Ultimate Ken (Everything you should know)

Classic Fighting Games Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike
1

First off, its about time that something like this showed up and I’m suprised I beat everyone to it. Everyone else with alot of other characters have covered a massive ammount of ground when it comes to playing a good executed character like Yun, Urien, and Chun. So lets get something straight here.
Ken is absolutly the most balanced character in this game, and when used properly and excellent observation of your opponent, Ken can certainly win in an incredibly brutal fashion.
Now some of you may already be saying So and So beats Ken like this when he does this. This move stuffs Ken’s whatever. This super is something Ken cannot deal with. Blah blah blah. Lets get another thing straight here.
Ken has many, many things in his arsenal. Unlike most of the other characters that are designed and thats the way they are. Its like a cocktail. You got to have more then just the liquor, otherwise its just shit. Ken is definatly not like that. Ken can work in many, many ways. Which makes him versitile and ultimatly unpredictable.

This thread is not about what combos are the best or what does more damage. Everyone should know that stuff already, and if you don’t then look it up somewhere else because it won’t be here.
This thread will be in 3 parts: Toe to Toe, The mixup, and the Wakeup.
If I think of anything else, I’ll add it.
For now, I will add a small section off the top of my head and I will update the thread at a later time.

The c.mp xx SAIII vs. c.mk xx SAIII:
One is faster with shorter range. One is Slower with longer range. Not sure by how many frames, but it does make a difference.
This is easy however. Both of these are what they are. Use them on a case to case basis.

Pokes you probably don’t usually use but should because they work well (when used right :sweat: ):
s.mk (hold): Yes sir, You’d be very suprised on how that one gives you a lot of area for claim. Try throwing it in your corner mixup. On both close range and just out of range. I personally don’t use the last two hits of it for hit confirm xx SAIII. I use it just for poking and damage reasons, but if you can connect it, then go for it.
s.mk (Pressed once): Once it becomes obvious to whoever you’re playing that he can’t beat you on the ground, this one becomes your new friend when he decides to go airborne. Sometimes, you can just smell the jump, right? Before he/she even does it and when they do its shot down with this. This thing also works mid screen as well, but for another purpose of course. It sure does stop the dash ins from the likes of Urien and Makoto.
f.mk (Pressed once): Much like Chun’s f.mk, this one sort of works in the same way.

Updates soon…

2

good basics here i guess ill add some

He is right about ken being an observation player. Most people seen a good ken in their time and know how parry or bait most of his moves. Your moves should be circumstantial for the most part and if you get an oppurtunity try not to fuck it up.

the s.mk hold is a good move if your opponent doesnt know the trick to getting around it. When ken goes for the overhead during the hold you can sweep him, super , punish etc. I’d use this move sparringly. Say you do a s.mk and you pop someone out the air. It would be a good idea to hold the s.mk then throw a fireball after the overhead. It gives you time to stand back if your near stun or low on life. If you want to keep the agression going ken can get 2 dashes in depending on how high the air reset is (without the hold). A single dash and super jump results in a full screen crossup most of the time while the is in the air rest from the s.mk. Some times they land funky and its noticeable thats when you hit them with a j.FK and finish off your combo.

short shot super is probably your best offensive weapon. Plenty of time for confirmation and its does good damage. Try not to get reptitive with it as the good players will see it and make you pay faster than you can say pain.

Corner crossups work good with ken. Most people are going to expect you to keep them there. If you do the complete opposite, it results in a free combo sometimes. Besides, If you get stuck in the corner while trying this, you can always air ex tatsu out.

Try some double crossovers (2 crossovers back to back.) Just to keep the opp on their toes. If they parry the cross up and dont stick you out the air, and you have a super roll it twice and if you see a ground move punish themwith a super. Kens sa3 will win against most normal moves. Also mix up the crossups. IE crossup, s.mp, dash back, wait, cmk sa3. or xup, s.mp , dash back, dash forward, throw. This make the opponent start to guess on what you will do. Just wait for the wrong guess and punish with a super.

