Ken Masters

Ken
Street Fighter series character
File:Ken (Super Turbo).PNG Ken in Super Street Fighter II Turbo, as illustrated by Bengus.
First game	Street Fighter

Ken Masters (ケン・マスターズ) is a video game character created by Capcom. As a main character, he has appeared in all of the Street Fighter games along with his best friend and rival, Ryu. Like Ryu, Ken's goal is to test his power against many different fighters and strive to become stronger.

Street Fighter series

Ken made his first appearance in the original Street Fighter released in 1987. The character's name was originally spelled in Japanese as 拳 (Ken), which is the kanji character for fist, although Capcom dropped this in subsequent games, spelling his name in katakana instead (ケン). Ken is characterized as the former sparring partner, rival and best friend of the main character, Ryu, who trained under the same master (a character whose identity would later be fleshed out as Gouken). Within the actual game, Ken is for all intents and purposes a clone of Ryu controlled by the second player during competitive matches, with the only distinguishing aspects being that Ken wears a red keikogi, has blond hair and fights barefoot (in the original game, Ryu wears red shoes). The single-player tournament can only be played with Ken after the second player defeats the first player in a two-player match.

Ken and Ryu, along with former final boss Sagat, would be the only characters from the original Street Fighter to return in the game's true sequel, Street Fighter II, first released in 1991. In Street Fighter II, Ken is invited to participate in the World Warrior tournament by Ryu, with Ken having already moved away from Japan to live in America. In Ken's ending, he ends up marrying his girlfriend Eliza, who is Guile's sister-in-law. Street Fighter II was a breakaway hit for Capcom, leading to the production of revised editions of the same game which included Champion Edition and Hyper Fighting in 1992, Super Street Fighter II in 1993 and Super Turbo in 1994, which all follow the same plot. Numerous spinoff products were made as well during the game's popularity: when Capcom licensed Hasbro to produced a line of action figures, Ken was given the surname "Masters". The full name Ken Masters would be used in the animated Street Fighter II movie and in the Street Fighter II V series before being canonized in the video games with Street Fighter Alpha 2.

An all-new Street Fighter game would not be released until 1995, Street Fighter Alpha was released. Plotwise, the game was a prequel to the Street Fighter II games which fleshed out the established Street Fighter II characters, as well as reintroduced characters from the original Street Fighter and the beat-em-up Final Fight. Alpha features a younger Ken, who is searching for Ryu, having recently won the first "World Warrior" tournament in the events of the original Street Fighter. In Ken's ending in the original Street Fighter Alpha, he defeats Ryu and heads back to America, where he meets his future girlfriend and wife Eliza. Street Fighter Alpha would be followed by its own line of sequels: Street Fighter Alpha 2, which follows the same plot as in the original Alpha (with a revised ending for Ken); and Street Fighter Alpha 3, which takes place after the events in the first two games. In Alpha 3, Ken is featured in the numerous characters' storylines within the game.

Other games

In 1990, Capcom produced an action game for the Nintendo Entertainment System titled Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight . The Japanese version of the game starred an original character named Kevin Straker, a cyborg policeman who fought against alien creatures in the future. When Capcom released 2010 in North America, the main character's identity was changed from Kevin to Ken, with the game's story rewritten to imply that he was the same Ken from the original Street Fighter. He also was a scientist in the future, implying a genius level intellect. Other than that, the game has little or no plot ties to the original Street Fighter and its part in the canonical Street Fighter series is disputed.

Outside the mainstream Street Fighter games, Ken appears in 3D form in the Street Fighter EX games, in his Alpha incarnation in X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes, and in a new form based on his Street Fighter II incarnation in Capcom vs. SNK and Capcom vs. SNK 2. He also appears in the arcade game Street Fighter: The Movie produced by Incredible Technologies, as well as in the The Movie, in SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos by SNK Playmore, where he has an alter-ego named Violent Ken (洗脳されたケン, Zennōsareta Ken, lit. "Brainwashed Ken"), and in Namco x Capcom. Violent Ken is an alternate version of Ken that appears in SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom loosely based on the brainwashed version of Ken from Street Fighter II: The Movie.

