[5] The player can then perform any series of basic and special moves to create a Custom Combo until the Timer Gauge at the bottom of the screen runs out.

In addition to the Alpha roster, Alpha 2 includes Dhalsim and Zangief, both from Street Fighter II, Gen, an assassin from the original Street Fighter, Rolento, a member of the Mad Gear gang who originally appeared in Final Fight, and newcomer Sakura, a Japanese schoolgirl who takes up street fighting after witnessing one of Ryu's battles.

[7] The game also features a "classic-style" alternative version of Chun-Li where she is wearing her outfit from the Street Fighter II series.

In Alpha 2 some new characters were introduced, so in order to maintain the game balance we had to increase the damage for the normal hits.

In addition, this time for Alpha 2 we wanted to focus on the importance of the normal hits and not just the specials.

All of the characters except Gen and Dan also have roles in the Canadian-American cartoon Street Fighter: The Animated Series.

In addition to Zangief and Dhalsim, Zero 2 Alpha also features EX versions of Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li (where she is wearing her outfit from the Street Fighter II series, similarly to the "classic-style" version of her), Sagat, and M. Bison, all of whom were characters from Street Fighter II: Champion Edition.

Some of the characters have gained new moves such as Ryu's Shakunetsu Hadouken and Dhalsim's Yoga Tempest.

He deemed the custom combos "an unprecedented, new, and complex innovation in Street Fighter gameplay", though he found some points of their implementation to be odd.

He concluded, "Although it's just another 2D fighter for those who aren't paying attention, this is a fine new addition for true hard-core gameplayers.

"[48] In the Japanese arcade magazine Gamest, Street Fighter Zero 2 was voted Best Game of 1996 in the Tenth Annual Grand Prize.

[40] The Saturn and PlayStation ports both received praise for their faithfulness to their arcade counterpart,[24][33][34][49][50] large selection of characters,[24][39][49][50] and replacement of the easily exploited chain combo system from the original Street Fighter Alpha.

[53] The Super NES version was much less well-received, with reviews commenting that the sound quality is exceptionally poor,[23][54] the animation is choppy,[22][23][54] and the overambitious graphics cause the game to play at an agonizingly slow speed, compounded by bouts of slowdown when performing special moves.

[23] Most critics were more forgiving, concluding that, despite the port's flaws, it was a decent buy for gamers who did not own a Saturn or PlayStation.