Why thank you for the vote of confidence ILP!
I like Kano because you can abuse the Cannonball like crazy to frustrate your opponent, then get all psychological by ignoring the move altogether and rushing down your opponent once he's adopted a paranoid and overly-defensive stance.
I'll just run down some general tactics I like to use.
- Abuse the crap out of that cannonball!! It's key that you get a good feel for exactly how long it takes to charge the move; it is shorter than most people think. I often have people ask me how I'm doing them so fast. It is a good surprise move, anti rushdown, anti- any whiffed move really, decent anti-air. The only thing that bugs me is that sometime I'd like to do a better punisher combo, but since I already have LK charged, I end up doing a cannonball by accident. Not too bad of a trade-off for Kano's limited anti-air options, but just keep that in mind. Another favorite anti-rushdown tactic of mine is to crouching LP the opponent, then release LK. After the LP connects they almost always run right into the ball (not a combo but just another surprise tactic).
- Psychology of the cannonball... I like to use it a lot, and get the opponent into a paranoid state of mind so they are now too scared to really try anything. At this point I just forget the ball exists and I run in and sweep, or a combo or what have you. And once you've blown off the move long enough for them to forget about it, you can NAIL them with it later on... good times!
- Combos.. for the most part, the HK,d+LP,d+HP (hits low) and HP,HP,d+LP,d+HP (more damage) autocombos are the only ones you need concern yourself with. The 3-hit is great for rushing them on the ground, I always go for that after landing an air throw. If you jump in and they are wide-open, go for the JPS into his 4-hit launch. Lately I've been trying to cross people up with this one. Run into a bout sweep range, jump forward and MASH on block, this way if they try to jump you will send them right back down with the air throw. If they remain grounded, get the JPS and get the 4-hit for decent chipping at the very least.
- Launcher... after launchers I usually just do a JK air throw. There are better options but I usually play it safe on Live with the spotty 360 controller.
- Double cannonballs of death... Another cannonball psyche-out I just remembered. If you get a chance to punish, and you're charging LK, do the f,d,f+HK ball instead. In the heat of battle they will probably assume you just did a normal charged cannonball... so then go ahead and release LK for another rapid-fire cannonball that they won't be expecting. Again, it's a punishable non-comboed situation but I've found it catches people off guard more often then not.
That's all I can think of for now, hope it's helpful!
