Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike/Ken/2021/Introduction

Introduction

After settling into married life for a couple of years, Ken entered the third Street Fighter tournament. He's a US Martial Artist who trains to keep up with his old friend/rival Ryu

Ken needs little introduction, as one of the most famous fighting game characters ever, and (apparently) the more popular shoto between the two originals. He is one of the best characters in the game, mainly for incredibly high meterless damage off stray hits and great pokes, one of the best anti airs in the game and one of the best supers aswell in SA3.

Super Arts

SAI (Shoryu-Reppa)

A decent super, would probably be his super of choice if SAIII didn't exist. Has numerous hit confirms, 2 stocks, and good damage. On the downside, doesn't have the incredible invincibility frames and range of SAIII, and has significantly worse recovery.

SAII: (Shinryu-Ken)

Not a very popular super, as it has very pronounced flaws and strengths. It is a fairly good anti-air (since you can mash unpredictably, and thus mess up the opponent's air-parry timings), and does the most damage out of his supers by a good amount. On the flip side, it has terrible range, even more terrible recovery, and doesn't have as many good hit-confirms and cancels as his other two supers. Probably his least used super.

SAIII: (Shippu-Jinrai-Kyaku)

The universal choice of super for Ken, for good reason. Perhaps its biggest selling points are the 3 stocks (lots of EX meter for fireballs and air hurricane kicks) and its absurd number of hit confirms...it links off of just about anything you can possibly imagine. But less obvious (but equally important) properties include its lightning-quick startup - it can punish a whole bunch of moves that are otherwise usually safe, i.e. any shoto's cr. mk (yes, it can be reversal super punished, if blocked), Alex's EX shoulder, etc. It also has great invincibility properties - at point-blank, virtually nothing but a projectile can knock Ken out of the super. (I've heard Dudley's jab is also capable of this, but this needs to be confirmed.) The only downside to this super is the fairly low damage, but it's still perfectly respectable, especially for the length of meter, and the numerous upsides completely outweigh that one small negative.

Pros & Cons

Strengths

Weaknesses

Damage: Some of the better meterless damage in the game. Great, all-purpose normals: Ken's normals are great and have lots of utility: poking, anti airing, pressure, abare, etc. Great Mobility: Ken has good movement with great dashes and good walk speed, alongside EX air tatsu to escape corners. SA3 is very Strong: One of the best supers in the game, having both a lot of meter for EX moves, and a lot of utility in combos and punishing. Lack of weaknesses: Ken doesn't have any notable weakness, which is part of what makes him so good.

No gimmick: Despite being strong all around, has no gimmick or something particularly overpowered or extremely difficult to work around

Character Colors