Street Fighter 1 MR/Ken

Ken's portrait art

Ken's default and P2 alternate color

Background

Ken is Ryu's best friend and training partner. Heir to the Master's family, Ken comes from a lot of wealth and power. He was rowdy and energetic throughout his youth, and loved to get into fights. To ensure his son didn't become too much of a hassle, his father sent him to train with an old friend named Gouken. There, he met Ryu, and the two became rivals as they learned to master the arts of shotokan karate.

Ken joins the Street Fighter tournament for the same reason as Ryu, hoping to fight highly skilled opponents from around the world.

Introduction

Ken is the second in the duo that the community commonly calls "shotos". In the original Street Fighter 1, Ken was simply a player 2 alt with no differences to Ryu. SF1MR adds minor differences, usually just small frame data changes. These aren't notable enough to radically change how the characters play in comparison to eachother, as they still share all of their moves, but they can weigh on your choice of which one to play in which matchup.

In comparison to Ryu, Ken is generally faster but lacks the same frame advantage. His 6236P Shoryuken is incredible, being active on the first frame and going incredibly high. These make amazing reversals and defensive tools, but still maintain the same high risk. His 214K Tatsumaki Senpukyaku is faster overall, and allows for some stronger corner combos, alongside only being 0 on block unlike Ryu's -3 version. Ken's 236P Hadouken fireball is a frame faster, but unfortunately is also a frame slower on recovery, and lacks the same frame advantage that Ryu has from his.

The two have a large difference in their supers. Ken has 236236P Shoryureppa, an easy to confirm combo ending super, and 236236K Shinryuken, a stellar anti-air/reversal super with some amazing combo potential in the corner with Ken's Shinryuken loops. Overall, Ken has better anti-airs and more potential damage, plus better defense. However, he lacks Ryu's stable zoning, powerful super, and better frame advantage.

Strengths

Weaknesses

Reversals: Ken sports some amazing defensive reversals, from his immediately active Shoryuken to his lightning fast supers Simple: Like Ryu, Ken is a fairly simple character to understand at a glance Damage Potential: If Ken gets the right hit, he can clear a lot of health with a confirm to Shoryureppa, and in the corner any Tatsu or anti-air hit can lead into high damage Shinryuken loops

Frame Advantage: Ken struggles to push any plus on block moves, usually ending with a simple cancel to Hadouken for a small amount of plus frames that he can struggle to capitalize on. As a mixless character, this can make proper comebacks hard Situational Damage: While Shinryuken loops and Shoryureppa confirms are damaging, they can't always be done. Shinryuken loops usually require hitting a Tatsu in the corner, a notoriously inconsistent special, and Shoryureppa can drop hits at range or after a 2D launch

Character Summary

Overview

Strategy

Combos

Matchups

Move List

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Special Moves

236A/C - Hadouken: Zoning/Blockstring Ender

214B/D - Tatsumaki Senpukyaku: Combo Ender/Extender

6236A/C - Shoryuken: Anti-air/Reversal

Supers

236236P - Shoryureppa: Extremely high damage combo ender

236236K - Shinryuken: Reversal, anti-air, and corner combo super

Unique Attacks

nj.B, nj.D

Stats & Vitals

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• Attack Rating = 100
• Armor Rating = 100
• Forward Walk Speed = 2.5
• Backward Walk Speed = -2.3
• Taunt = 30f

Quick Combo Reference

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Basic BNBs:

• 2A > 2C, 2B > 2D
• 2A > 2C > 214D
• 2C, 2C, 2D

Normals

Standing Normals

Stand Light Punch 5A	Damage Guard Startup Active Recovery Cancels Adv on Hit Adv on Block 27 Mid 2 3 3 GA/SP/SU +7 +2 A fairly standard jab for mashing and pressure.

Stand Light Kick 5B	Damage Guard Startup Active Recovery Cancels Adv on Hit Adv on Block 27 Mid 4 5 4 GA/SP/SU +2 -3 The classic shoto light kick. Somewhat useful to evade low pokes, but not much use otherwise.

