Ken is faster, Ryu is a bit more powerful

Ken wears red, Ryu wears white

totally different

Ryu is Chinese and Ken is American. Done,

Ryu is Chinese and Ken is American. Done,

@NekuSakuraba said:

Ryu is Chinese and Ken is American. Done,

You racist, he's Japanese. Chun Li is Chinese.

@NekuSakuraba said:

Ryu is Chinese and Ken is American. Done,

Ryu is Japanese, you mean. Also, he wanders the world with only the clothes on his back and hates spiders. Ken is rich, has a hot wife, and a legion of SF4 newbies that can't play him for shit.

Ken is a pimp and Ryu is a hobo.

Ryu wore shoes in the first game, Ken did not.(Strangely, Ryu is now shown to despise shoes, unlike Ken, who will wear them in his personal life)

Ken has luscious blonde hair. 

Ken is more of a rushdown character, better at applying pressure and with better tools for doing that. Ryu is more of a defense/zoning character, all about controlling space with better fireballs and stuff and reacting to the opponents moves to punish them. But in the early SFII days, they were basically the same, probably because two players couldn't select the same character in The World Warrior and Ryu was the easier character to get into.

Actually, I think Ken is half Japanese and half American.

Ken is more shoryuken based as his comes out faster and does more hits. Ryu is more Hadoken based, as with Ken's shoryukens, Ryu's hadokens come out faster and the EX version sets people on fire. Ken is also a tad bit faster if I recall correctly.

According to "Five Things you didn't know Super Street Fighter IV"... 
 
" -- With his blonde hair and Californian love of convertibles, Ken is known as the all-American Street Fighter, but he's actually three-quarters Japanese. The blonde hair? He dyes it." 
 
As for the topic: 
 
SFII -- Their bodies were the same, just a difference in color, but they had different heads hehe!  In moves, the only difference they had was the grab, Ryu just lies down while Ken rolls his opponent. 
 
Super SFII onwards -- Ryu's strengths were on hadoken (stronger hadoken), while Ken's strengths were on shoryuken (faster and with flames).  I think Ken's tatsu hits multiple times while Ryu's tatsu hits only once. 
 
Basically, Ryu is a bit slower but he hits stronger.  But his moves usually hits just once with a relatively big amount of damage.  While Ken's moves are a bit weaker, but hits multiple times like his shoryu and tatsu.  Their techniques are the same, but their styles are completely different now compared to SFII.

I was about to barge in and say 'WTF,  Ryu is Japanese', but peeps already beat me to it...  I am sure Ryu would be offended if you called him Chinese.
 
Also, Ryu is just better than Ken: end of story. I don't need reasons because he just is. Ryu also wears a headband, Ken does not.

most characters in street fighter have similar moves. Ryu, Akuma, Ken, Dan, Sakura, etc

@Tradog: Tell your brother to Go home and be a Family man

@Tsoglani - Ryu dosent wear a headband, its the ribbon Street Fighter Alpha Ken used to tie his hair back with. Ken gave it to Ryu to cover a headwound he sustained in a sparring session they where having. At least thats what the ending of SFA told me ^_^

Ken's rich, Ryu is poor.  The history of Street Fighter hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle.

@Tsoglani said:

Ryu is just better than Ken; end of story. I don't need reasons because he just is. Ryu also wears a headband, Ken does not.

Fuckin' wisdom right here.

.

(<- headband)

@kagato said:

Ryu dosent wear a headband, its the ribbon Street Fighter Alpha Ken used to tie his hair back with. Ken gave it to Ryu to cover a headwound he sustained in a sparring session they where having. At least thats what the ending of SFA told me ^_^

But in SF2, 3 and 4, he has a red headband, so he must have gotten a new one at some point!

most characters in street fighter have similar moves. Ryu, Akuma, Ken, Dan, Sakura, etc

@Kyle - True, but in Streetfighter Alpha (takes place after SF1 but before SF2) Ryu has a white headband, the white one ends up ruined during Ken and Ryus fight which is why he takes Kens red one he used to use on his hair. This is why has a red headband in all games after SF1 and Alpha and possibly why Kens hair suddenly goes from super long to shoulder length (because he obviously couldnt afford another read hair tie with all his millions of $ lol).

Ken is laid back and super cool, Ryu is an uptight anal hole

@lilbigsupermario: I had SFII Turbo, and I'm pretty sure the instruction booklet mentioned that Ken stepped forward with his dragon punch for a bit more range, and I think a commentator in an SSFIV video mentioned that too. Was that accurate then, or is it now?

