Eddie "Skate" Hunter

Eddie "Skate" Hunter
Gender	Male
Occupation	Student
Fighting Style	Street
Height	147 cm
Weight	40 kg
Games	Streets of Rage 2 Streets of Rage 3 Streets of Rage 4

Eddie "Skate" Hunter, known as Sammy Hunter in Japan, is a playable character from the Streets of Rage series. He is the younger brother of Adam Hunter from the original game, and first appears in Streets of Rage 2, along with Max Thunder, to help Axel Stone and Blaze Fielding look for his kidnapped brother.

Biography

Appearance

In his Streets of Rage 2 debut, Skate wears a typical breakdancing attire, consisting of a red basketball cap worn backwards, red fingerless gloves, stainless steel chain necklace, a yellow tanktop tucked into white jeans shorts, and his trademark red and yellow rollerblades (which grant him great speed in combat).

Skate returns in Bare Knuckle III mostly unchanged, though now his jeans shorts are in a shade of bluish-white, and beneath the yellow tanktop he wears a short-sleeved black shirt, which is tucked into the shorts while the tanktop now flows freely outside. In the American version, Streets of Rage 3, Skate's color scheme has some changes: his red rollerblades, gloves and cap are all sky-blue, and his yellow tanktop is now red.

Personality

Skate is a typical young man at heart: possessing the latest style, the latest lingos in speech, and slightly rebellious, though with sharp street-smarts which prove to greatly help his friends in critical times. He looks up to his big brother, Adam, as a role model and mentor, who trains in martial arts alongside him. Skate's warm acquaintance towards Axel and Blaze turns to loyal allies in order to save his older brother's life in Streets of Rage 2. His bond with the others continues in Streets of Rage 3.

Story

Streets of Rage 2

Eddie lived in the city with his brother, Adam, who had returned to the police force after the events of Streets of Rage. One day, when he returned from school, he found his house a total wreck, and there was no sign of Adam - instead, attached to the front door of the house, he found a photo of Adam chained to a wall at Mr. X's feet. He tried to call the police, but no one at the station had seen Adam that day. He then called Axel, who came over with Blaze to investigate. Realizing his older brother had been kidnapped by the Syndicate, Skate joined Axel, Blaze, and Max Thunder, long-lasting friend to Axel, to rescue his older brother from the Syndicate's clutches.

Streets of Rage 3 / Bare Knuckle III

When Dr. Zan revealed the Syndicate's latest plot, Adam was unavailable due to his duties to the police, so he sent Skate to represent him. Skate was initially distrustful towards Dr. Zan, believing he was plotting to lure them into a trap.

Streets of Rage 4

Skate does not appear in the story of Streets of Rage 4, his primary role as the light, fast fighter instead being taken over by his niece, Cherry Hunter. Both his Streets of Rage 2 and Streets of Rage 3 appearances are unlockable and playable. According to the developers, Skate is now grown up, due to the game's timelines takes place ten years after the third game.

Gameplay

Skate is the fastest character in the series, as well the smallest, meaning his small hurtbox means he can sometimes avoid getting hit by attacks that would hit other characters otherwise. To compensate his fast movement and attack speed, he has poor range and low damage output.

In his debut in Streets of Rage 2, Skate is the only character that can dash, by pressing forward twice. In Streets of Rage 3 all characters can perform a dash, but Skate boasts from having the second fastest after Shiva's.

Blitz Attacks

• Flying Headbutt: Skate's Blitz attack has him perfoming a jumping headbutt towards his targets. This move covers larges distances, complementing Skate's poor range in his normal attacks.
• Inline Rush: the alternate Blitz attack unlockable in the DLC for Streets of Rage 4, and exclusive to Streets of Rage 2 Skate. He performs a dash attack that launches enemies in the air.
• Ground Roll: the alternate Blitz attack unlockable in the DLC for Streets of Rage 4, and exclusive to Streets of Rage 3 Skate. He rolls along the ground, hitting opponents multiple times Very fast and can keep enemies from touch the ground if used repeatedly.

Defensive Special Attacks

• Spinning Attack: Skate's Defensive Special (neutral A) shows his breakdancing capabilities. He spins on his back, kicking opponents around him. This move is fast and reliable, being great when surrounded or flanked.
• Cannonball: the alternate Defensive Special Attack unlockable in the DLC for Streets of Rage 4, and exclusive to Streets of Rage 2 Skate. He propels himself forward like a ball, knocking enemies away. Looks very similar to Blanka's Rolling Attack from the Street Fighter series.
• Get Off Me: the alternate Defensive Special Attack unlockable in the DLC for Streets of Rage 4, and exclusive to Streets of Rage 3 Skate. He'll punch enemies around him similar to his Skating Fist Fury, but without moving. Deals more damage than his Spinning Attack at the cost of lower range.

