Ken (Life & Death)

Ken (ケン, Ken) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Life or Death.
Ken Masters is one of the main characters of Street Fighter and is one of the only two characters (the other being Ryu) that have appeared in every single installment of the series. He is widely known by many as being Ryu's "clone, " using similar attacks such as the Hadoken, Shoryuken and Tatsumaki Senpukyaku, but later games in the series have added subtle differences to their movesets such as Ken's use of fire and multi-hit capabilities.
Ken is voiced by both Ruben Langdon and Yūji Kishi in both the Western and Japanese versions of Life or Death with newly recorded voice clips.
==How to Unlock==
*???
*???
*Get him to join your party in the Kiss of Death.
With the exception of the final task, completing one of the above will lead to Ken challenging the player on Drive-In At Night. Defeating him unlocks him for regular gameplay.
==Moveset==
*Ken always faces his opponent when only two players are remaining in a match.
*A small flash will appear whenever Ken does the input command version of one of his Special Moves instead of the standard B input.
*Sound effects from the Street Fighter II series are used when Ken hits opponents, albeit heavily modified, instead of the typical knockback sounds. The intensity of the sound depends on the power of the move. Ken shares this trait with Ryu.
 	Name 	Description
Neutral Attack 	N/A 	Tapped: A jab, followed by a short straight-punch, followed by a hook. The second hit is based on Ken's Street Fighter III close medium punch. The first and second hits can be special-canceled, and are also able to jab lock.
Held (far): Ken performs his Inazuma Kick: a double-hitting axe kick. It is somewhat hard to land both hits, as the range tends to overlap with his close variant. This move causes Ken to slightly move forward, and deals a good amount of shield damage.
Held (close): An uppercut similar to his held up tilt, but with significantly different properties.
Forward Tilt 	N/A 	Tapped (far): The tsumasaki geri, a kick used in Karate. It launches the opponent diagonally upward. 
Tapped (close): An inward hook. 
Held: A straight with his left or right arm. While it is faster and deals more damage that Ryu's Collarbone Breaker, it has less range and far less shield damage. It is based on his far standing medium punch. Cannot be special-canceled.
Up Tilt 	N/A 	Tapped: The sok ngat, an uppercut-style elbow strike used in Muay Thai. 
Held: An uppercut.
Down Tilt 	N/A 	Tapped: A crouching, Hapkido-style shin kick. It is extremely fast and highly spammable, much like his tapped up tilt. 
Held: A lunging, Hapkido-style shin kick.
Dash Attack 	N/A 	A flying kick.
Forward Smash 	N/A 	A roundhouse kick. Unlike Ryu's forward smash, it has less range, and does not move him forward as much; it also has slightly less base knockback. It is faster than Ryu's forward smash, however. Based on his standing heavy kick introduced in Super Street Fighter II Turbo.
Up Smash 	N/A 	Squats and then rises up to throw an uppercut.
Down Smash 	N/A 	A legsweep. It is Ken's fastest smash attack. However, it is rather weak for a down smash, and only hits directly in front of Ken.
Neutral Aerial 	N/A 	A downward angled kick. While weaker than Ryu's neutral aerial, the move has increased range. Based on his diagonal jumping medium kick in SFII.
Forward Aerial 	N/A 	A flying kick.
Back Aerial 	N/A 	An outside crescent kick.
Up Aerial 	N/A 	A kick straight upwards. Unlike Ryu's up aerial, it only hits once, and his leg is not intangible. Based off of his neutral jumping light kick.
Down Aerial 	N/A 	A downward-angled cross.
Grab 	N/A 	Reaches out with his hand.
Pummel 	N/A 	A knee strike while holding the opponent in the collar-and-elbow position. It is based on his Tsukami Hizageri (つかみ膝蹴り, "Grasping Knee Kick") throw in the Street Fighter Alpha/Zero games.
Forward Throw 	N/A 	The seoi nage, a Judo throw.
Back Throw 	N/A 	Rolls backward twice before performing the tomoe nage, akin to Pikachu's back throw.
Up Throw 	N/A 	A stretch kick transitioned into an axe kick.
Down Throw 	N/A 	Pins the opponent to the ground and performs a knifehand strike. Ken's only throw with combo potential, albeit a rather lackluster one. However, the actual throw's collateral hitbox deals enough shield damage to break even a full shield, though it is difficult to land due to it requiring bystanders to be directly in front of Ken. Its shield-breaking properties and animation are based on the brick breaking bonus game in Street Fighter, though it also resembles Akuma's Shurettō (朱裂刀, "Vermilion Rending Blade") throw in Street Fighter IV.
