Shin Tenchi Haoh Ken

Shin Tenchi Haoh Ken (lit. True: Heaven & Earth Supreme Spark Fist) is one of Ryo Sakazaki's Super Special Moves in The King of Fighters series. It is a stronger variation of the Tenchi Haoh Ken.

Description
Ryo upon rearing his following fist back on his hip and holding his leading hand upwards a bit in front, throws a powerful focused straight-chamber punch with said following fist in one explosive step aimed at the foe's midsection, as he yells "Ichigeki Hissatsu!" (一撃必殺, One Blow Sure-Finish/Kill!). Upon connecting, the victim is then sent spiraling all the way back to the end of the screen, with the said victim being instantly stunned from the punch's potent effects.

In subsequent variations, now named Shin Tenchi Haoh Ken (lit. True: Heaven & Earth Supreme Spark Fist), removes the stunning effect, in place of blasting the opponent back; in The King of Fighters XIV and beyond, this is an instant wall splat.

Strategy
Back in its debut in KOF '97 and in KOF '98, the attack's base (DM) version was known to be a powerful raw damage attack, especially on a clean-counter hit. Though of course, it was the SDM/MAX Super version being well-known for not only doing less damage than the base version, but also packing the infamous instant-stun property.

With this in mind, this move is often a solid close-to-mid-range poke-punisher due to its fast startup, yet if whiffed Ryo can easily be punished himself as per the recovery (moreso than on block, which even then in most cases is still unsafe). At times however, Ryo upon connecting with the move may step back and strike a stance akin to his Gedan Uke parry, which only occurs upon an actual hit.

In subsequent games after 2001, the MAX Super version of this move is the only one that exists, and is often reserved as one of Ryo's highest-costing supers (mainly as an MAX Super-only move in 2001, 2002, Neowave and 2002 UM). However, there exist stronger variations of this move as of KOF XIII, being used as Ryo's strongest Supers in XIII, XIV and XV.