After knock downs and your near the opponent and you time it right you can do a lk tatsu. You will land on the other side of the opponent and the opponet will have his back turned. Its very hard to get but if your opponet likes to do wake up moves you will get the opps backside most of the time. Some peopele see this as an accidental move and will try to fire something back. In that case meaty moves work great. This works against most special moves and especially throws. You want to stay away from characters that can punish out the air IE yun, ryu etc…

If you see your opp. parrying your lp srk try a mp one. Theres no fire and its a 2 hit. If you do your mp srk the same way as your lp srk it is going to be hard for them to see the 2nd hit. What i mean by the same way is that you do them during the same setups and at the same distance. It makes the mp srk look like a lp srk. Ive seen people just constantly parry in the air and it renders this trick useless so beware.

I hear alot of people preach about the c.mk sa3 and why it shouldnt be c.mk, hadoken, sa3. For starters the difference between the 2 is one damage point with c.mk sa3 being the strongest. c.mk, hadoken, sa3 has better confirmation as oppposed to the the other. The weakness is that is pushes the opp back if they block and it also makes for red parry bait. Not everyone is going to land that red parry and wack you back with a super but beware of the players that can. This is why you should know both. You never know when youll come across a good player who can red parry super on constant basis. You really cant toe them with the hadoken cancel but it offers almost as much range. On rare occasions you will have to cancel before the fireball hits the opp. Thats probably the max range of the c.mk hadoke cancel. Id rather stick the super than miss the oppurtunity completely. Same thing with the c.mp, hadoken, sa3 much more room for confirmation.

Another stupid trick is the rising jumping floating jab. I usually do this full screen and it just screws people up or jump straight up and rise with it. You can even cross over with this. Good thing about this is that it has a hit box the entire time in the air. It will stuff most moves and ive even traded srks with it. A very under rated move in my eyes. Its a good mixup move as well. It will throw the opp off for a split second if they dont expect it. Go for a quick throw or a deadly combo if you can get one in.

The knee throw cross up. If you stick the neutral throw in the corner dont mash it. Let the opp mash out and hopefully the opp willl tech it. If they tech it go for the ground cross up and punish accordinly. Mashing out, teching off the ground and the blocking the other way is too much in the heat of battle. Your more than guranteed to land a combo if the opp doesnt know its coming. Use your good tricks sparingly. You dont want the opp to find out about them.

Ken has tonsss of setups for most of his damaging combos. Throw something weird out there, see how they react, and make them pay for it next time. I have to many tricks to post.

3

Im having trouble fighting Ibuki…the little skank keeps givin trouble.

4

shoryuken

5

This guy really knows how to pick 'em. :rofl:

6

Exactly how much more range do you get from a kara shoryuken?
This question is to end an argument.

7

Enough to get a second shoryuken (jab jab ofcourse)

8

13 pixels.

9

Do you have to kara the shoryu against necro mid screen to get the second?
This question is to end an argument.

10

no you dont have to on necro if you had the first shoryu as close a possible i.e cancel of st cl mp or very deep mk , only time u need to kara is of a st hp

11

yes and no, a sraigt point black shoryu shoryu will work mid screen but you’ll need to kara if you open with something like jump hp, mp, jab srk, kara srk. Not sure if you need a perfectly timed kara srk tho.

12

Hey anyone know about doing Short-Jab-Short xx Super? Is there an advantage to doing this over Short-Short xx Super? My buddy said his opponent was doing this to him in a match.

13

nah fool
just have to be close.
if not you have to kara.

14

why in the hell did yall bring back a 2+ year old thread ???

15

cause we all decided you’re a faggot.

16

It does a little more damage. That’s about it. It doesn’t even work on everyone standing and you have to be right in their face to pull it off. Unless it’s casual or you really know your shit and/or are on a roll you might wanna leave it alone.

17

i do short jab short super with Ken on cross ups because it gives me more time to see if the first short landed. With short short i dont have enough time to stop doing the super (if it gets blocked) Jab Jab Short is great too.

18

Any combo starting with c.LP is not hot. Last time I checked, using moves that can only be parried one way (c.LK) is a better strat than using moves that can be parried both ways (c.LP).

19

yeah but jabs sometimes can be confused for strongs when going low and might make them stop blocking.

Hence the reason, I do cr. jab, cr, short, cr. short after a quick dash. They usually stop blocking too.

Then again, my combo is different than his.

20

jab short short is typically used to beat a throw because jab beats throw, but short is slightly slower, I think, so in some cases there is an advantage, but 19/20 times short is better