Street Fighter Zero

Street Fighter Alpha revamps the Super Combo system introduced in Super Street Fighter II Turbo by adding a three-level Super Combo gauge. Like in Super Turbo, the Super Combo gauge fills in as the player performs regular and special techniques. When the gauge reaches Level 1 or higher, the player can perform a Super Combo technique. The number of punch or kick buttons pressed simultaneously when performing a Super Combo determines the amount that will be used. In addition to Super Combos, the player can also perform a special counterattacking technique called an Alpha Counter (Zero Counter in the Japanese version) after blocking an opponent's attack, which consumes a level of the Super Combo Gauge.

There are two playing styles that can be selected after choosing a character: "Normal" and "Auto". Auto differs from Normal in that the character automatically guards against a limited number of attacks (provided the character is not in the middle of performing an attack). Auto also allows the player to perform an instant Super Combo by pressing a punch and kick of the same strength simultaneously, but at the expense of reducing the maximum level of the Super Combo gauge to one.

Six months after the World Fighting Tournament. The game tells the story of Street Fighter characters in their youth(including Final Fight characters) traveling the world and fighting each other in order to achieve their goals (being defeat someone else, or simple to reach an opponent). Each fighter has their own storylines, motivations, ambitions, final bosses, and endings.

Production for the game started in October 1994, after the release of Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors. The development team was given only three months to complete a game from scratch, but took six months to develop Street Fighter Alpha.

During the game's development, Capcom was buying back CPS-1 boards from arcades at the time in order to help sell the CPS-2 boards, a practice that Capcom was doing at the time, leading to a significant stockpile of CPS-1 boards. Street Fighter Alpha was initially developed for the older CPS-1 hardware in order to make use of the leftover CPS-1 stock, but was then later developed for the newer CPS-2 hardware when Capcom also had a significant stockpile of CPS-2 boards during the CPS-1 to CPS-2 transition. Both versions were developed simultaneously with each other, with the CPS-1 version having several differences from its CPS-2 counterpart such as a different-sounding soundtrack with less sound effects, among others. The creation of a CPS-1 version of the game also allowed Capcom to sell the game to arcades that could not afford the upgrade to CPS-2 hardware, with publicity testing versions of the CPS-1 version of Street Fighter Alpha being released to the arcades in limited quantities.

In Japan, Game Machine listed Street Fighter Zero as the second most successful arcade game of July 1995. It went on to be the second highest-grossing arcade game of 1995 in Japan, below Virtua Fighter 2. In North America, RePlay reported Street Fighter Alpha to be the most popular arcade game of August 1995. In the United Kingdom, it was among the nineteen best-selling PlayStation games of 1996, according to HMV.

Reviewing the arcade version, Computer and Video Games praised the improved sprite graphics and innovative gameplay features such as the revamped Super Combo system and the new Alpha Counter mechanic. The review said it is "fast, exciting, visually explosive and for our money a dead cert hit." A critic for Next Generation criticized the game's lack of major changes from previous iterations of the series, but concluded, "Capcom's right, in a way. Street Fighter only needs subtle changes for now; it's already got the most important thing: great gameplay."

Street Fighter Alpha was followed by two sequels: Street Fighter Alpha 2 in 1996 and Street Fighter Alpha 3 in 1998. Like Alpha, the two games were originally released for the arcades, followed by a few upgraded editions and home versions. All three games in the series and their variations were included in the PlayStation 2 compilation Street Fighter Alpha Anthology, released in 2006.

A manga adaptation based on the original Alpha and Alpha 2 by Masahiko Nakahira was published in Gamest game from 1995 to 1996, and was later adapted into English by UDON in 2007. Two different animated adaptations were also produced: Street Fighter Alpha: The Animation in 1999 and Street Fighter Alpha: Generations in 2005.