1998 saw the release of Street Fighter Alpha 3 in arcades. As well as bringing back everyone from the previous game, it has several new fighters, including Cody from the original Final Fight. Cody has changed a lot since we last saw him, as his back story reveals he's been getting into so many fights he got himself arrested. One day, he managed to escape from prison and immediately goes on the lookout for bad people to beat up. The game introduces the "ISM" system. There are three different ones available, with X-ISM disabling air blocking and only giving your character one super in favor of increased attack power, A-ISM being the standard option and V-ISM letting you use custom combos. Selecting X-ISM with Sodom will equip him with his katanas, just like he had in Final Fight.
Edi. E will sometimes appear, in one of Cody's victory poses. Cody will see him and runny off the screen, then Edi. E runs on, yells out "Cody!" and chases after him whilst firing his handgun. Occasionally, Cody will then run back onto the screen and kick Edi away! Once again, Guy's stage has several Final Fight cameos, although nowhere near as extensive as in the previous game. Andore, Poison, El Gado, Axl and Haggar are all in the background. There is also a sign behind the Andore that says Mega Man on it, which is of course another Capcom series.
Cody and Guy have a special intro, which only seems to work in the one player mode. Cody will start smashing barrels that are in his way, whilst a load of barrels fall around Guy. Guy will then do his whirlwind kick to destroy them all, and his health bar will deplete slightly. He will then pick up some gum off the floor to fill his health bar back up. In the console ports, the gum is a roast chicken instead. Cody's stage is set at a prison, and there is a poster of Hugo on the right side.
Street Fighter Alpha 3 was ported to the Playstation and Dreamcast, along with a Japanese exclusive SEGA Saturn version. These versions all included additional characters and other features. The game was also on the Playstation 2 exclusive Street Fighter Alpha Anthology, and is also one of the games on the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection, which is available on PC, Playstation 4, Nintendo Switch and Xbox One.
