Avenue Fighter 6 Ken continues a pattern. It’s regular for characters in any preventing recreation collection to get a little bit of polish for every new instalment, and Ken is likely one of the most steadily revised within the Avenue Fighter collection’ roster. In current video games, he’s gone from an overconfident Ryu clone together with his signature crimson gi to undertake a sportier look. His specials change between video games, too: he’s had hearth added to his Shoryuken and has forgotten methods that didn’t work too properly, such because the heavy Tatsumaki from Avenue Fighter 5, making room for him to study new, highly effective strikes of their place.
Maybe essentially the most obvious change to Avenue Fighter 6 Ken is his grubby threads. He’s sporting Timberland-style boots, crimson tracksuit bottoms, and a black vest, with a crusty brown jacket finishing a mode I prefer to name ‘Hobo Chic’. I requested Capcom’s PR if there’s a narrative behind the brand new look, however acquired no clear reply. It’s the identical previous upbeat – if considerably cocky – Ken beneath, nonetheless, regardless of what his look and sure web theories may recommend. And as unkempt as it’s, that is the most effective Ken has ever regarded in a 3D Avenue Fighter recreation; his hair is a marked enchancment from the bunch of bananas glued to his head in Avenue Fighter 5.
It’s not simply the look that Capcom has modified, so with that in thoughts, how does Avenue Fighter 6 Ken play? He nonetheless has his signature fireball, dragon punch, and hurricane kick strikes, however it’s the remainder of his normals and specials that now shed some gentle on his reworked preventing fashion.
The closest comparability to Avenue Fighter 6 Ken I can provide you is Avenue Fighter III: third Strike, during which Ken shone as among the finest rush-down characters within the recreation. Strategies such because the Shippu-Jinraikyaku – a multi-kicking Vital Artwork transfer that inflicts respectable injury – outlined his play fashion. In Avenue Fighter 6, Ken is much more of a combo-focused rush-down character, full with a non-super model of the Jinraikyaku that provides him a number of choices for follow-up assaults relying in your enter after the primary blow hits. He additionally will get new goal combos you should use to strike your opponent repeatedly, making him far much less predictable than ever earlier than.
I acquired the possibility to play as Hobo Ken and the remaining at the moment revealed Avenue Fighter 6 characters, and had enjoyable experimenting with linking combos after studying learn how to use the brand new Drive Gauge successfully. This new gauge seems as a inexperienced segmented bar beneath the well being bar of every fighter. Among the methods that use the Drive Gauge are acquainted, reminiscent of Overdrives, that are only a new title for EX strikes from earlier video games.
It’s the wholly new Drive Gauge methods that excite me most as I mash the buttons on the arcade stick. Whereas all characters can simply parry an assault, a wonderfully timed parry enter slows the motion for a brief spell and opens your opponent to a counter combo. You even have the Drive Affect, which absorbs incoming punches and kicks as your character prices a strong blow to knock the opponent again a good distance. It’s a very efficient possibility should you’re at the moment blocking a string of assaults, or wish to splat an opponent in opposition to the wall within the nook to arrange a juggle combo.
Then there’s the brand new Drive Rush, which lets characters interrupt a traditional assault with a brief sprint. You possibly can start a model new combo from this sprint with out technically dropping the earlier combo to deal an enormous chunk of harm. With Ken’s goal combos in thoughts, utilizing Drive Rush to increase them into a brand new combo adopted by one in every of his three Vital Artwork assaults – which use a separate gauge on the backside of the display – is devastatingly highly effective.
To counterbalance all these choices, utilizing the Drive Gauge recklessly is dangerous. Completely different strikes have their very own prices, so whereas parrying is comparatively low cost, committing to a Drive Rush prices half of the complete bar. Moreover, ought to the Drive Gauge run out of chunks, it takes a very long time to recharge, and till it does so you haven’t any entry to any of those methods. Attempting to fend off an opponent on this weakened state is terrifying, significantly if they’ve a full Drive Gauge to make use of as they see match. Ken is at his most weak right here as he depends closely on getting access to parries to show the tide, or Overdrives to reinforce his specials.
With each new character I attempt – and preserve a watch out for some preliminary guides on PCGamesN quickly – I see new methods during which Avenue Fighter 6 may shine brightly. However it’s good previous Ken who highlights the potential of the Drive Gauge most clearly. It’s instantly obvious why deflecting assaults with parries is useful, however enjoying as Ken reveals me how versatile the opposite methods are and the way they might help me win.
After all, it additionally helps that he now has maybe his most versatile transfer set ever in his 35 years as a Avenue Fighter mainstay. So though he seems to be like he’s fallen on onerous occasions, that is now formally my favorite model of Ken.
The Avenue Fighter 6 launch date isn’t nailed down but, however it’s due a while subsequent yr – try our Avenue Fighter 6 roster information for a full rundown of each confirmed, rumoured, and leaked character to date.
