Ken (SSBU)

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Ken in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Universe	Street Fighter
Availability	Unlockable
Final Smash	Shippu Jinraikyaku / Shinryuken

“	Ken Turns Up the Heat!	”
—Introduction Tagline

“	Ken joins the battle as Ryu's Echo Fighter! Their differences are carried over from the original game: Ken's Hadoken is shaped differently, his strong Shoryuken has flames, and he moves a bit faster. He has two Final Smashes: Shinryuken and Shippu Jinraikyaku.	”
—Super Smash Blog, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Official Site

Ken (ケン, Ken) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. An Echo Fighter of Ryu, he was confirmed as a playable character alongside Incineroar and Piranha Plant on November 1, 2018. In English-speaking releases of the game, Reuben Langdon, who has voiced Ken since Street Fighter IV, reprises his role as Ryu's amicable rival.

Differences from Ryu

NOTE: SmashWiki is not speculative. Please refrain from adding detailed data values derived from pre-release gameplay footage, such as the E3 demo. Such data (damage values, launch trajectories, frame data, etc.) are subject to change before the official release.

Aesthetics

• Ken's Hadoken contains an image of his hands, as it does in the original Street Fighter II.
• Ken's Focus Attack uses his legs rather than his arms, as it does in Street Fighter IV.
• Ken has a taunt where he smiles and brings his hand out with a thumbs up, a reference to his Street Fighter II win animation.
• Additionally, Ken has another unique taunt where he punches his hands together once and extends a fist out with a smile, a reference to his unique intro with Ryu in various games. The fist animation is identical to Ryu's side taunt.
• Ken's last taunt has him flicking his fingers towards him to say "come on," a reference to his Street Fighter Alpha intro animation.
• Ken says "I'm ready for ya! Bring it on!" during his on-screen appearance, similarly to his intro in Street Fighter IV, rather than remaining silent like Ryu.
• Ken has a victory pose where he runs his hand through his hair, and gives a thumbs ups to the camera, while saying "I did it!" referencing one of his Street Fighter Alpha victory poses.

Attributes

• Ken's grounded movement speed is slightly faster than Ryu's.

Ground Attacks

• Ken can special cancel the second hit of his neutral attack.
  • Neutral attack's second hit is based on Ken's Street Fighter III close medium punch.
• Ken has his Oosoto Mawashi Geri move from Super Street Fighter II Turbo for his held neutral attack. He can cancel either the startup of the move or after the first hit and change it into his Inazuma Kick, a double-hitting axe kick much like Ryu's up throw.
• Ken’s held forward tilt is his far standing medium punch, a straight with his right arm, as opposed to Ryu’s Collarbone Breaker. It has less range and far less shield damage, but is faster and deals more knockback at a lower angle.
• Ken's forward smash is based off of his standing heavy kick introduced in Super Street Fighter II Turbo.

Aerial Attacks

• Ken's neutral aerial is based off of his diagonal jumping medium kick in SFII, as opposed to Ryu's diagonal jumping light kick.
  • Due to it being a kick rather than a knee, the range of the move is further than that of Ryu's neutral aerial.
• Ken’s up aerial is based off of his neutral jumping light kick, a kick straight upwards.

Throws

• Ken's back throw, Hell Wheel, has him roll backwards twice, allowing him to cover more distance and move closer to the edge of stages from farther away.