Character design

Since the original Street Fighter, Ken has been consistently depicted with neck-length blond hair, black eyebrows and wears a red sleeveless keikogi with a black belt. In the original Street Fighter, Ken fought barefooted (unlike his rival Ryu, who originally wore red slippers and began fighting barefooted in subsequent games) and wore yellow arm bands instead of gloves.

In Street Fighter II his appearance remained mostly unchanged from the original, with his yellow arm bands replaced by brown gloves. In concept art for the original Street Fighter II, the sleeves on Ken's gi are depicted to had been cut seamlessly from his tunic (in contrast to Ryu's sleeves, which feature a more torn appearance).

The Street Fighter Alpha prequel series features a younger Ken than depicted in Street Fighter II and other games. He wears yellow gloves, similar to the yellow arm bands he wore in the first game, but has much longer hair, which he holds together with a red ribbon as a ponytail, much like his appearance in flashbacks in Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie. Like in the animated movie, Ken gives his red ribbon as a gift to Ryu in his ending in Street Fighter Alpha 2, which becomes the red headband Ryu wears in Street Fighter II on forward.

Gameplay

In the original Street Fighter, Ken was identical to Ryu, in terms of game play. In the first iteration of Street Fighter II, Ken had very minor differences to Ryu: his kick throw would roll an opponent before tossing them - making it far easier to pin an opponent in a corner. From Street Fighter II: Champion Edition onwards, Ken's technique began to diverge from Ryu, using modified versions of Ryu's special attacks, though his animations and other attacks were still essentially the same to Ryu's, as Ken's sprite is always a head swap of Ryu. In the original version of this game, the only way to effectively have two characters with similar abilities fight each other was to have one player play as Ryu and the other play as Ken.

With the advent of "mirror matches" (same character vs.) in Street Fighter II': Champion Edition, the designers began to vary the playing styles of Ryu and Ken a bit. Ryu was given a slighly faster Hadōken (波動拳, "Surge Fist"), while Ken was given a wider arcing Shōryū-ken (昇龍拳, "Rising Dragon Fist") and a multi-hit Tatsumaki Senpūkyaku that worked in a much different manner than before. The original version had each hit count as a strong or fierce hit - leading it to easily dizzy opponents, the new version had each hit count as a light attack and spun faster. With correct timing, an opponent standing up into the move would hit from both sides (two hits per rotation) and cause a dizzy with enough hits. (In the "Marvel vs Capcom" series, the Tatsumaki Senpūkyaku went on an angle, making it extremely dangerous to use.) In Super Street Fighter II, Ken began deviating from Ryu further being given a multi-hit flaming Shōryūken (fierce) and his Tatsumaki Senpūkyaku first hit with his knee. In the next SFII installment, Super Street Fighter II Turbo, Ken was given the super combo Shōryū Reppa (which was simply Ken's Jab and Strong Dragon Punches chained together), a number of different command kicks along with new standing kicks, plus a new jumping Forward and a Knee Bash hold. These command kicks would be incorporated as the standard move list in the Street Fighter Alpha series, but remain commands in all others.

Ken mainly focuses on the Shōryūken move, to the point where his Shōryūken sets the opponent aflame. Ken's Tatsumaki Senpūkyaku does not allow him to dodge projectiles at the start of the spin as Ryu's does, but spins faster, allowing him to hit his opponent up to five times (without knocking down). Ken's Hadōken is less concentrated (and therefore slightly slower) than Ryu's, but Ken's Shōryūken has more range and does more damage than Ryu's as it can land up to three hits if performed in close proximity. All in all, Ken, Ryu and Akuma share virtually all the same strategies and special moves, with a few minor differences between them.

Super Arts

By Street Fighter III, Ken has two Shōryūken-style Super Arts (Shōryū-reppa and Shinryūken) and Shippū Jinrai Kyaku, and in Street Fighter EX 3, he has a "meteor combo" (a Level 3 super-combo) called Kuzuryū Reppa (九頭龍裂破, "Nine-headed dragon Destroyer"), a mix of his other three Super Arts. Kuzuryū-reppa would be seen again in SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom with it being one of Violent Ken's supers this time.

