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 is voiced by Reuben Langdon in English, who has been maintaining the role since Street Fighter IV, and Yūji Kishi in Japanese, 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 most other Echo Fighters in the game, Ken's differences extend beyond visual changes and damage distribution. Instead, his differences are akin to those of clones in Super Smash Bros. Melee, using the gameplay differences from Super Street Fighter II onwards to separate him from his mirror character, Ryu.

Ken primarily trades Ryu's knockback in exchange for more combo routes and damage-racking capabilities, similar to their differences in their home series. While his moves individually tend to be worse at KOing, Ken's also deal more damage overall.

Aesthetics

• Ken's Hadoken contains an image of his hands, as it does in the original Street Fighter II.
• Ken's command-input Shoryuken is based on his heavy punch version from Super Street Fighter II, which features the flame effect.
• Ken's Focus Attack is a spinning kick rather than a punch, as he did in Street Fighter IV.
• Ken has a taunt where he smiles and brings his hand out with a thumbs up, saying "Yeah!", a reference to his Street Fighter IV win animation.
• Additionally, Ken has another unique taunt where he punches his hands together once and extends a fist out with a smile, saying "Get serious!", a reference to his unique intro with Ryu in various games. The fist animation is identical to Ryu's side taunt. Both Ryu and Ken also done this taunt during their special intro battle in Street Fighter III mostly.
• 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.
• Ken has a victory pose where he performs his Nata Otoshi Geri and Oosoto Mawashi Geri before flicking his fingers like his render, saying, "I knew I'd win! Hah!" from infamously Capcom’s developed fighting game crossover Street Fighter X Tekken.
• Ken has a victory pose where he punches twice and does a roundhouse kick before raising his fist in the air like Ryu’s own victory pose, saying, "Challenge me after some practice," referencing one of his recurring victory poses, primarily its Street Fighter V incarnation.
• Ken's head is pointed forwards in his clapping animation.

Attributes

• Ken's grounded movement speed is 1.1x 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.
• 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

• As in the original games, Ken’s Hadoken deals less damage than Ryu’s.
• Ken does not have access to Ryu's Shakunetsu Hadoken, meaning that he lacks a multi-hit projectile, and his projectile potentially deals less damage.
  • In its place, 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 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.
• 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.
• Shoryuken deals less knockback than Ryu's equivalent and hits at a slightly more horizontal angle, while being based on his medium version of his home series, which hits 2 times.
• 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.
• 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. 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
1	Dark Pit	Palutena's Temple (Battlefield form)
2	Wolf	Venom
3	Dark Samus	Frigate Orpheon
4	Dark Link	Temple
5	Luigi	Mario Bros.
6	Ryu	Suzaku Castle (Ω form)
Bonus Stage
Final	Crazy Hand	Final Destination

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.

Alternate costumes

Ken’s colors are primarily taken from Super Street Fighter II Turbo, with his last one being based off of his secret color from Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike.

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.
• 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.
  • He is also the first and so far only newcomer in the Ultimate trailers to be "killed" in his debut trailer (being sent through the jumbotron via Incineroar's Final Smash).
• 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!".