First appearance of Sakura, Evil Ryu, and Shin Akuma.
Both a sequel and a remake to Street Fighter Alpha: Warrior's Dreams (1995), which is itself a prequel to Street Fighter II: The World Warrior (1991) in terms of plot and setting.
First game to feature the hidden super combo simply called "The Raging Demon". Only Akuma (Gouki in Japan, Asia, South America and Australia) and Evil Ryu can perform it only with a level-3 "Super" gauge.
Dhalsim and Zangief's first appearance in an Alpha game along with the other Street Fighter II: The World Warrior (1991) characters like Chun Li, M. Bison and Akuma.
Rolento's first appearance in an Alpha game. Like Sodom, he was a boss character in Final Fight (1989).