Neutral Special	Hadoken 	Quickly cups his hands to his side and then thrusts them forward to launch a blue ki blast from his cupped hands that deals low damage and knockback, and may cause tripping at low percents. As in the original games, Ken's Hadoken is weaker than Ryu's version. Since Ken does not have access to Shakunetsu Hadoken, he can only do two versions of the move: a small blue Hadoken (special button only), and a minutely stronger and larger inputted Hadoken (↓ ↘ → + attack/special). Combos well out of his tapped tilt attacks and aerials, and is mainly used to rack up damage due to its low damage outputs, knockback and slow speed. Both variants can cancel into his Final Smash. Like in the original Street Fighter II, Ken's Hadoken contains an image of his hands.
Side Special 	Tatsumaki Senpukyaku 	A jumping, spinning crescent kick. Unlike Ryu's version of the move, Ken's version hits multiple times, has less endlag, and the grounded version does not grant intangibility on his leg. Also, Ken will announce the move by name whether he uses the input or not (Ryu only announces the move if it was performed via input). Even if all hits connect, the move deals less damage than the late hit of Ryu's version. The multi-hits can also drag opponents offstage at low percents, making it effective against characters with poor recoveries. However, Ken's Tatsumaki Senpukyaku deals significantly less knockback than Ryu's, repurposing the move from a KOing option into a combo starter and combo extender. Any of the hits can be canceled into his Final Smash.
Up Special 	Shoryuken 	A leaping uppercut. Ken's Shoryuken deals less knockback than Ryu's equivalent and hits at a slightly more horizontal angle. However, it deals more damage and has powerful hitboxes throughout the move (in contrast to Ryu's Shoryuken, which loses strength the longer it is out). Shoryuken can also drag enemies upwards, letting it kill earlier when close to the top. Depending on how long the button is pressed, Ken's Shoryuken will hit a different amount of times: tapping the button fast causes it to hit once, tapping the button at a mid-fast speed causes it to hit twice, and holding the button performs Heavy Shoryuken: a flaming Shoryuken that hits 3 times. It grants him intangibility on frame 5. The command-input variant (→ ↓ ↘ + attack/special) deals more damage (especially the heavy variant), and grants intangibility to his arm from frames 1 to 14. Can cancel into his Final Smash.
Down Special 	Focus Attack 	Similar to Ryu's version, but with a spinning kick instead of a punch. Additionally, the uncharged version on grounded and aerial opponents, as well as the semi-charged and fully-charged versions on aerial opponents, launch opponents at a lower angle.
Command Input 1	Nata Otishi Geri 	A swiping crescent kick that hits twice, launching them into the air. This move uses a unique input, a reversed forward quarter-circle (→ ↘ ↓ + attack), that Ryu does not possess. While not always guaranteed, the attack leads into various followups and resets, including a forward smash. Much like Oosoto Mawashi Geri, holding the attack button will cancel into Inazuma Kick (cancels after the first hit only). As with his Oosoto Mawashi Geri, the Inazuma Kick cancel deals fair shield damage. Both hits can cancel into his Final Smash.
Command Input 2	Oosoto Mawashi Geri 	An outward roundhouse kick, which resembles Ryu's far, held neutral attack. The input is the same as Ryu's Shakunetsu Hadoken: a half-circle input (← ↙ ↓ ↘ → + attack). By holding the attack button, he will cancel it into Inazuma Kick. The Inazuma Kick deals a fair amount of shield damage, making it much riskier to block Ken during his blockstrings. He also gains intangibility on his leg for frames 7 and 8. Works well as a safe combo ender, particularly at the edge where it becomes a powerful KO option. Can cancel into his Final Smash upon hit.
Final Smash 	Shippu Jinraikyaku/Shinryuken	Ken's Final Smash varies depending on range. At point-blank range, Ken traps the opponent with Shippu Jinraikyaku, a furious series of kicks, followed by devastating series of hurricane kicks. If the initial hit some how misses, Ken will only do the first few hits, however, if he hit another opponent during those hits, the Final Smash will continue as normal. At any other range, Ken performs the Shinryuken, an uppercut which produces a giant pillar of fire with immense vertical range. If the attack or special button is mashed during Shinryuken, the final smash will deal extra damage. Ken can cancel most of his moves directly into his Final Smash as well.