People also complain about Evil Ryu being like Akuma, but he's nothing like him in actuality. It's the difference between taking a glance from a far and actually getting into the lab and grinding out these characters. Try that out, you'll see how different Ryu and Ken are.

People also complain about Evil Ryu being like Akuma, but he's nothing like him in actuality. It's the difference between taking a glance from a far and actually getting into the lab and grinding out these characters. Try that out, you'll see how different Ryu and Ken are.

One is spelled R-Y-U and the other is spelled K-E-N

@lilbigsupermario: I had SFII Turbo, and I'm pretty sure the instruction booklet mentioned that Ken stepped forward with his dragon punch for a bit more range, and I think a commentator in an SSFIV video mentioned that too. Was that accurate then, or is it now?

Ryu likes Dragonball Z and Ken likes Naruto.

Ryu is for uninspired players who want to run away and throw fireballs.

Ken is for uninspired players who want to run straight at you and mash dragon punch.

Difference is Ken will be used 99.99% of the time in online matches.....

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLO

One is the center of a dragon punch and the other one is the end of a dragon punch.

@Plasma said:

@lordofultima said:

People also complain about Evil Ryu being like Akuma, but he's nothing like him in actuality. It's the difference between taking a glance from a far and actually getting into the lab and grinding out these characters. Try that out, you'll see how different Ryu and Ken are.

You must be hype for AE 2012, Evil Ryu a viable character? oh yes

Anti-hype, too many people going to flock to him. Wasn't lacking to begin with, buffs are a bit too much. I enjoy people "sleeping" on a character they don't think is good, and that element of surprise will be gone when everybody and they mama plays E. Ryu. It's awesome that a no meter bnb does 420 damage and that his sweep will be 6 frames, but that also means that he can likely tatsu to sweep everyone, and with more health that makes him incredibly appealing to people.

@Plasma said:

@lordofultima said:

People also complain about Evil Ryu being like Akuma, but he's nothing like him in actuality. It's the difference between taking a glance from a far and actually getting into the lab and grinding out these characters. Try that out, you'll see how different Ryu and Ken are.

You must be hype for AE 2012, Evil Ryu a viable character? oh yes

Anti-hype, too many people going to flock to him. Wasn't lacking to begin with, buffs are a bit too much. I enjoy people "sleeping" on a character they don't think is good, and that element of surprise will be gone when everybody and they mama plays E. Ryu. It's awesome that a no meter bnb does 420 damage and that his sweep will be 6 frames, but that also means that he can likely tatsu to sweep everyone, and with more health that makes him incredibly appealing to people.

@Plasma said:

@lordofultima said:

@Plasma said:

@lordofultima said:

People also complain about Evil Ryu being like Akuma, but he's nothing like him in actuality. It's the difference between taking a glance from a far and actually getting into the lab and grinding out these characters. Try that out, you'll see how different Ryu and Ken are.

You must be hype for AE 2012, Evil Ryu a viable character? oh yes

Anti-hype, too many people going to flock to him. Wasn't lacking to begin with, buffs are a bit too much. I enjoy people "sleeping" on a character they don't think is good, and that element of surprise will be gone when everybody and they mama plays E. Ryu. It's awesome that a no meter bnb does 420 damage and that his sweep will be 6 frames, but that also means that he can likely tatsu to sweep everyone, and with more health that makes him incredibly appealing to people.

Aha don't be a low-tier player just because they are low tier ! (Hipster) It's much more impressive to be known as a great Evil Ryu if hes a popular character, rather than the only person who plays him. I know how you feel though, after working hard with a character and then everyone rushes to them when they are buffed. This 'patch happy' generation makes working hard with low tiers less rewarding.

He wasn't low tier, already high mid tier in my opinion. I am a fan of BALANCE. Not breaking characters. Like I said, he wasn't lacking in anything.

The difference between Ryu and Ken is irrelevant. 
 
Neither can hold a candle to Dan Hibiki. 

Ryu is more focused than Ken.

When you get hit in the air with the tip of Ken's flaming dragon punch it takes a hair of life.

When you get hit in the air with the tip of Ryu's dragon punch it takes damage worth a damn.

You're on fire. That is straight up bullshit.

If we're talking about gameplay differences, Ken is by and large a rushdown character, with his main focus being on pressure and "kara" throws, while Ryu uses dem classic fundamentals and likes to keep the opponent at a certain distance. 
 
Ken is a beast though. He sets shit on fire WITH HIS FISTS. Doesn't get much cooler.

@x0xgreywolfx0x lol that's damn funny.

@striderno9: you just bumped a 4 year old thread with "lol thats damn funny."