Eddie "Skate" Hunter, known as Sammy Hunter in Japan, is a playable character from the Streets of Rage series. He is the teenaged, kid 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
Personality
Skate/Sammy is a typical teenager at heart. Possessing the latest style, the latest lingos in speech, and slightly rebellious. He looks up to his big brother, Adam, as he is also his mentor, and trains in martial arts alongside him. His warm acquaintance towards Axel and Blaze turns to loyal allies in order to save his older brother's life in SOR2. His bond with the others continues in SOR3.
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. 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. They found a photo of Adam, in chains, laying at the feet of Mr. X. Realizing his older brother had been kidnapped by the Syndicate, Sammy joined Axel and Blaze 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 Sammy to represent him. Sammy was slow to trust Dr. Zan, believing he was plotting to lure them into a trap.
Gameplay
Signature moves
- Migraine: grabbing an opponent from behind, Eddie/Skate jumps onto the opponent's shoulders and lands 6 punches on his/her head, causing moderate damage. In SOR3, the migraine comes out quicker, but with less damage.
Skate is only vulnerable to another opponent's jumpkick, high kicks, uppercuts etc.. This move is effective when correctly timed. If timed correctly, skate may give multiple opponent's headaches.
Fighting Style
Eddie "Skate" replaces Blaze being the new agile fighter for SOR2. His basic jump is that of a few somersault and is the only character in SOR2 that can evade quickly; skate.
Much like Blaze in the original, his agility makes him vulnerable to opponent's counter attacks.
Character Evolution
Game Appearances
Trivia
- Adam's "OOAHH!" soundbyte from SOR1 lives on, as it was raised in pitch and given to Sammy.
- Skate's Corkscrew was actually in a early version of Bare Knuckle III (with slightly edited sprites) before being fully replaced. There are several SOR fan hacks that have replaced his rushing Special attack (>,A) 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.
- He resembles the playable character from the game DJ Boy, another side-scrolling beat 'em up. This arcade game, developed by Kaneko, was later published by Sega on the Mega Drive. In fact, 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 BKIII/SOR3 that can throw Big Ben (Bongo in Japan version) without being damaged.
- For reasons unknown, Skate is the only playable character to not have an SOR4 design, nor even a bio detailing his present wherabouts.
Sprites
