Ken Combo
The Ken Combo refers to spike setup with Marth discovered and popularized by professional Marth player Ken Hoang.
The combo itself is simply as follows: single jump, forward aerial; midair jump, down aerial. However, some players refer to the entire chain of neutral aerials and forward aerials followed by the spike as a "Ken combo" due to its effectiveness in Melee competitive play. Although the combo is quite simple, one must space very precisely to do it consistently; the down air can only be landed if one spaces the fair correctly. The spacing for the fair is character dependent. Against fast fallers, one must land the tipper fair from below so that the opponent is sent upward and set to fall into the dair after Marth jumps. If the tipper fair is not landed, Marth cannot land the dair after a jump. Conversely against floaties, Marth must fair the opponent from below so they are not sent too high. Performing a Ken Combo without having to jump before using the down aerial is known as a jumpless Ken Combo.
According to Ken himself, the Ken Combo was initially developed in the original Super Smash Bros. using Captain Falcon's up aerial followed with a down aerial meteor smash.
A difficult to perform variation of the Ken Combo called the Reverse Ken Combo can also be performed in Melee. It involves hitting with the forward aerial's rear hitbox, that produces weak knockback while keeping the opponent in place, then following up with the down aerial. One or two forward aerials can be performed.
In Brawl, the Ken Combo can be executed by other characters such as Wolf, R.O.B., and Olimar, although it should be noted that it is not a true 'combo'; lack of hitstun allows the victim to simply air dodge away or even hit back. The meteor smash can also be meteor cancelled as there are no spikes in Brawl, making it less effective at KOing (though this was also the case in the PAL version of Melee, due to Marth's down aerial being a meteor smash in that version). Additional hitstun however in different versions of Brawl+ allow for even more characters to perform it, and not enough time for an opponent to air dodge away.
Gallery
Reverse Ken Combo.
An advanced Marth combo in Melee ending with a Ken Combo.
Another Marth combo in Melee, using some up throws, then a chain of forward aerials, leading into a Ken Combo.
A variation of the Ken Combo performed by Wolf in Brawl
A variation of the Ken Combo performed by R.O.B. in Brawl
A variation of the Ken Combo performed by Olimar in Brawl
A variation of the Ken Combo performed by Captain Falcon in Smash 64
