[1] Though several other characters were also initially considered for inclusion from the Street Fighter II roster, particularly Ken and Chun-Li, the development team instead chose to focus on a mostly original cast.

Yasuda designed the character, leading to the creation of Elena, which helped solidify the development team's vision for the rest of the game's roster.

[2][1] Meanwhile when choosing a protagonist, they selected an American character, Alex, as they felt martial arts were more popular at the time in America and wanted to target that audience.

Other issues arose from a lack of software support to develop for the CPS-3 hardware, and the amount of detail the higher resolutions demanded of the designs.

[3] Alex (アレックス, Arekkusu) is a wrestler from New York who first appears in Street Fighter III: New Generation, and his design and character are based on Hulk Hogan.

[5][6][7] Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact[8] retcons New Generation, but Alex's story stays the same, but he now has a rivalry with Hugo, a German pro wrestler of extreme height.

Dhalsim then tells Alex that big things will happen to him in the future, foreshadowing his role as the main character of the Street Fighter III series, and teleports away.

Early versions of his character established him as a police officer that used to be a professional wrestler, influenced by how popular the World Wrestling Federation (later renamed WWE) was at the time.

[5][21] In Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact,[22] he fights outside a London pub called the Sherlock Holmes, while Knightsbridge tube station and the Harrods department store can be seen in his 3rd Strike background.

[26] At the start of the series he is the President of the Illuminati, a secret society that has controlled the underworld for thousands of years and seeks to turn the whole world into a utopia by causing an armageddon.

Her initial design was drastically different, consisting of a short haired muscular girl with glasses, wearing an outfit similar to Guy from Final Fight, another character he had developed.

Her unique ponytail proved a bit of a problem for the animation team, as to do it properly she had "1.2 to 1.3x the character data" of other fighters, requiring several months to complete with Sadamoto himself helping at the end.

[3] In the plots of the original Street Fighter III and 2nd Impact,[34] Ibuki is sent by her clan to retrieve a mysterious "G file" from Gill's organization, the Illuminati.

In 3rd Strike,[35] she is shown preparing to graduate from high school and is studying for her college application exams, hoping to move away from home to enjoy a normal campus life and find a boyfriend.

[38] In her prologue story, Ibuki finally finishes her ninja assignment and is informed by her friend Sakura about the party invitation sent from her rival Karin Kanzuki.

"[52] Martin Robinson of AskMen stated "ninjas might be ten-a-penny in videogames, but none are as effortlessly cool as Ibuki" and added that she "is one of a handful of characters worth salvaging from Street Fighter III.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, he wanders off from his home village and into the vicinity of Moscow, where he comes into contact with Gill's organization, which remodels his DNA to turn him into a living weapon, granting him superhuman flexibility.

In his ending, he is tricked by Gill and left for dead in a facility, until he is rescued by a young girl named Effie (エフィー, Efī), and the pair go on a journey together.

[61] The development team found his design easily to build around, but with 3rd Strike they focused on improving the character's gameplay and adding more leg-based techniques to help subtly differentiate him further from Ryu.

He was made a playable character in the game's fifth season, in which he confers with Rose and Dhalsim about this lingering Psycho Power left behind after M. Bison's defeat.

In particular they wanted to emphasize his white headbang, in contrast to the red headband that was exclusive to the Street Fighter Alpha series of games that had released during New Generation's development.

In 3rd Strike,[75] Sean is allowed to participate in a martial arts tournament, but Ken tells him that his current skills will not even get him through the preliminaries and that he needs to develop his own style.

In his 3rd Strike ending, Sean dreams that he has won the championship title, but in fact he loses in the qualifying rounds as a result of his lack of training.

[78] In Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike,[79][80] Yun and Yang set off to fight a mysterious organization (Gill's group, the Illuminati) threatening to take over their village.

In particular their designs were built around the parry system, a new gameplay element unique to Street Fighter III, and they were given kung fu as a martial art to highlight this aspect.

[3] Hugo (ヒューゴー, Hyūgō) is a member of the Andore family, recurring enemies in the Final Fight series whose designs are based off real life professional wrestler Andre the Giant.

Ian Walker from Kotaku noted that Urien was popular with players in both casual and competitive spheres of Street Fighter III due to his distinct look and abilities.

Remy (レミー, Remī), who first appears in Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, is a young turquoise-haired savateur from Paris who seeks revenge against his father, a martial artist who abandoned him and his sister.

[66] Twelve (トゥエルヴ, Tueruvu) is a humanoid creature with a solid white body, and has a rounded head that features black eyes and a thin mouth.

[95] Paste's Elijah Gonzalez attributed some of the series' cult favorite status to how the cast was made up of "oddball characters [...] each with a distinct look that catches the eye" that was emphasized by how well the game's pixel art expressed their personalities.