Does Ken REALLY = 3rd Strike?

Classic Fighting Games Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike
1

I know I could and probably should have posted this in the Ken subforum, but we’re not here to discuss how to improve strategies and combos. We’re here to discuss whether or not playing Ken will teach you how to play 3rd Strike. I’m also not putting up a poll because I’m personally not fond of them. I just wanted to move the recent Ken discussion away from the 3S Match Vids Thread and into something more appropriate.

Ever since the influx of new players, be they from SF4, GGPO or 3SOE, there’s been a somewhat generally accepted train of thought that playing Ken will teach you almost everything there is to know about 3rd Strike faster than any other character. Zoning, footsies, hitconfirming, even overall playstyles such as rushdown, turtle or whatever else. Ken’s tools are useful and broad to the point where you could shape your own playstyle and still be effective as long as you’re aware of what you have.

However, there are others who say that you can play pretty much any other character and still get similar results, possibly even better. There’s obviously Chun-Li who is not only better than Ken but also has most of his tools…only better. Then there are other characters which you can learn the ins and outs of the overall game with.

What do you think? Does Ken = 3S? Do you think a player can use anyone else and still learn just as quickly? Is Tebbo really just jealous that Ryu isn’t as top as Ken?

P.S.- j/k ilu tebbo <3

2

I just think Ken is easy mode. Yeah, he works in 3S, but I wouldn’t say he represents all you can do in 3S. I would say a better character that reps 3S is Dudley. Footsies, baits, a brutal pressure game especially when he knocks you down, etc. To me, people who pick Ken do so because they’re either new or very comfortable playing SF4 and they can get away with some SF4 footsies… And then get rocked but they don’t like venturing out of that comfort zone.

3

ken isnt 3rd strike but he definitely has the fewest weaknesses

4

I think ken is 3rd strike, everybody plays ken, dont lie.

he is pretty gay , but his mirrors are fun o_O

Gouki is way better tho.

5

This isn’t a tier discussion guys, we know Ken is good and somewhat overplayed. The issue is whether he teaches you 3s faster then other characters. As the character with the most well rounded and viable (not balanced bare in mind) set of tools, I personally feel he rewards you for using all those tools far more then most.

Just my opinion anyway.

6

Alex isnt the bomb:lame:

is this supposed to be a jab at chun/ken?

7

I don’t think it’s more a jab at them than it is the fact that new players are usually more intrigued by the flashier stuff they can do. The more you know about 3rd Strike, the more you’ll be able to appreciate high-level Ken and Chun play. Until then, pretty much everyone from high-mid to low tier are going to seem way more exciting since they have flashier stuff to look at, like juggles and combos. You’ve got to admit that most Urien players were attracted to him because of RX and the billions of shit he’s done with Urien.

I actually do have a lot to say regarding this thread, but I’ll post it up in a bit.

8

Let me start first off, by saying that I’ve used mainly Hugo, Q and Urien for a good chunk of my 3S life. These three have taught me a lot about fundamentals, such as spacing, poking, footsies, both defense and offense, aggressive play and turtling, so on and so forth. I like to think that I’ve gotten pretty far with these characters(anyone who’s played me before who think otherwise can feel free to say I suck lol), but I knew that I was also lacking in certain other departments. Let me just say that Hugo and Q are very simple characters. Same with Urien minus Aegis. Simple combos that do great damage, far pokes, so on and so forth. I was missing out on stuff like hitconfirming and whatever.

Then came Ken. I’ve played him for years off and on, but I never really took the time to take him seriously. It wasn’t until I moved to Japan that I really started trying him out. As a result, I’ve learned how to approach better, how to take advantage of being in the air, as well as hitconfirming. I’ve been given more reason to focus on counterpoking thanks to him. That eventually helped out my Dudley and especially my Chun game. Then I started thinking to myself, “Man, maybe I should have started out with Ken first. I would’ve picked up on all this stuff so much faster…”

I guess you could kind of think of it as character remorse, hence I usually supported the whole “new players should try Ken” thing. It’s not that I thought that you can ONLY learn 3rd Strike through Ken, I just felt that you could learn 3rd Strike FASTER through Ken. Once you got good with him, it’d be easier to try and branch out to other characters.

