Street Fighter Alpha 2/Ken

Introduction

Ken is one of the top four in A2. Great normals, crazy roll, great cc, and the one of the games best acs. Ken is very solid, naturally, being a shoto, being able to effectively zone, rush, or turtle. Ken is solid with standard mix ups as well as little tricks such as being able to cross up roll to confuse opponents. Great character to learn the game with.

Moves List

Normal Moves

• st.LP - Quick jab, with small frames advantage, you can walk and do these on any opponent that can't crouch them.

• st.MP

Quick one arm uppercut, good anti-air and cancelable to a special move.

• st.HP

Straight punch which can be used as anti-air in some instances, and stop hurricane kicks etc. Not cancelable.

• st.LK

Good ranged kick to the shin, cancelable, good priority and range.

• st.MK

A two hit upward angled kick that can be canceled into a special /superon the first hit, super on the second. This is very god to keep characters that cant duck it pinned down, and a quick anti-jump if you suspect the opponen is gonna attempt to jump towards you, as well as a good anti-air.

• st.HK

A long ranged poke, with good priority.

• cr.LP

Little jab to the shin, not really all that great range wise.

• cr.MP

A straight punch with good priority and frame advantage, cancelable.

• cr.HP

Uppercut, probably one of the best normal anti-airs in the game. Also this is a super meaty, allowing link after ward.

• cr.LK

Quick kick to the foot, combo starter, cancelable

• cr.MK

A good reaching low kick, probably overall best poke, gives frame advantage, awesome meaty, and cancelable.

• cr.HK

A really good sweep with good range, usually a poke string ender. Note that if not cancelled its a free cc on you, and if you cancel into a hadouken, free cc on you if your opponent has a lvl 3.

Jumping:

Hp- A fist to the face >_<. Good jump in with good priority, especially when done early. When done close Ken will do a rolling throw.

Mk- His cross-up, self-explanatory, looks different form Ryu/Akuma.

Hk- Best when used when jumping from far away, good priority.

Command:

f+mk- A overhead with very good range, safe on block.

Throws

Jigoku Guruma

• ← or → + MP or HP

Tsukami Nage

• ← or → + MK or HK
  • Press any buttons rapidly for more hits

Jigoku Fusha

• ( In Air ) ← or → + MP or HP

Special Moves

Hadou Ken

• (↓↘→ + P)

Shoryu Ken

• (→↓↘ + P)

Tatsumaki Senpu Kyaku

• (↓↙←+K)
  • Can also be done in the air

Zenpo Tenshin

• (↓↙←+P)

Zento

• (↓↘→ + Start)

Super Moves

Shoryu Reppa

• (↓↘→↓↘→ + P)

Shinryu Ken

• (↓↘→↓↘→ + K)
  • Press kick rapidly for more hits

The Basics

Ken's Hadouken and Tatsus aren't as good as Ryu's but he has more than enough tools to hold his own. He has a well rounded arsenal of normals applicable to a lot of situations, namely cr.MK, st.LK and cr.HK. Kens Kick AC is a dominant midrange tool that also does solid damage and is able to punish long reaching normals and projectiles when meter is available. Zenpo Tenshin ( forward roll ) is another important tool in Kens arsenal, giving him the ability to apply mixup pressure off of a knockdown. Additionally, cancelling the LP version of the roll from cr.LK leaves Ken at range to punish recovery roll, making any recovery rolls unsafe against an aware Ken player.

Basic Offense

Firstly close range is usually established by landing cr.HK from max range. If you believe cr.HK will hit, cancel into LP Zenpo Tenshin to punish recovery roll if they attempt one. In order to effectively counter without sacrificing positioning for a wake up attack, immediately perform cr.MK xx HP Hadouken. If they roll the combo will come out for a 2 hit and if not only cr.MK will come out. You'll still be able to gameplan on wakeup if they don't roll so be sure to establish this.

When you dont have meter available, cr.MP serves as your best attack starter. It links right into cr.MK xx HP Hadouken for decent damage. If the cr.MP doesn't hit then you can walk forward for a throw or immediately perform cr.HK xx Zenpo Tenshin if you think they will attempt to counter your throw. When Ken has meter, cr.LK x2 will provide opportunities for safe damage. cr.LK x2 can be chained into st.LK which can be cancelled to any level Shoryu Reppa for really good damage. If cr.LK x2 is blocked, you have a few options to continue your offense, the first of which is walk-up Tsukami Nage. This is most useful when you have the opponent in a defensive posture. Number 2, walk-up and perform cr.LK>st.LK xx Shoryu Reppa (any level). This is most useful when your opponent is looking to counter your throw attempts. Finally there is cr.HK xx LP Zenpo Tenshin. This is useful for beating early attempts by your opponent to attack out of blockstun. This will keep you close to your opponent and give you an opportunity to attempt Tsukami Nage or cr.MK xx HP Hadouken.

Defensive Notes

Use the LP version of Shoryuken

Combos

Cr.MP link cr.MK,HP HDK

Cr.LK x2, s.LK, SReppa

j.HP,cr.HP,HP SRK

Advanced Strategy

Custom Combos

Level One Activation

cr.HK xx qcb+HK, HP SRK

c.hk (close) xx fp dp, fp dp

Level Three Activation

• Crouching HK, HK Tatsumaki Senpuu Kyaku, LP Shoryuken x2, HP Shoryuken

Match-ups

Vs. Adon:

Vs. Akuma:

Vs. Birdie:

Vs. Charlie:

Vs. Chun-Li:

Vs. Dan:

Vs. Dhalsim:

Vs. Gen:

Vs. Guy:

Vs. Ken (self):

Vs. M. Bison (dictator):

Vs. Rolento:

Vs. Rose:

Vs. Ryu:

Vs. Sagat:

Vs. Sakura:

Vs. Sodom:

Vs. Zangief: