Because, no offense to Ken fans, but Ken's not big news. An echo of a character that had a super weak Smash fanbase until he was confirmed does not make for a SHUT IT ALL DOWN character. No one's really for him but no one's really against him either. He's just kind of there and nobody disagrees that he's iconic enough to warrant a measly echo slot.
I can’t really agree with that lol.
Since fighting games wouldn’t be a think without Street Fighter, I think that Ken is pretty much the original echo fighter, and we don’t even know if he’s an echo. The move set variation present in Ken’s moves has always made him a fan favorite in the Street Fighter series, and has made him the more aggressive archetype of the shotoken fighters (Ryu / Ken / Akuma)
I mentioned this before, but the true inputs for his moves can have varying properties
True light shoryuken could have high hitstun with low knockback so you can combo into another shoryuken or other moves. This is true to the source material as Ken has had light shoryuken and now light tatsumaki combos in most of the games he features in.
Grounded true Tatsumski Sempu Kyaku could function like his Marvel vs Capcom iteration and be a rising multi hit with a spike at the end. It could function similar to Ken’s EX tatsu in Street Fighter , as a lot of his moves draw some inspiration from his MvC incarnations. Tatsu has always been different for Ken, and at the very least it will be multi hit.
Hadouken in the air could be the faster one hand diagonal down variation from MvC as well, making it a good tool off of a short hop. It would dissipate quickly but allow good aerial pressure. Since Ken never had Shakunetsu Hadouken he could probably not have it or an EX input for a two hit, fast full range hadouken with low knockback.
Since Ken has always been famous for jumping in on opponents (mostly with his cross up medium kick), and having the option to chain normals into specials while airborne in ultimate, his aerial Tatsu with true inputs should have either his dive kick property like in Street Fighter 5 or just accelerate him down faster like in Street Fighter 2 and 3 to maintain pressure and possibly combo off of his multi hit tatsu.
His Focus attack will probably have more range than Ryu’s, assuming he still has it. And his normals will definitely have different properties or different moves period. Ken may have his chain Standing Medium into back Standing medium axe kick rather than Ryu’s collarbone breaker. He should definitely have his standing medium > standing heavy target combo.
Honestly if Isabelle can be considered an original character, then Ken definitely has a shot at at least being a fun semi clone.
And so what if Ken doesn’t have Smash popularity. Snake didn’t, and he’s the first third party character lol. Ken’s world wide popularity as a fighting game character trumps most of the smash fan base in general. Mario and Luigi function similarly as Ryu and Ken in street fighter, so what’s wrong with having the real deal?