Stand Heavy Punch 5C	Damage Guard Startup Active Recovery Cancels Adv on Hit Adv on Block 97 Mid 15 12 8 N/A +6 -3 A big punch with huge startup and high damage. If you block something super unsafe, this can be a good place to start your punish for max damage. Otherwise, not much use for it.

Stand Heavy Kick 5D	Damage Guard Startup Active Recovery Cancels Adv on Hit Adv on Block 87 Mid 13 7 13 N/A -5 -4 Air Unblockable A slower but far reaching air unblockable kick. Meant mostly for anti-airs, as it lacks a cancel and is punishable on grounded hit by some characters. As an anti-air, it's quite reliable if used a bit early, but the slow startup leaves it weak as a reaction anti-air.

Crouching Normals

Crouch Light Punch 2A	Damage Guard Startup Active Recovery Cancels Adv on Hit Adv on Block 23 Mid 3 3 3 GA +5 +3 A useful 2A for pressure, linking, and punishing. Not much purpose outside of brawling, but it works wonders in those scramble situations.

Crouch Light Kick 2B	Damage Guard Startup Active Recovery Cancels Adv on Hit Adv on Block 23 Low 2 4 2 GA/SP/SU +7 -3 A simple low kick. One of Ken's more useful normals for poking, and seen often to cancel into 2D, Hadouken, or Shoryureppa. It hits low, but Ken lacks much overhead threat to mix it with. This is still solid after an empty jump for a surprise low, however.

Crouch Heavy Punch 2C	Damage Guard Startup Active Recovery Cancels Adv on Hit Adv on Block 62 Mid 6 6 6 SP/SU +10 +11 A slower and heavier version of 2A. Heavily plus on block and hit, and can be even more plus on a meaty, making it one of Ken's main normals to start offense and punishes with. It also is the only move that combos into Tatsu, making it key to max damage routes, though this requires a close connect.

Crouch Heavy Kick 2D

Damage Guard Startup Active Recovery Cancels Adv on Hit Adv on Block 78 Low 5 8 10 SP/SU KD -2 Kens main combo ender and a stellar neutral poke. Surprisingly low total duration, and safely cancels to fireball for a blockstring. Since none of Kens specials are necessarily combo friendly, you often end combos in this. Luckily, it's quite combo friendly, linking or cancelling from a majority of his other normals. The long range makes these links consistent and forgiving as well.

Jumping Normals

Jump Light Punch j.A	Damage Guard Startup Active Recovery Cancels Adv on Hit Adv on Block 27 High 2 Until Landing 2 N/A Varies Varies Ken sticks out a fist that has a lingering hitbox till he lands. Can be an air interrupt, but not much else.

Jump Light Kick j.B

Damage Guard Startup Active Recovery Cancels Adv on Hit Adv on Block 24 High 2 Until Landing 2 N/A Varies Varies Ken sticks out his leg and lets the hitbox linger for the full jump like j.A. More useful as a jump-in, especially since the long active frames can catch a lot of bad anti-airs. Jumping on top of a knocked down opponent with this can actually make a surprising mixup, or even a safejump depending on the character.

Jump Heavy Punch j.C	Damage Guard Startup Active Recovery Cancels Adv on Hit Adv on Block 70 High 2 8 2 N/A Varies Varies Ken punches out in front of him. Fairly high damage, but the hitbox is pretty high up, so you'll mostly stick to j.D as a heavy jump-in. Can snipe people air-to-air however.

Jump Heavy Kick j.D	Damage Guard Startup Active Recovery Cancels Adv on Hit Adv on Block 70 High 3 11 2 N/A Varies Varies The main jump-in normal to use in most situations. Great forward range, fast startup, lots of active frames, and high damage and hitstun make it a very consistent normal.

Taunt

Taunt A+B	Damage Guard Startup Active Recovery Cancels Adv on Hit Adv on Block - - 1 - 30 - - - Taunt builds 1 bar of meter instantly, regardless of if Ken is hit out of it or not, hence the 1 frame startup. Ken's taunt is fairly fast, allowing him to use it relatively safely in neutral or after any knockdown without giving up much space.