Offensive Special Attacks

• Corkscrew Kick: Skate's Offensive Special (forward + A) in Streets of Rage 2, where he jumps high in the air and descends spinning, hitting multiple times. Notably Skate's slowest move, but which also deals the highest damage.
• Skating Fist Fury: Skate's Offensive Special in Streets of Rage 3, where he dashes forward while flailing his arms, hitting multiple times. Much faster than his Corkscrew Kick, while covering more distance, although dealing significantly less damage.
• Somersault: the alternate Offensive Special Attack unlockable in the DLC for Streets of Rage 4, and exclusive to Streets of Rage 2 Skate. He performs a quick flying kick forward, which looks similar to his Back Attack.
• Flash Kick: the alternate Offensive Special Attack unlockable in the DLC for Streets of Rage 4, and exclusive to Streets of Rage 3 Skate. He performs a quick flying kick forward, which looks similar to the last hit of his normal combo.

Star Moves

• Breakdance: Streets of Rage 2 Skate's Star Move featured in Streets of Rage 4, where he performs his Spinning Attack multiple times while sliding through the ground, hitting all enemies in its path.
• Drilling Strike: the alternate Star Move unlockable in the DLC for Streets of Rage 4, and exclusive to Streets of Rage 2 Skate. He performs a horizontal version of his Corkscrew Kick, hitting all opponents in the way multiple times.
• Ground Roll Smash: Streets of Rage 3 Skate's Star Move featured in Streets of Rage 4, where he rolls along the ground, hitting opponents multiple times, and ending with a somersault kick.
• Human Cannonball: the alternate Star Move unlockable in the DLC for Streets of Rage 4, and exclusive to Streets of Rage 3 Skate. He'll propel himself high in the air and crash on the ground, causing an explosion. The player can control his trajectory while in mid-air.

Notable Attacks

• Migraine: when grabbing an opponent from behind, Skate jumps onto the opponent's shoulders and delivers six punches on their head, dealing moderate damage. In Streets of Rage 3, this move is significantly faster, but deals less damage. Skate nearly invulnerable when performing this attack due to his hurtbox being so high, meaning that only high attacks from opponents can hit him (jumpkick, high kicks, uppercuts).

Game Appearances

• Streets of Rage 2
• Streets of Rage 3
• Streets of Rage 4

Sprites

Streets of Rage 3

Gallery

Streets of Rage 2

Streets of Rage 3

Skate's bio from Streets of Rage 4.

Trivia

• Adam's "OOAHH!" soundbyte from Streets of Rage 1 lives on, as it was raised in pitch and given to Skate.
• Sammy's Corkscrew Kick was actually in a early version of Bare Knuckle III (with slightly edited sprites) before being fully replaced. There are several Streets of Rage modders that have replaced his Skating Fist Fury with his signature Corkscrew Kick.
• An unknown Skate taunt/gesture is located inside the Bare Knuckle III sprite tiles. It is unused ingame, and the exact usage has not been determined.
• Sammy is depicted as being older in Bare Knuckle III, despite his cutscene spriteset being arguably younger looking.
• Skate bears some resemblance with the Donald J. Boy, the playable protagonist from the game DJ Boy, a side-scrolling beat 'em up for released in 1989 for arcade machines. Developed by Kaneko, DJ Boy was later published by Sega on the Mega Drive/Sega Genesis.
  • Sega changed the in-game name of the character from "Sammy" in Bare Knuckle 2 (Japanese release) to "Skate" in Streets of Rage 2 (U.S. release); American Sammy licensed the arcade game for U.S. distribution. Skate is the character's nickname in both incarnations; his first name in the non-Japanese versions is given as Eddie.
• Skate and Shiva are the only two characters in Streets of Rage 3 that can throw Big Ben without being damaged.
• Skate is the only playable character to not have an Streets of Rage 4 design, nor even a bio detailing his present whereabouts. According to the game's developers, this was a conscious decision since due to the time skip between the third and fourth games Skate would now be an adult and thus redesigning him to reflect this would make him look too different from his older design.
  • Another reason is because the development team didn't want to commit to a visual design (like Skate appearing in a cutscene) without thinking of his gameplay potential.