Ryu has better priority on his moves than Ken does and is more straight forward.
Imo Ryu is actually a really hard character to play well, Although technically he is pretty straightforward compared to Ken.
i think its that he is Ryu really…
there isn’t really a Sub-Zero: Scorpion affect here.
Ryu is the World Warrior whereas ken’s story goes a lil deeper (-_-), has a wife, expecting a baby, and just wins the American championships, lol.
I think yall diggin a lil to deep rather than the ooo its ryu factor
has it ever been explained why ken has fire and ryu doesnt?
More people pick Ryu because his hair doesn’t look freaking stupid and he has cooler costume colours.
I started using Ken when my uncle got me into fighting games back in the day. It was also because he would whoop my ass with Ryu so I liked returning the favor with Ken lol.
Something that grinds my gears with Ken in a lot of games is when you would hit with a fierce SRK for example, but the rest of the hits don’t connect and the opponent gets a free punish T_T
Maybe because Ken’s dark eybrows give away that he is in love with peroxide and spray tans. 
L-A
Ken ain’t tan though!
Ryu on the other hand is a dark ass metro asian
Newbies don’t even realize that it’s Ryu’s mash friendly 3 frame uppercut that can reversal mistimed combos, and strike fear into OTHER newbies hearts is what makes him so popular. Same thing with Ken really. Ryu is NOT easy. The fact that he’s so straight forward is what makes him hard to master. He has a weak mix up ability, so in order to mind fuck an opponent a really good Ryu needs to know how to read and bait their opponents REALLY well. If you can’t do this, then you won’t be able to zone, punish, or get any damage in at all. Can someone as newb as you know how to do this. No. I played Ryu for 2 years and realized that winning with him against high level players using characters like Viper, Dhalsim, Blanka, Bison, KENS, and anybody else with tools designed to shut down your zoning game AND abuse the fact that Ryu has no real tricky way to get in on opponents is REALLY HARD. If a Ryu is consistently kicking your ass (assuming you’re not a total noob), you have to take a step back and realize that this guy is thinking several steps ahead of you throughout the entire match. Think about it, the only Ryu’s I’ve ever heard of being good are Daigo, Air, Valle, and Fuudo. The MAIN reason they’re good is because they can read and adapt to their opponents so quickly. They know the ins and out of EVERY other character in the game. They know how to bait certain moves, and know WHEN and HOW to punish mistakes. Even being able to REALIZE an opponent has made a mistake is an integral part of Ryu’s game. Most Ryu’s aren’t even aware of the other players making a handful of mistakes right in front of them. They’re too distracted mashing out a thoughtless fireball or uppercut. If you have NO clue about how the other characters in the game are supposed to work, you will never, and I say NEVER, be a master Ryu player, and much less, be able to call Ryu easy. Newbs like you will forever be smashed into the ground by superior players that know better than to say scrub things like this.
I wish I could direct every shoto whiner over to this post so that they know their roles, and shut their mouths. (I love The Rock)
i’m not sure if youre talking about ryu or ken’s air tatsu but i have to say that ken’s ex and lk air tatsus are offensive staples imo. i can’t tell you how many matches i’ve won with an ex air tatsu out of left field.
as for the thread i think that low level players mainly pick ryu because he’s the most popular character. when you get to the upper mid to high level i’d say that there is an equal number of proficient ryu and ken players. theres prolly less than 15 players in the world who play either at a godlike level imo.
i play ken instead of ryu simply because i enjoy the number of offensive options ken has to mixup and rush down compared to ryu. ex tatsu not knocking down and putting people into a guess situation is something i personally love but many players would rather get the knockdown. i wouldn’t say either character is harder to play than the other, both are easy to learn extremely hard to master. slightly different strokes for similar folks.
also ryu IS NOT better than ken in AE, idk where some of you guys drank the punch on that one but that’s incorrect.
I didn’t know Ken can combo into his ultra and super in various simpler ways like Ryu, have a three frame start up on all versions of DP’s like Ryu, more powerful linking normals like Ryu [Easily the most powerful in the game], priority on moves and not too mention faster walk speed too…Oh wait!
My man ken is beat out but I still have more fun with Ken [always did]!
Think about it like this: Ryu was always player 1. Ryu was always the first character on the select screen. There is a reason why people like Mario over Luigi.
cmon man fadc into ultra is not hard. you can cancel u2 from various hit confirmed jump ins and crossup tatsus. as for ken’s super i think most people just use ex and fadc but you can cancel his super from anything you can cancel a dp from. ken has c.mp into c mk and can also combo into sweep on this game. i play vega and his normals are fairly tight links but they do more damage than ryus. not to mention the fact that kens mixup game is just so much scarier than ryus. you are delusional bro ryu isn’t that good in ae. i dunno your post is so silly i feel like you almost have to be trolling.
I’m not trolling, the fact that the majority of your post stating what Ken can do has Ryu doing it too and a little more. Only thing Ken has over Ryu is mixups and this is nothing new.
A 5 frame sweep
A a 34 year old male, I’ve been playing with Ryu since 1987 so you do the math. Ryu has always been “Mr. Reliable” to me. Ken bores me and I never cared too much for him. But take this into account, Ken has the speed and can drag out a fight but Ryu has the power and can get the fight over quick.
Ken was strong because of his normal buffs in AE, especially his combo into sweep, mixup for days.
One of Ryu’s best pokes, cr. mk, is worse in AE, and damage nerfed in many areas.
Fireball game meh in AE because top tiers could care less.
Ken’s definitely better in AE, because of a combination of buffs and better matchups.
AE2012 is another story. That sweep debuff if it stays, will hurt quite a bit methinks.
EDIT: WTF I re-read the thread title. This is a troll topic.
//igottrolled.
Those are lame reasons. Ken’s normal buff was his standing combo into sweep, whoopdey do, like I said before, Ryu can do that AND some. And they nerfed Ryu’s C.MK as well as Ken’s C.MK ,so what. Ryu still has the tools for every situation with more speed and power unlike ken.
ken’s best buff was 7 frame sweep however he also got the option to combo cr. mk off of cr. mp and that opened up a lot of meaty setups, and counter hit setups as well. he also got a st lp hit box which helps sweep combos. ryu had his solar plexus strike taken away, and he can escape with tatsu out of the corner in ae. and btw the nerf to cr.mk is a lot harsher on ryu than ken because ken has a bigger variety of pokes not to mention it is ryu’s best poke.
^Like I posted earlier you are only posting things about Ken that Ryu has BEEN doing only with more speed, power and priority.