Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo/O. Ken

Introduction

Old Ken is the Super Street Fighter II version of Ken. He has a few different hit-boxes and frame data on some of his normals, one-frame better recovery hadoukens and shoryukens which are completely invulnerable on the way up. He is a solid character in ST, considered almost as good as N.Ryu. As any old character, he can not soften throws and has no super, but his better hadoukens and shoryukens make him a better character for zoning.

Moves List

Special Moves

All motions are listed under the assumption that Ken is facing right.

↓↘→ + P: Hadouken, also known as the fireball. Ken throws two flying fists which are engulfed by blue energy towards his enemy. The strength of the punch determines its speed: Jab flies the slowest, while Fierce flies the fastest. The Jab does 11% damage, the Strong does 12% damage and the Fierce one does 14%, which happens to be the highest damaging projectile in the game.

Although all 3 versions (Jab, Strong, Fierce) have Ken release the projectile at the same interval, which is 13 frames, and have vulnerable "after-throw" state that takes 39 frames to recover. This is as fast as N.Ken's jab hadouken, but the start-up is faster by one frame. The overall recovery of the move is the same as N.Ryu's jab hadouken, which means no-one but O.Sagat will be able to throw more projectiles than you if a projectile exchange. You do have, however, a slower start-up on your move and slower projectiles in general, so it is harder for you to hit them out of their moves with them. Your main goal is to force them to jump, as you have the best anti-air moves of the game: Old Ken's shoryukens.

→↓↘ + P: Shoryuken, also known as Dragon Punch or uppercut. Ken becomes completely invincible and does an upper followed up with a rising punch, then remains completely defenseless as he falls back to the ground. The jab version will cause a full knockdown on his enemy. It does 23% damage early and 14% while ascending. The strong one hits up to two times and causes a full knockdown if the rising punch connects, while the fierce version causes flaming hitstun, hits up to three times and also causes a full knockdown if the rising fist hits, but this often does not happen if the initial stages connect but from point-blank range. The jab shoryuken is very good for evading projectiles and it is Ken's best reversal move by far, possibly the best in the whole game, as it causes good damage if it hits early, always knocks down on hit and is safe on block against most characters.

Ken's fierce shoryuken does not do much damage when hitting while ascending, but it controls a good part of the air space in front of him. If you are not recovering from a move and the enemy jumped forward from a distance such that you are unsure if a late jab shoryuken will hit, use the fierce version to knock him out of the air safely. It can also be used to prevent the enemy from jumping straight up in front of you from close to mid distance. Some floaty jumps over hadoukens can be punished that way. Finally, the move hits on the first frame. A perfectly timed safe jump may work half the time against your other shoryukens, but if you use the fierce version, you are guaranteed to hit, albeit for low damage.

Since a properly-timed Dragon Punch will beat most other moves, its simplest and most common application is as a general anti-air counter, because you have a lot of time to react and time the attack as you see the opponent approaching through the air. Because it'll knock down, you can continue pressuring with whatever you like, such as a meaty fireball or a cross-up attack. In addition to it, any character that can not alter its jump arc will be unable to evade any versions of the move, as Ken is invulnerable during the whose active part. Notice that Ken does more damage if it hits early, so time it late if possible.

Ken's jab shoryuken is a very strong tool in footsies. You can stuff virtually any normal ground attack from your opponent, and the timing is much more lenient than for Ryu's shoryuken, as Ken's has slightly more horizontal range and much better vertical range, making it easier to stuff low pokes.

↓↙← + K (on ground): Tatsumaki senpuu kyaku, A.K.A. hurricane kick or tatsu, for short. Ken immediately attacks with a knee bash, then advances with fast spinning kicks that may combo one after the other. Different kicks have different effects: Short has the lowest duration and speed, while Roundhouse has the highest. Unlike Ryu, Ken is never invulnerable during this move.

Ken's Hurricane Kick also travels right over some projectiles and can be used to punish characters like Dhalsim and Guile for trying to use them. However, as it does not cause a knock down, Ken may be punished after or during the move.

↓↙← + K (in air): Air Tatsumaki senpuu kyaku. The Hurricane Kick can also be done while airborne. Again, stronger kicks give it longer duration. Unlike the ground version, it doesn't always move Ken forward; if performed while jumping backwards, Ken will continue moving in that direction.

The Air Hurricane Kick has some interesting effects on the speed and trajectory of the jump, as felineki writes:

The character's vertical velocity is not directly affected. Rather, their gravity value is temporarily adjusted. Every character has their own jump gravity value (as I'm sure you've noticed, Dhalsim falls much more slowly from a jump than Claw). This normally stays constant throughout a jump. However, when a shoto performs a mid-air hurricane kick, their gravity value is temporarily decreased. This gives them the effect of falling more slowly if it is performed on the way down, or allowing them to gain more height if done on the way up.

The decreased gravity value lasts as long as the character's leg is out, able to hit. As soon as they pull their leg back in, the gravity value returns to normal.

