert Punish Counters into high damage, while also having great normals to start these punishes. His Supers have good range, allowing for consistent punishes that other characters struggle to achieve. Ken's optimal combos hit like a truck, especially when he has the corner and resources to spend.

Drive Impact Susceptibility: Ken's better pokes such as 5MK, 5HK and Hadoken have long recovery, making them susceptible to Drive Impact. This weakness also applies to moves like LK Jinrai, any Jinrai Overhead followup, or Dragonlash Kick. Combo Consistency: Ken's 5MP is one of his most important combo tools, as it links from 2LP and chains into his Target Combo. The range is very limited, however, and is liable to whiff in some circumstances. 2MP does not allow followup links on a normal connect. This leaves Ken a bit more reliant on single-hit confirms or light normal strings.