Special Moves

• Ken does not have access to Ryu's command input versions of Hadoken, meaning that he lacks a multi-hit projectile, and his projectile deals less potential damage.
  • In its place, he has Nata Otoshi Geri, an outward roundhouse kick from Super Street Fighter II Turbo that can be cancelled into Inazuma Kick, letting him use his special cancels without committing to the potential endlag of Shoryuken and Tatsumaki Senpukyaku and mix up his attacks.
• Tatsumaki Senpukyaku hits multiple times, as opposed to Ryu's single hit.
  • If all hits connect, Tatsumaki Senpukyaku deals more damage.
  • Due to its multihit property and distance, Tatsumaki Senpukyaku can be used to drag opponents offstage far away at low percentages, being effective against opponents with poor recoveries.
  • Tatsumaki Senpukyaku does significantly less knockback compared to Ryu's.
• Shoryuken deals less knockback than Ryu's equivalent and hits at a slightly more horizontal angle.
• Holding the special attack input performs a Heavy Shoryuken, which hits multiple times and has a flame effect.
• Heavy Shoryuken deals more damage and has powerful hitboxes throughout the move in contrast to Ryu's Shoryuken losing strength on later connects.
• Ken travels more horizontally during his Shoryuken. This makes certain combos possible and horizontal recoveries easier.
  • Shoryuken's horizontal movement can also make it riskier to use in the air and near the edge.
• Ken has two unique Final Smashes, Shinryuken and Shippu Jinraikyaku. Shinryuken produces a giant pillar of fire with immense vertical range, which is akin to his appearance in Marvel vs. Capcom series, which reused Street Fighter Alpha sprites in its 2D era games, while Shippu Jinryaikyaku has Ken furiously kicking opponents before ending in a devastating series of hurricane kicks. Shippu Jinraikyaku occurs when Ken initiates his Final Smash near an opponent, otherwise he uses Shinryuken.

Role in World of Light

Ken was absent in the World of Light trailer, though he presumably became a spirit alongside the rest of the galaxy (sans Kirby) when Galeem unleashed its beams of light.

Alternate costumes

Ken’s colors are primarily taken from Super Street Fighter II Turbo, with his last one being based off of his secret "Violent Ken" color in Street Fighter III: Third Strike.

Reveal trailer

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Gallery

• 

  Ken's splash art.

• 

  Ken's amiibo.

• 

  Ken on Coliseum.

• 

  With King K. Rool, Diddy Kong, and Donkey Kong on Tortimer Island.

• 

  Alongside Koume on Gerudo Valley.

• 

  Using Focus Attack on Wario on Onett.

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  Using Hadoken on Luigi on Mario Galaxy.

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  Unleashing Shinryuken on Final Destination.

Character Showcase Video

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Trivia

• Ken's pose in his official artwork is much like the pose in his Street Fighter III artwork.
• Ken's attack on Wario's motorcycle in the character showcase video is a reference to the car smashing mini-game from the Street Fighter II games.
• Ken's inclusion makes Street Fighter the second third-party universe to have more than one representative, after Castlevania.
  • Ken is also the second third-party Echo Fighter.
  • Additionally, Ken is the first Echo Fighter based on a third-party veteran, as Richter debuted alongside Simon.
  • Ken is the only Echo Fighter to originate in the same game as their base fighter, as both Ryu and Ken debuted in Street Fighter. All other echoes debuted after the character they are an echo of.
• Ken is the second newcomer in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate to be from a franchise that had its first character introduced in Super Smash Bros. 4, and the only one to be from a DLC-introduced franchise. His inclusion also makes Street Fighter the second franchise with a single character in Smash 4 to receive another playable character, the first for both instances being Animal Crossing.
• Ken is the first character revealed for Ultimate to share a reveal trailer with a character not from the same franchise, having been revealed in the same trailer as Incineroar.
• Ken's showcase of Shippu Jinraikyaku after a successful parry in his reveal trailer is a reference to "EVO Moment #37" (sometimes referred to as the "Daigo Parry"), a famous portion of an EVO 2004 match between top Street Fighter 3 players Justin Wong and Daigo Umehara.
• Ken and Richter are the only Echo Fighter newcomers with a CGI trailer as well as the only one with CGI footage for their splash art. Daisy did not have either, Chrom and Dark Samus had only gameplay footage for their trailers and their official artwork for their splash arts.
• Interestingly, Ken's appearance in Ultimate marks the third time in any game where his eye color is blue opposing to the usual brown after Street Fighter: the Movie and Street Fighter IV.
• Ken's Stock icons are differentiated by a change in his face shape (i.e. a block-shaped face and a skinnier one). This is presumably because he lacks colored hair accessories or headgear.