Short answers, pulled from the story.
Street Fighter Alpha 3 arrived in arcades on the 1st of July 1998. This release marked the end of the Alpha trilogy and the final statement from Capcom before the franchise shifted focus to Street Fighter III.
Street Fighter Alpha 3 features three distinct playing styles known as isms. The A-ism style retains the three-level Super Combo gauge, the X-ism style offers a single-level gauge with a devastating Level 3 Super Combo, and the V-ism style allows custom combos without Super Combos.
Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX brings the total playable character count to thirty-nine. This version includes Ingrid from Capcom Fighting Evolution and retains all frames and sprites from the original arcade release.
Final M. Bison serves as the true final boss of Street Fighter Alpha 3 with the special Shadaloo-ism meter. Evil Ryu and Shin Akuma also appear as secret bosses in the PlayStation version.
Famitsu magazine scored the Sega Saturn version 32 out of 40 and later 30 out of 40. The PlayStation version received 32 out of 40, while the Dreamcast version scored 33 out of 40.