Ken's super moves consist of the Shōryū-reppa (昇龍裂破, "Rising Dragon Destroyer"), in which Ken does two or three Shōryūken in a rapid succession; the Shinryū-ken (神龍拳, "Divine Dragon fist") a spinning vertical Shōryūken that lacks range, but does greater damage and more hits, especially if the kick buttons are pressed rapidly; and the most recent addition to his move-list since Street Fighter Alpha 3 — the Shippū Jinrai Kyaku (疾風迅雷脚, "Gale Thunderclap Kick"), which Ken does a flurry of kicks before ending with a vertical Tatsumaki-Senpū-Kyaku (or a diagonally-vertical Tatsumaki-Senpū-Kyaku in some incarnations). In Street Fighter IV, the Shinryūken, preceded by a series of rapid kicks from his Shippū Jinrai Kyaku attack, is Ken's Ultra Combo.

Actors

While his original voice was a re-use of the Ryu audio samples, beginning with Super Street Fighter II Ken's voice was performed by Kenji Haga, who also did his voice in the Street Fighter II animated movie. Tetsuya Iwanaga did Ken's voice in the Street Fighter Alpha series and Namco x Capcom, and Koji Tobe did Ken's voice in the Street Fighter III games. In SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom, he was voiced by Atsushi "Monster" Maezuka. He was voiced by Scott McNeil in the Street Fighter animated series. He was voiced by Kazuya Ichijo in Japanese and Steven Blum in the dub for the Street Fighter Alpha movie. In Street Fighter II V, he was voiced by Jimmy Theodore and in Street Fighter II: The Movie, he was voiced by Eddie Frierson. Since Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, his current Japanese voice is provided by Yūji Kishi, and by Reuben Langdon in Street Fighter IV.

Street Fighter motion picture

Damian Chapa portrayed Ken in the 1994 Street Fighter movie, where he is a con artist alongside Ryu. After the two unsuccessfully try to scam Shadaloo Tong leader, Sagat, they are arrested by Allied Nations forces. Guile offers them their freedom in exchange for infiltrating Bison's base (to whom Sagat runs guns) and revealing its location so that the AN can make a military strike and free the hostages captured earlier in the film.

When Guile eventually infiltrates Sagat's base and chaos ensues Ryu and Ken try to help free the hostages but split up when the AN forces arrive (according to Ken the soldiers get paid and that they should not risk their lives). Ken later comes to Ryu's aid when he is ambushed by Vega and Sagat. While Ryu defeats Vega, Ken defeats Sagat and drops a heavy golden statue on his hands parting him with the line: "If I hadn't met you, I might have become you."

Interestingly Ken and Sagat are portrayed as rivals, switching the usual scenario from the games where Ryu and Sagat are rivals, with Ryu's rivalry switched to Vega.

Promotion and reception

IGN ranked Ken at number six in their "Top 25 Street Fighter Characters" article, noting his contrast to Ryu while subsequently questioning his lesser appeal, and stating "he's just as indispensable to the series as Ryu is. After all, could you imagine a Street Fighter game without him? Perhaps, but it probably still wouldn't be the same." GameDaily listed him at number six on their "Top 20 Street Fighter Characters of All Time" article, noting the contrast between himself and Ryu. The same site ranked him 6th along with Ryu in the Top 25 Capcom Characters of All Time with editor Robert Workman saying "It was just impossible to choose between one of these world warriors". In the February 1992 issue of Gamest magazine in Japan, Ken ranked at 9th along with Blanka as Best Characters of 1991. In the January 30, 1997 issue, Ken ranked at No. 49 in Top 50 Characters of 1996.

Bibliography

• Studio Bent Stuff (2000). All About Capcom Head-to-Head Fighting Game 1987-2000. A.A. Game History Series (Vol. 1) (in Japanese). Dempa Publications, Inc. ISBN 4885546761. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• Monthly Arcadia Editorial Staff (2008). STREET FIGHTER IV MASTER GUIDE 拳の書. エンターブレインムック ARCADIA EXTRA VOL. 69 (in Japanese). Enterbrain. ISBN 4757745133. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

External links

• Official English Website
• Official Japanese Website