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. Ken is classified as fighter #60ε.

Ken's English voice actor is Reuben Langdon, who has voiced the character since Street Fighter IV, while his Japanese voice actor is Yūji Kishi, who has been voicing him since Street Fighter III: Third Strike.

How to unlock

Complete one of the following:

• Play VS. matches, with Ken being the 57th character to be unlocked.
• Clear Classic Mode with Yoshi or anyone in his unlock tree, being the eighth character unlocked after Chrom.
• Have Ken join the player's party in World of Light.

With the exception of the third method, Ken must then be defeated on Boxing Ring.

Differences from Ryu

Ken is considered the original "Echo Fighter" in fighting game history, but unlike other Echo Fighters in the game, Ken's differences extend beyond visual changes and damage distribution, using the gameplay differences from Super Street Fighter II Turbo onwards to separate him from his mirror character, Ryu. While most of Ken's attacks and attributes are identical, he primarily trades Ryu's knockback in exchange for more combo routes and damage-racking capabilities, similar to their differences in their home series.

Aesthetics

• As with all other Echo Fighters, Ken has unique taunts and victory animations.
• Ken says "I'm ready for ya! Bring it on!" during his on-screen appearance rather than being silent like Ryu. His dialogue is the same as his fight entrance in Street Fighter IV.
• Unlike Ryu, Ken faces forward with a neutral expression instead of looking dejected or annoyed during his clapping animation.
• Ken's Hadoken contains an image of his hands, as it does in the original Street Fighter II.
• Ken's Focus Attack is a spinning kick rather than a punch, as he did in Street Fighter IV.

Attributes

• Ken's grounded movement speed is 10% faster than Ryu's, matching Mario's current run speed.

Ground Attacks

• Held neutral attack is Inazuma Kick, a double-hitting axe kick much like Ryu's up throw. It is somewhat hard to land by itself, as its effective range tends to overlap with his close variant. It deals a large amount of shield damage.
• Neutral attack's second hit is based on Ken's Street Fighter III close medium punch.
• Ken's held forward tilt is his far standing medium punch, a straight with his right arm, as opposed to Ryu's Collarbone Breaker.
  • Held forward tilt is faster and deals more knockback at a lower angle.
  • Held forward tilt has less range and far less shield damage.
• Ken's forward smash is based off of his standing heavy kick introduced in Super Street Fighter II Turbo.
  • It has less range and does not make Ken travel forwards.
  • It has slightly less base knockback.

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 has more input command moves than Ryu.
  • He has Oosoto Mawashi Geri, an outward roundhouse kick from Super Street Fighter II Turbo similar to Ryu's standing held neutral attack that can be cancelled into Inazuma Kick by holding the attack button, letting him use his special cancels without committing to the potential endlag of Shoryuken and Tatsumaki Senpukyaku and mix up his attacks. Inazuma Kick also deals a fair amount of shield damage, making it much riskier to block Ken during his blockstrings.
  • Ken also has his Nata Otoshi Geri, a swiping roundhouse kick from Super Street Fighter II Turbo with a unique input (forward, down forward, down, special/attack) that Ryu does not have. He can cancel either the startup of the move or after the first hit and change it into his Inazuma Kick by holding the attack button. Its low knockback and angle make it useful for combos, leading into down smash, forward smash or a Shoryuken.

• Shoryuken
  • 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 more than 2 times, and has a flame effect.
  • Although it KOs later, Ken's Shoryuken deals more damage and has powerful hitboxes throughout the move in contrast to Ryu's Shoryuken losing strength the longer it is out. Shoryuken can also drag enemies upwards, letting it kill earlier when close to the top.
  • Ken can travel more horizontally during his Heavy Shoryuken. This makes certain combos possible and horizontal recoveries easier.

• Hadoken
  • Ken's Hadoken deals less damage than Ryu's version.
  • Ken does not have access to Ryu's Shakunetsu Hadoken, meaning that he lacks a multi-hit projectile.

• Tatsumaki Senpukyaku
  • 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 has less endlag, allowing for followups after the move is complete.
  • Tatsumaki Senpukyaku does significantly less knockback compared to Ryu's.
  • Tatsumaki Senpukyaku connects less reliably than Ryu's, and lacks a final hit, making it punishable.

• Ken has two unique Final Smashes, Shinryuken and Shippu Jinraikyaku. Shinryuken produces a giant pillar of fire with immense vertical range, which is similar to its appearance in Marvel vs. Capcom series, which reused Street Fighter Alpha sprites in its 2D era games. Meanwhile, Shippu Jinryaikyaku has Ken furiously kicking opponents before ending in a devastating series of hurricane kicks, much like his Guren Senpukyaku Ultra Combo II from Super Street Fighter IV and the ending of his Guren Enjinkyaku Critical Art from Street Fighter V, but is ultimately based on his Shippu Jinraikyaku Super Art from Street Fighter III. Shippu Jinraikyaku occurs when Ken initiates his Final Smash near an opponent. Otherwise, he will perform Shinryuken.

Classic Mode: Red-Hot Rivalry

All of Ken's opponents except Luigi are rivals to the main character of their franchise of origin.

Round	Opponent	Stage	Music	Notes
1	Dark Pit	Palutena's Temple (Battlefield form)	Dark Pit's Theme
2	Wolf	Venom	Star Wolf's Theme / Sector Z (for 3DS / Wii U)
3	Dark Samus	Frigate Orpheon	Multiplayer - Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
4	Dark Link	Temple	Great Temple / Temple
5	Luigi	Mario Bros.	Underground Theme - Super Mario Bros.
6	Ryu	Suzaku Castle (Ω form)	Ryu Stage
Bonus Stage
Final	Crazy Hand	Final Destination	Crazy Hand	On intensity 7.0 and higher, Master Hand fights alongside Crazy Hand, and the track Master Hand / Crazy Hand plays during the battle.

Role in World of Light

Although Ken does not appear in the World of Light opening cutscene, he was vaporized and later imprisoned alongside the rest of the fighters (sans Kirby) when Galeem unleashed his beams of light.

Ken was one of the many fighters that fell under Dharkon's control upon Galeem's first defeat. He can be found in Dracula's Castle.

Alternate costumes

Reveal trailer

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Gallery

• 

  Ken's splash art.

• 

  Ken's amiibo.

• 

  Ken's fighter card.

• 

  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.

• 

  Using Hadoken on Luigi on Mario Galaxy.

• 

  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 second clone to debut in their home series in the same game as the base fighter, after Falco in Melee, who debuted in Star Fox alongside Fox.
    • Coincidentally, they are the only two fighters who fight can fight a lone Crazy Hand in Classic Mode.
• 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, while 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.
• With the inclusion of his Roundhouse Kicks, Ken has a total of six unique special moves at once, making him the only character in the series with this distinction.
• Ken is one of the few characters who speaks while teetering: he voices a surprised "Uh oh!".
• Ken has the second highest amount of voice clips for any character in the game, with 62 clips. Kirby is the only character who has a higher amount, with 95 total clips.
  • Strangely, he's Star KO clip is available in his sound library, making him the only fighter with this distinction.
• Ken and Mario are the only characters that possess the Neutral typing when unlocking them in World of Light.