=== Cancelling ===
Ken can perform a special move out of certain normal attacks, a mechanic known in his home series as special-cancelling. By pressing the special button or doing the command input after connecting with a normal attack on hit or on shield, Ken will cancel the endlag of the normal attack and perform the move. The normal attacks that can be canceled include the first two hits of neutral attack, tapped and held down-tilt, tapped up-tilt, and proximity forward-tilt, held neutral attack and down smash. He is also capable of doing so with his aerials. Special-cancelling allows Ken to perform blockstrings and hit confirms into Shoryuken for a kill, Tatsumaki for a combo, Hadoken for safety and pressure, and his roundhouse kicks for mixups and KOs at the edge. He can also bait the opponent out with a special cancel into a Focus Attack, further increasing mixup potential.
==Other Animations==
Animation 	Description 	Notes
On-Screen Appearance 	Walks onto the stage from some mist in the background, then gets into a fighting stance while saying "I'm ready for ya! Bring it on!" (いつでもいいぜ! かかってきな!). Nearly identical to Ryu's on-screen appearance. 	
Taunt 1 	Gives a thumbs up, saying "Yeah!". Based off of his Street Fighter Alpha winpose. 	
Taunt 2 	Bumps his fists together, holds his fist out and says "Get serious!" (本気出しなよ。, Give it your all.) Based off of one of his Personal Actions in Street Fighter IV. 	
Taunt 3 	Does a beckoning gesture with his hand, saying "Bring it on!" (かかってきな！, Bring it on!) Based off of his introduction in Street Fighter IV. 	
Star KO 	 	
Screen KO 	 	
Character Selection Screen	 	
Crowd Chant 	Ken Ken Ken-Ken-Ken! 	
Victory Pose 1 	Brushes his hair before giving a thumbs-up to the camera, saying "I did it!" ("やったぜ！", I did it!). Based off of his Street Fighter Alpha victory pose, which recurs throughout the series. 	
Victory Pose 2 	Punches twice, does a roundhouse kick, and raises his fist (similar to Ryu), while saying "Challenge me after some practice." In Japanese, he says "いくらでもかかってこい！" (Come at me as much as you like!), his win quote from Street Fighter II. Based off of his victory pose throughout the series, specifically his Street Fighter V variant. 	
Victory Pose 3 	Kicks twice (the first being the Nata Otoshi Geri, and the second being the Oosoto Mawashi Geri) and performs a beckoning gesture, saying "I knew I'd win! Hah!" In Japanese, he says "スパッと勝つと気持ちいいな！" (It feels good to win a spat!), one of his generic win quotes from Street Fighter V. 	
==Role in Classic Mode==
Like all other fighters, Ken appears in Classic Mode. Ken's Mini-Boss is unknown. 
===Ken Ending===
==Role in The Kiss of Death==
==Alternate Costumes==
Image	Number	Color 	Notes 	Unlockable?
 	01 	Red 	 	Default
 	02 	Grey 	Resembles his alternate color in Street Fighter II': Champion Edition when playing in a Mirror Match. Also resembles his "Medium Punch" color ("Strong" in reference source). 	Default
 	03 	Blue 	Resembles his default color in Street Fighter II' Turbo: Hyper Fighting. Also resembles his "Heavy Punch" color ("Fierce" in reference source). 	Default
 	04 	White 	Resembles his "Light Punch" color ("Jab" in reference source). 	Default
 	05 	Green 	Resembles his "Light Kick" color ("Short" in reference source). 	Default
 	06 	Yellow	Resembles his "Start button" color. It is also reminiscent of the gi worn by his disciple, Sean Matsuda. 	Default
 	07 	Cyan 	Resembles his "Medium Kick" color ("Forward" in reference source). 	Default
 	08 	Black 	Resembles his EX (LK+HP) color in Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact. Also resembles Violent Ken's alternate costume in SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos and his fifth costume in Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers.	Default
 	09 	White 	Ken's training gear from his ending in Street Fighter Alpha 2 as it appears in Street Fighter IV. 	Unlockable
 	10 	Tan 	Ken's Cowboy outfit from Street Fighter IV. 	Unlockable
 	11 	Red 	Ken's default design from Street Fighter V. 	Unlockable
 	12 	Red 	 	Unlockable
 	13 	 	 	Unlockable
 	14 	 	 	Unlockable
==Smash Taunts==
===Palutena's Guidance===
===Snake's Codecs===
==Fighter Spirits==
Ken's Fighter Spirit can be obtained by completing Classic Mode. It is also available periodically for purchase in the shop for 500 coins. Unlocking Ken in The Kiss of Death allows the player to preview the first spirit below in the Spirit List under the name "???". As a Fighter Spirit, it cannot be used in Spirit Battles and is purely aesthetic. Each Fighter Spirit has an alternate version that replaces them with their artwork in Life & Death.
File:SSBU spirit Ken.png
==Trivia==
Category:Fighters in Super Smash Bros. Life or Death