Ken Street Fighter 3 Third Strike Strategy Guide and Moves

Juggling with a Light Punch Shoryuken

Ken can hit some opponents up into the air with a Light Punch Shoryuken and follow up with another one right afterward to juggle. Here's who this works against and where.

Anywhere on the stage
Q
Necro
Elena

Only when opponent is cornered
Hugo
Ken
Akuma
Ryu
Urien
Chun Li
Makoto
Sean
Twelve
Ibuki

Characters that can't be juggled with a second Light Shoryuken
Alex
Dudley
Yun
Yang
Oro
Remy

Special Moves

• Fireball (Hadouken) •

• Dragon Punch (Shoryuken) •

(Can also be done in the air)
• Hurricane Kick (Tatsumaki Senpukyaku) •

• Personal Action (Taunt) •

EX Moves

• EX-Fireball (Hadouken) •

(Can also be done in the air)
• EX-Hurricane Kick (Tatsumaki Senpukyaku) •

• EX-Dragon Punch (Shoryuken) •

Super Arts

Ken's most popular Super Art is his Shippuu-Jinrai-Kyaku, SA3. It offers the most EX meter, it's easy to combo into, and great for hit confirmations.

• SA1: Super Dragon Punch (Shouryuu-Reppa) •

      (Mash Kick buttons)
• SA2: Super Vertical Dragon Punch (Shinryuu-Ken) •

• SA3: Shippuu-Jinrai-Kyaku •
Ken can follow up with another SA3 if his first one is blocked. The advantage here is that because of the invincibility window, your Super Art 3 may blow through your opponent's counter attack as they attempt to punish you. Some moves will still beat out a follow up SA3 though, especially if your opponent pulls out a Reversal Super.

The timing to pull off another SA3 after the first one is blocked — leaving almost no open window — is fairly strict and it costs you an additional Super bar. But not only can you avoid being punished, you can also land a full Super on your opponent in the process, if they attempt to counter attack.

This is a handy tactic and it can make your enemy more cautious when thinking about punishing this move.

Combos

• Cross up with Jumping Medium Kick, Standing Medium Punch, Chain into Standing Hard Punch, Cancel into Light Shoryuken •
One of Ken's core combos. Easy to do, once you practice the timing for a bit.

• Jumping Hard Kick, Crouching Medium Kick, Cancel into Hard Punch Fireball •
Old school combo that still works in this game as well.

EX Combos

• Jumping Hard Punch, Crouching Medium Punch, Cancel into EX-Hurricane Kick •
Scores a lot of hits and is solid if you don't have a full Super meter to launch a bigger combo.

• Hit airborne opponent with EX-Hurricane Kick, juggle with Light Shoryuken, juggle again with Medium Shoryuken if opponent is in corner •
Note, the last hit will only connect against opponents that can be juggled with two consecutive Light Shoryuken attacks (see section above). This does a lot of damage if you fully connect with everything. While you can use the Hard and EX-Shoryuken for the final hit, they tend to miss their initial attack, so Medium Shoryukens work better here for damage.

Universal Super Art Combos

These combos work with all three of Ken's Super Arts.

• Jumping Hard Kick, Crouching Hard Punch, Cancel into Super Art •

• Jumping Hard Kick, Crouching Medium Kick, Cancel into Hard Punch, Shoryuken, Cancel into Super Art •

• Jumping Hard Kick, Crouching Medium Kick, Cancel into Hard Punch Fireball, Cancel into Super Art •

• Standing Medium Punch, Chain into Standing Hard Punch, Cancel into Super Art •

Super Art 1 Combo

• Standing Medium Punch, Chain into Standing Hard Punch, Cancel into EX-Shoryuken, Cancel into SA1 •

Super Art 2 Combos

• (Opponent in corner) Light Punch Shoryuken, juggle with SA2 •

• Standing Medium Punch, Chain into Standing Hard Punch, Hard Punch Shoryuken, Cancel into SA2 •

Super Art 3 Combos

• Crouching Light Kick 2x, Cancel into SA3 •
A great way to hit confirm your Super Art 3 attack. You can add in a jump in attack at the start of this combo as well.

• Cross Up with Jumping Medium Kick, Standing Medium Punch, Chain into Standing Hard Punch, Cancel into SA3 •
Nice damage on this.

• Crouching Medium Kick, Cancel into SA3 •
Great combo because you can go right into your Super Art 3 even if you land your Crouching Medium Kick from max range. This lets you punish things that would normally be outside the range of your other attacks.

• (Crouching Opponent) Back + Medium Kick, Link into SA3 •
Only works if the Back + Medium Kick Overhead attack hits a crouching enemy, if so you can Link into your Super Art 3 for a nice combo. Timing on this is difficult though.

Command Moves

• Overhead Kick •

• High Kick followed by Overhead Kick •

• Lunging Overhead Kick •

• Lunging Kick •

Color guide

Colors requiring more than one button can be unlocked by beating the game with this character.

Guide heavily edited by TJ369.