Then I thought to myself, “Do I really think learning Ken will really teach players how to learn this game faster, or do I just think my characters were ass compared to Ken and I hated my life?” lol

I’ve heard some interesting points from both the Match Vids thread and this one, and I’m inclined to agree that it’s not really necessary to start with him. I will say that he’s still great as a starting character and you’ll see results with him somewhat faster than most of the other characters. But ultimately, just because Ken is arguably the best balanced character out of the cast, that doesn’t really mean he’s total embodiment of the game. Just play whoever, I guess.

9

ftfy

10

Only saying this since many better formed and said things have already been said.

Tebbo needs to say more, but he’s a decisive dude I gather.

11

Oh yeah, now if we can get the entirety of SF players to stop with:

Ryu vs Ryu is the epitome of SFighter, counter for every counter, like chess! Balanced like no other matchup!

Same guys say:

Chun vs Chun, shitsux that’s why I never played 3s seriously / quit3s / hate that parry guess game. Fuckin SA2, bitch (I can’t parry!) Daigo did it, nobody else can or will.

Pretty telling it shows that they just never understood 3s, Chun Li stuff was a mystery for so long to many when JWong turtles so hard, it shakes scenes world’s apart in Raoh to get confused for Daigo being “actually angry” (Seth with the all look same) & Kuroda being Raoh’s friend? gets a matchup with the infamous vs a real piece of work, stinky, diamond playing a lesser options character to win thru his skills in the game, goes and does a bajillion more than max or necessary Q Taunt, turtle a turtle Wong Chun out, comeback, payback to huge crowd cheers

…or its just a huge circle jerk about Ryu throwin dem doukens. Down Right Fierce! Okay what about 2p side.

12

I swear I can’t understand a thing you’re saying most of the time.

13

Sounds low tier to me, back of the line.

Please save such a thought to yourself instead of a direct call out of me as after 30 of these by just, not as cool people as me, I might lash back or have experiments on what I should say in response to this shit, every time. You normie. I won’t be so much a noble and ignore stupid empty post like that, where you know what you’re doing but you need to know that says 10 times more about you and your reading comprehension. Not being smart enough to ask for a clarification, intentional thread diversion to make it about me or you think you’re better than me nonsense. Quick reply quoting the whole thing to write one line, why should I respond to you? Low tier forum use, get some more Experience just like in 3s you want more experience to grow.

I generally, edit 100 times while fighting the forum that does not want edits to go thru, when making posts now also.

14

You get offended very easily don’t you? Either way I never actually meant to offend you, I just find your use of language somewhat odd at times.

15

[details=Spoiler]“This is stupid. You’re stupid.”

I appreciate your “I-messages,” no really I do. No, its not just you this one time, and no I know when I’m being stupid, if you feel I am you can ignore me. Maybe you’re young and don’t know these things yet, how to talk to other people. Look at how you worded that assumption. “you get - easily offended - don’t you?” more confrontational words instead of any leeway to concede you shouldn’t have said that.

Congratulations on you telling me you’re boring. You didn’t read it. Hear that same thing all the time, end of my rope with that. Have you not looked around here with worse: “are you drunk? constantly high?”

& not for the thread. You ever need to do this again, PM me.[/details]
If Ken doesn’t read all that much about 3s on the forums, then yes Ken is 3rd Strike. He does what he wants, comes and goes as he pleases. His wife must not like him all that much day to day, until he comes home with the prize moneys.

16

translating…

Like a hurricane.

In all seriousness, Ken has options for almost every situation. What makes you improve faster is playing better players (e.g. someone who demonstrates why certain moves/strategies are not viable in high level play by blowing you up).

17

It’s not the character that teaches you how to play the game, it’s the way you play the character that does

18

If we are talking about what its possible to do with your character Id say gouki can teach you everything in this game. He has a kara grab, he has footsies, he has rushdown, he can play turtle style, he can play jungle, he is one of the best if not the best zoners in the game and he has a great air game. Overall gouki just has too much options compared to the other characters.

Now the question is if the player that is trying to learn 3s can handle getting killed in a second since that will happen a lot when you first pick gouki and will he fall into the trap of spamming safe moves 24/7 or will he try to actually learn the character?

19

3rd Strike is all about making someone your bitch

That said, Makoto

20

Judging by how many people liked my post, it would seem apparent that several other, clearly intelligent members also have difficulty understanding you too. Your vocabulary is not the problem, it’s your syntax.

Anyway enough talk about language…