Ken Strategy Guide and Moves: Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix
Character Overview
Ken is regarded as a middle tier character in Super Turbo, and he received a few buffs in HD Remix. What you're left with is a character who can still be really good in the right hands, but he's not much different than he was before.
Ken's biggest benefit is also his biggest problem — he's a high risk, high reward character. You can put yourself in some bad situations trying to land the big payoffs he has. But the rewards for doing the right attacks at the right time are substantial.
You're still going to rely heavily on his damaging and dominate Dragon Punch moves, looking for any which way you can land these. Also his old Knee Bash traps work nearly as well as they did before. Coupled with Ken's overall quickness, this guy can be an absolute cheese ball, and one that has the tools to make you pay dearly when you mess up.
• Strengths •
+ Arguably the best Uppercut in the game.
+ His Knee Bash throw traps are still nasty.
+ Good foot and move speed.
+ Has some decent juggling ability with his Hard Punch Shoryuken.
+ Excellent punishing game.
+ Quite a few good combos.
+ Best overall reversal attack in the game — Light Punch Shoryuken.
+ Can be a lot of fun to play.
• Weaknesses •
- His Fireball is fairly slow, and only useful in a few situations.
- The top tier characters all have good tools to use against him.
- Sometimes one of his Crazy Kicks will come out when you want to do a Fireball combo.
- Hurricane Kick still isn't very useful.
- Often times plays a Home Run Hitter style. You either hit and win, or strike out and lose.
Special Moves
• Fireball (Hadouken) •
You're not going to win many projectile battles with Ken, but this attack isn't supposed to be a dominate projectile. It's more of a helper move that gives Ken opportunities to control the position of the other fighter.
Because of the somewhat slow speed of Ken's Fireball it can cause problems for players who don't have an easy counter for it. You're not going to be spamming this move over and over again, but you'll be using it more selectively to trap your opponent in situations where you can Dragon Punch them.
Also Ken's Fireball has less frames of start up animation than Ryu's does, so it takes less time to get one on screen although the difference is very small.
And like Ryu, his Light Punch Fireball comes out the faster than his Medium Punch projectile, and Medium Punch has less start up frames of animation than the Hard Punch version.
• Dragon Punch (Shoryuken) •
Light Punch version:
This is one of the best attacks in the entire game. The damage, speed and priority are excellent, and it has a fast recovery time, plus if your opponent blocks it you're safe from counter attacks.
On the other hand, if you miss completely you can be knocked out of it as you're coming down, but the period of time in which you can be hit is so short that if your opponent mistimes their attack, you can do another Light Punch Shoryuken right after wards to catch them.
Also this move does the most damage when Ken's arm hasn't extended over his head, so always try to time your Dragon Punches to hit your opponent during those early frames of animation.
Ken is invulnerable during the whole way up while doing this move, but at the peak of the attack his head can be hit, and of course he can be hit on the way down.
This is the overall best reversal attack in HD Remix because of how quickly it comes out, the damage it does, how difficult it is to counter and the fact that it will beat out almost every move in the game if timed correctly.
You're going to want to throw this out there whenever you think you can counter an opponent's throw attempt or attack, but be careful of being baited into it. A good player will make you pay for missing.
Medium Punch version:
This only hits once now, knocks down whenever it hits and is completely invulnerable on the way up. It also does more damage than the Light Punch version and travels farther vertically.
You'll use this attack in situations when you want your Dragon Punch to have the most invulnerability or you want to hit someone higher off the ground, but the trade off is you'll be more open to counter attacks if you miss.
You're mostly going to use this when you're sure your opponent is going to stick out an attack, because if you miss with it, it's usually bad news for you.
Hard Punch version:
This Dragon Punch has no invulnerability, but the hit box and priority are still good. Also it has a much wider arc, which makes it great for hitting Vega out of his Wall Jumps and some other characters who like to jump.
This is the most damaging of Ken's Shoryukens. This move can juggle now, so you should land all three hits if you time it correctly and are close enough to your opponent when you execute it. Also any of the hits will knock down.
Ken's Hard Punch Shoryuken hits on the first frame of animation, which means it comes out extremely quickly and can be used as a nearly instant reversal attack.
Just don't miss with this though, because if you do anyone and everyone can make you pay a price.
• Hurricane Kick (Tatsumaki Senpuu-Kyaku) •
You can also do this move in the air.
Note: With any of Ken's Crazy Kick moves you can hold down Kick for an overhead attack.
• Light Crazy Kick •
• Medium Crazy Kick •
• Hard Crazy Kick •
Super Move
• Super Dragon Punch (Shoryureppa) •
Combos
• Cross up with Jumping Medium Kick, Standing Hard Punch, Cancel into Light Punch Shoryuken •
Heavy damage combo and it's safe on block as long as the Shoryuken lands. It's possible to do this without crossing up too.
• Jumping Hard Kick, Crouching Medium Kick, Cancel into Hard Punch Fireball •
This will combo as long as you're not too far away. From longer distances a Hard Kick Hurricane Kick will combo, but it's not as safe if blocked.
• Cross up with Jumping Medium Kick, Crouching Medium Punch, Link into Crouching Light Kick, Cancel into Hard Kick Hurricane Kick •
Against the bigger characters you can swap out the Light Kick for a Medium Kick.
• Jumping Hard Punch, Cancel into Air Hurricane Kick, Crouching Hard Kick •
You need to Cancel the Hard Punch very quickly to get the Hurricane Kick to come out, but this combo is handy for the extra air hit.
• Cross up with Jumping Medium Kick, Crouching Light Kick 2x, Standing Light Kick, Standing Light Punch to Cancel into Super •
You need to Chain (Renda) Cancel to go into your Super with this combo. You won't see the last Standing Light Kick because you'll be Canceling it directly into your Super with Light Punch.
Ken's most damaging combo, use it whenever you know you've hit your opponent at the start and have your Super charged.
If you were to do this combo the full motion would look like this.
(In the air)
Changes from Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo
* Medium Punch Shoryuken is invulnerable on the way up, exactly like Old Super Turbo Ken's, and also always knocks down. It's now a 1-hit move, no longer 2-hit.
* Hard Punch Shoryuken has bigger arc, always knocks down, juggles for up to three hits, but no additional invulnerability.
* Light Kick Hurricane Kick has a shorter duration.
* Medium Kick Helicopter Kick goes slightly farther.
* Hard Kick Helicopter Kick goes further and faster and does less dizzy.
* Aerial Hard Kick Helicopter Kick goes slightly farther.
* Ken's multitude of "Command Kicks" have simplified joystick motions.
New motions:
1) Quarter-circle forward plus Light Kick
2) Quarter-circle forward plus Medium Kick
3) Quarter-circle forward plus Hard Kick
* Damage lowered on first hit of knee bash grab and range reduced by a small amount.
* Super move can now be used as a reversal attack.
Contributions to this guide by Blitzfu and David Sirlin.
what does it mean by the super can be used as a reversal???