In addition, they are given a slight boost in horizontal velocity as the kick starts (a forward boost if jumping forward or straight up, a backward boost if jumping back). This additional velocity lasts until they actually touch the ground.

Similarly to Ryu's, Ken's Air Hurricane Kick has a multitude of uses. It serves as an alternative air attack with alternative properties than Ken's normal attacks and may interact with opponent anti-air moves differently. As it changes jump properties, it can surprise the opponent. Done correctly, it can actually cross-up enemy air counters like the Flash Kick to hit the opponent from behind. Or it can be used for purposes as simple as building meter on the way down from a jump that you otherwise aren't interested in doing an attack in, such as when jumping far back away from an opponent or jumping straight up over a projectile from a distance. Ken's air tatsu, however, can combo (for more than one hit) on the way down, hits crouching characters much more often and is much better for shennanigans.

While the air hurricane kick looks like the grounded one, in fact it has much worse priority. Also, it does not recover instantly when Ken touches the ground. Watch out for this if the enemy has a long reaching move or a super that moves it fast in your direction, such as Chun Li's, as this increased recovery can be exploited for major damage.

The Basics

Old Ken does not have the knee bash from N.Ken and can not soften throws, so you will want to avoid situations where you risk getting thrown. Against new characters, if both expect a throw, you will only do about half the damage they do to you when you get thrown, and you will also suffer a full knockdown, which gives them great positioning and time to build meter and position themselves for traps, cross-ups and other strategical advantageous situations. Use your powerful tools to zone them.

Old Ken's jab hadoukens are quite slow. His fierce one is fast, so enemies who want to identify the projectile speed will often have to block the fierce ones. If they jump straight up over jab hadoukens from close distance, sometimes you can fierce shoryuken them for free. This is your main advantage in this case: because of its range, you do not need to depend so much on standing punches and sweeps as anti-airs. If they jump right where you are, then a deep jab shoryuken will hurt them bad while still knocking them down. Your strategy is to throw as many hadoukens as possible while feinting and giving them room to make mistakes so you can punish accordingly. Eventually, you will get them in the corner, where their options are very limited and you can press them with projectiles safely.

Advanced Strategy

Canceling into hadoukens

You want to push your enemies into the corner in most your match-ups. A few of them actually have better ground normals than you. As your projectile/anti-air game is strong, learning to push them away from you is important. One important skill is being able to walk up and cancel a crouching kick into hadouken. Because of the threat of the walk-up shoryuken, enemies will be worried about sticking too many pokes in front of you, which might give you time to do this. To ensure you get a hadouken, cancel the crouching kick as late as possible, do not rush the move. If you are facing an opponent which has an horizontal super, never cancel your crouching kicks into hadoukens. They have enough time to pull out the super and push you hard.

Cross-up tatsu

Do a safe jump as you normally would. At the peak of your jump, do an air tatsu to increase your horizontal speed and land on the other side of your enemy. This is easier to do as Ken than Ryu due to his longer air tatsu. In adition to it, Ken can hit more than once and is left as a great frame advantage as he lands. This can be used to land an attack such as cr.roundhouse or mix up throws, shoryukens and low attacks.

Built-in shoryuken

Built-in shoryukens are explained here, be sure to read that. In a nutshell: as you perform a safe jump, do a jab shoryuken as you land so that it comes out if they reverse, stuffing their special move. Because Ken's shoryukens are invulnerable on the way up, they can only ever lose to other moves during recovery. In practice, this happens mostly against Boxer's headbutts, depending on the range and the headbutt strenght. Here is a list of moves that Ken's built-in jab shoryuken will beat:

• Ryu: tatsu, shoryuken, super
• E.Honda: Headbutt, Sumo Drop, Super Headbutt
• Chun-Li: Super, upkicks;
• Guile: Flash Kick
• T.Hawk: Tomahawk Buster
• Fei-Long: Flame Kick, Chicken Kick, Super
• Cammy: Cannon Spike, Spin Knuckle, Super
• DeeJay: Machine Gun, upkicks;
• Boxer: Super
• Claw: Scarlet Terror
• Sagat: Tiger Uppercut

You can not safe jump against Chun Li's roundhouse upkicks, so avoid safe jumping her from the front if your enemy is good with one-button reversals.

Button-release hadouken

Check this article from Nohoho's blog. This is important against E.Honda.

Cross-ups

You can win a round with one cross-up combo. Old Ken has the old school diagonal jumping roundhouse from the shotos, which is a good aerial attack for starting cross-up combos. There are a few options you will have:

• cross-up roundhouse, cr.short x 2: cancel into jab shoryuken if it hits, mix up with throw, non canceled shoryuken or wait for a whiffed move if it does not
• cross-up roundhouse, cr.strong: cancel into a shoryuken if it hits, mix up throws, cr.roundhouse, non canceled shoryuken or wait if it does not
• cross-up roundhouse, st.fierce (ToD): cancel into strong or fierce shoryuken (depends on the enemy) if it hits, or hadouken or jab shoryuken if it does not.

Match-ups