He's been in Alpha 3, and as a character, has a legacy older than the competitive SF scene itself with Final Fight. He's also fun to play as.

I just like Cody because he was the first character I picked in Final Fight, and I actually do like his story. Not the cliche hero saves city/girl, lives happily ever after. He actually becomes a tragic hero and adopts a reckless lifestyle of fighting and mischief, but still retains his inner goodness (In taking out the bad guys). Plus, I rocked with him in alpha 3 and he's pretty much my secondary character in SSF4.

I like him in alpha because one of his supers references his final fight infinite, which is awesome! Why that didn't make it to SF4 I will never know.

I like him because he was great in Streetwise, so was Guy.

Only thing i don't like about Cody is that prison outfit. Looks so lame on him. His final fight alt is better even if it's generic.

And um, he does mad damage in SSFIV. Like stupid amounts of damage. Plus he probably has the game's best frame traps.

Because he's bored...that's honestly what turns me off of him, it's such a stupid reason to become a villain.

Couple that with lame outfit, dumb fighting style, and generic badass attitude and you have a pretty unlikeable character in my book. I'm sure he was better in Final Fight but in SF he's dumb.

Apparently I'm alone in thinking that though, but that's fine. People can like who they want. =P

In Final Fight, he was pretty generic but it was the 80's, so who cared really? The decade was full of cheesy action heroes (John McLean excepted)

But let's be frank here, no fighting game character has really compelling or original stories behind them even if they're likable. I like Kazuya for example, but he's a bit of a cliche.

I think the only character that struck me as hilarious and original was Skullomania in the first EX. An under-performing salesman turn vigilante superhero Too bad Arika owns the character because he really would've been an excellent addition to the modern SF's. Arika's characters overall weren't bad at all, and perhaps overshadowed the original SF cast.

Yo, Blazblue.

Yo, couldn't care less/not compelling/ not quite original. Typical anime cheese in my view so, point stands which by itself isn't a bad thing. Fighters are one of the purest gaming experiences where story really doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things.

Heck, one of my favorite games of all time is TTT and it doesn't even have a story.