Unique Attacks

Neutral Jump Light Kick nj.B	Damage Guard Startup Active Recovery Cancels Adv on Hit Adv on Block 90 High 3 10 2 N/A Varies Varies A great neutral jump air-to-air with very high damage. Outside of air-to-air however, it doesn't have much use, as nj.D covers the high damage neutral jump starter role much better. However, in midscreen, it has less pushback than nj.D, allowing for higher damage followups.

Neutral Jump Heavy Kick nj.D

Damage Guard Startup Active Recovery Cancels Adv on Hit Adv on Block 90 High 4 7 2 N/A Varies Varies A spinning kick with massive hitstun and pushback. In the corner, this can connect and still allow for a 2C, 2C, 2D, making for a massive damage starter. It can also be a good air-to-air, but nj.B is a bit better thanks to the faster startup and higher active frames. In midscreen, pushback with this can be a bit too strong to get much more than a 2D after.

Special Attacks

Hadouken 236A/C

Version Damage Guard Startup Active Recovery Cancels Adv on Hit Adv on Block A 65 Mid 6 Traveling 33 N/A 0 -4 C 75 Mid 6 Traveling 33 N/A 0 -4 A version is slower, C version is much faster The classic fireballs shared by the shotos in every Street Fighter game. Generally, Ken has worse Hadoukens than Ryu. In SF1MR, Kens Hadoukens are less of a downgrade and more of a sidegrade. They have worse frame advantage, making Ken less consistent at chipping, but they're faster overall making them slightly safer zoning tools in neutral. These compliment Kens amazing Shoryuken, making his zoning arguably close to Ryu, but the lack of Shinku Hadouken brings it back to worse.

Shoryuken 6236A/C

Version Damage Guard Startup Active Recovery Cancels Adv on Hit Adv on Block A 40,40 Mid 1 19 23 N/A KD -17 C 40,40,40 Mid 1 25 30 N/A KD -27 Invincible on frames 1~12 Shoryukens are incredibly fast and damaging reversals and anti-airs, beating every other reversal in the game in terms of raw speed. The hitbox comes out on the first frame of the move, allowing it to blow through even 1 frame gaps and punish a ton of things within range. These are held back by a serious horizontal range issue. It's very easy to get a single hit and be unsafe, or even have it whiff entirely.

Tatsumaki Senpukyaku 214B/D

Version Damage Guard Startup Active Recovery Cancels Adv on Hit Adv on Block B 40,30 Mid 17 4(7)4 19 N/A KD 0 D 40,40,40,30 Mid 17 4(7)4(7)4(7)4 18 N/A KD 0 Off the ground frame 4 Difficult to use but incredibly high reward combo tools. They only combo from a 2C, and that can be range reliant as well, making it rare to use them. On top of that, they hit 'much' higher in this game than in other SF titles, to the point where they whiff some characters standing. This severely limits their use as combo tools, and while 0 on block can be attractive, they whiff often on block as well. In the corner, these can lead to Kens high damage Shinryuken loops, and can TOD anyone, making them incredibly niche but massive reward.

Supers

Shoryureppa 236236P

Damage Guard Startup Active Recovery Cancels Adv on Hit Adv on Block 37,37,40,40 Mid 2 12(8)23 29 N/A KD -27 Invincible on frames 1~15 A simple to use combo super that works in a majority of combos as an alternate ender. Not the highest damage super in the game, but the reliability of it helps to make it worth. It can get every hit on an air connect, making it reliable in juggles, and can even combo from a 2D.

Shinryuken 236236K

Damage Guard Startup Active Recovery Cancels Adv on Hit Adv on Block 25,25,25,25,25,25,25,25,25 Mid 2 44 37 N/A KD -34 Invincible on frames 1~14 A massive damage anti-air and reversal super. The lightning fast startup and high damage can make this a very attractive metered alternative to Shoryuken, but it shares the same issue with horizontal range, and works in only a few combos. When in range however, it makes for a massive damage alternative, and can be a very worthwhile way to spend a bar, especially since Ken can easily taunt to regain the meter after a successful connect. This is also an anywhere juggle, meaning it breaks normal juggle rules to allow for combos that aren't normally possible. The main application for this is Shinryuken loops: Ken can continuously loop Shinryuken in the corner as long as he has meter, racking up huge damage. This can be started from any Tatsu hit, allowing Ken to realistically TOD most of the cast in the right situation.