Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo/Ken

Introduction

Ryu's training partner, Ken, has developed his own style of moves and ariations since his clone days of Street Fighter II: World Warrior. In ST, he can be a very tough character to beat if played right with the tools he has and the right mindset.

Color Options

New Ken Colors

To choose the "Hold" color, press and hold any button except Start for 2 seconds. To choose any other color, simply tap the desired button.
--Raisin (April 6, 2007)

Old Ken Colors

Old Ken's input code is LLLR. Pressing Short simultaneously with Jab or Fierce will give you the alternate color.
--Raisin (April 6, 2007)

Moves

Special Moves

-qcf+p: Hadouken aka fireball. Speed depends on the strength of the punch. O.Ken has slower jab fireball and faster fierce firebal which make O.Ken a better FB trap character than his new version.

-dp+p: Shoryuken aka dragon punch. Only jab dp can go through FBs. Jab dp does 1 hit, strong does 2, and fierce does 3. O.Ken has full invincibility on the way up for all of his dps as opposed to N.Ken's invinciblity during the early frames.

-qcb+k: Hurricane Kick. Can be done in air. He spins more depending on the strength of the button.

-qcf+k: Inside Crescent. A fast high hitting kick. Good for jump in combos, since comboing a FB with Ken is hard in ST and this funky kick will combo easily off of low short or forward.

-f~df~d+k: Outside Crescent. A 2 hit kick that gives Ken a lot of frame advantage if blocked/hit but has slow startup. Hits crouching characters.

-hcf+k: Roundhouse. His old far standing rh became this move with less active hitting frames. Not very usual for anything really.

-qcf,qcf+p: Shoryureppa. His double-shoryuken super. Note that this super is invincible until he's on the way down from the second dp. Also it seems like he has very little landing recovery frames, so a throw or a dp on landing can catch an unsuspecting opponent if you were allowed to land in the first place. As one of the oddities of ST, Ken cannot use his super for a reversal attack, if you input the super at the reversal timing you'll instead get the last special move you did.
--Laugh 20:37, 19 July 2006 (CDT)

The Basics

Anti-air

Ken has a perfectly good invicible anti-air (shoryuken) but sometimes that's not enough for certain situations. Be smart with them and use effective antiair options for each situation.

*When the opponent jumps at you honestly
-jab dp

-super (this does about 3 hits max and will do more damage than a jab dp)

-stand far forward (just decent, use it like you would with ryu's s.rh)

-hcf+kick (this looks like his old stand far rh, time it well since it doesn't last very long)

-cr.fierce (be aware that it could trade with the opponents normals)

*When the opponent jumps at you where if they decide to stick out a move it would rich but if they didn't a jab dp would totally whiff

-stand far strong (this will beat most any jumping attack at the tip of the punch if the other person sticks out on the way down, and it's safe if they decide not to stick out anything since you pull back your arm really quickly. It's the safest option but beaware against sagat's rh since his legs are really long and stand strong won't beat it but will get you hit on the head)

-super (it travels forwards a lot and will hit them regardless. It's the best option with no guessing involved)

-early toward jump rh (jump at the opponent and kick them before they press their attack)

-jab dp (if the opponent stuck something out it works, but if they didn't, the dp whiffs and you'll eat a combo)

-cr.rh (if the opponent stuck something out you get hit in the head but that's usually about it, if they didn't stick something out you sweep the opponent clean)

*Agaist cross up jumps
-jab dp (you need to perform this with a modified command to get it to face the other way. When they are going over your head you do a f,df,d,db+jab and it'll turn Ken around and hit them clean on their back with a jab dp.)

-s.fierce (if you weren't knocked down when the opponent tries a cross up on you, then you can shoot them down on the way up with a close stand fierce)
--Laugh 20:37, 19 July 2006 (CDT)

Ground Pokes/Footsies

Pokes
Ken's best pokes are cr.short, cr.forward, cr.mp and s.rh. For close up pokes cr.mp and cr.short are the best pokes since you gain frame advantage from those two, and for ranges where cr.rh won't reach, s.rh is good but be carefull since the move is a bit laggy and can be bad news if whiffed.

Footsie tools
Cr.short, cr.forward, and cr.rh are the best for footsies. Usually it consists of several cr.shorts into either cr.forward or cr.rh into a FB.
--Laugh 20:37, 19 July 2006 (CDT)

Combos

Ken doesn't have a dizzy combo that consistently works against every character in the game, but he has pretty buff combos that dizzy depending on your luck.

Cross up j.forward, cr.strong, cr.forward XX qcf+k will dizzy almost always, but it only works against fat characters like Guile, Sim, Gief. Against normal characters switch the cr.forward with cr.short and it still combos and it would sometimes dizzy. It only works against standing characters.

Cross up j.forward, cr.short XX qcf+k (hold k to get the overhead), cr.rh. This combo also only works against standing fat characters, but this combo is one of the most fancy combos you can pull off in real matches.

Jump/Crossup j.forward, s.fierce XX dp+jab. Although it may not dizzy a lot, this combo usually takes off about 40%-50% of the opponent's life.

j.fierce/rh/forward, cr.forward XX qcf+k. This is the standard 3 hit combo that's easy to land with good enough damage against standing characters (missed FB is a good occasion to use this combo) from a non-crossup jump attack.

j.jab/fierce XX air hurricane kick, s./cr.rh. I think you can also switch out the rh at the end with a cr.short XX qcf+k for a 4 hit combo against fat characters. Has to be standing. The air hurricane kick gives you a lot of frame advantage so a walk up throw is also a viable strategy here, especially since N.Ken's forward throw is so good.

Cross up j.forward, cr.short, cr.short XX super. This is the most powerful combo that Ken has and is very easy to execute once you get it. For this combo to work you need to press short+any punch for the super since rapid cancelled shorts cannot be cancelled normally, but rapid cancel does allow this combo to work with just 1 added button press for the super. Do it slow like you are pressing another rapid fire short instead of the ordinary cancel timing. Note that this combo doesn't work 9 out of 10 times against a standing Chun even if executed perfectly, because chun is too skinny and the first hit of the super would completely whiff and she'll block the rest of it.
--Laugh 21:19, 19 July 2006 (CDT)

Match-ups