The Ken amiibo Can Never Be Good. Ever.

by Doc, Owner, Founder, Hadouken

The Ryu amiibo is one of the most fun to train out there, so long as you understand the “shoto” archetype of character. Ryu has a lot of fun, small pre-programmed combos built-in, and he makes for good video content as well. Even though he’s not very high on the amiibo tier list, and doesn’t get a lot of training representation (which is why we don’t yet have a training guide for him), I recommend people train a Ryu. He’s even one of the few amiibo that are usually found for less than MSRP.

None of that applies to Ken. Ken is unfun, doesn’t make for good video content, and is even lower on the tier list. He deservedly doesn’t get a lot of rep, and people shouldn’t train Ken. I hate Ken. Ken is evil. And it’s all because Nintendo made one crucial mistake.

They gave Ken Ryu’s amiibo AI.

If you’ve played both of these characters, you’ll know that they’re not the same. Sure, they’re listed as Echoes, but that’s only a nominal listing. They’re just. Not. The same. The combos that work with Ryu don’t work with Ken. They have different frame data and knockback. Their similar moves have different properties.

If you’d like to repent of the sin of training a Ken, you can purchase a Ryu amiibo through this Amazon Affiliate link. Amiibo Doctor gets a cut from Amazon Affiliates.

In an attempt to further prove that Nintendo doesn’t playtest their amiibo, Ken has one specific combo that only works half the time – Down tilt -> Up special. Sometimes he’ll use it correctly, and get a kill. Sometimes he’ll turn around the Up special for absolutely no reason. It’s like being a boxer and only hitting the 1 out of the 1-2 because you’re trying to be nice.

It gets worse.

Sometimes he’ll use Up special at the ledge and SD. Even if your Ken amiibo has a moment of brilliance and lands an actual kill move, it’ll just commit sudoku off a ledge on accident.

There is no hope for Ken. There is no redemption. There is no level of training that can possibly make a Ken not have these issues in some way. Abandon all hope for Ken. It’s hopeless.