(Warning: Long)

In a theme titled Return of Doctor Zero (aka Doctor Dahm) this ‘would be’ DLC focuses on the characters who were not in Streets of Rage 4 as playable (Skate, Zan, Shiva, Max) with Estel being made playable as well.

So the big question that’s been posted around: Why was Skate not in Streets of Rage 4 and furthermore not even mentioned outside of his past appearances? It’s a good question. Skate was playable in two games and considering Roo at the very least gets a cameo it is very bizarre that Skate is basically treated as though he doesn’t exist.

Story Notes

There are two major possibilities I considered. In both cases however, Skate loses his legs and has them replaced with Zan’s cybernetics similar to Floyd that can be adapted and are more suited to fighting, so he can maintain his ‘rollerblade’ fighting style with some changes without it feeling goofy. Plus, he and Floyd can make jokes about being a complete person together.

1. Skate goes down a path of being a misguided or manipulated hero.

Going through what he did in Streets of Rage 2 or 3 would have likely changed him. Going back into a normal life as a teenager would have been tricky at best when he’s dealt with bombs, terrorist plots, his brother being kidnapped and more. When his brother basically disappears into both his new job and his family with Cherry he’s largely left to his own devices. Skate comes across more unfortunate people who had fallen through the cracks of a still corrupt police force. Sure there were reforms here and there, but nothing meaningful. He continues vigilante activities despite falling onto the wrong side of the law though he’s usually able to stay one step ahead due to friends of his brothers.

The rise of the Y twins is the last straw and all the corruption and such is too much. He concludes the only way to bring lasting peace to Wood Oak city is to control its underworld for himself.

Speaking from a writers point of view, this path is the more dangerous because it would inevitably have Skate and anyone he allies with have to face off against the heroes which some people might not like. Ultimately Skate would be manipulated by an ally who would end up being the ‘big bad’ who I thought would eventually be revealed to be Doctor Zero/Doctor Dahm and I picked him partly because he could be ‘Doctor Z’ to go with Mr X., Ms. Y, and Mr. Y and also because the old robot enemies weren’t in the game. Plus there's a lot of ways you could go with the plot when you involve Doctor Zero.

2. Skate leaves the country and only returns due to needing cybernetics from Doctor Zan

Like in version 1, Skate having gone through what he did would have likely caused some degree of grief or struggle to cope. However this time when Adam disappears into his job/family, Skate finds an opportunity and leaves the country. What that opportunity is I’m unsure but it’s the only reason I can think of about ‘why’ he wouldn’t get talked about because in this scenario tensions and disagreements between Skate and Adam would be high, requiring the pair to have space from one another.

Whatever Skate does do however, an injury would result which would normally force a man into a life in a wheelchair but then Skate remembers Doctor Zan and contacts him and asks for a favour knowing of the work he can do. Zan agrees on the condition that Skate do a favour for him in turn. The favour turns out to be investigating the disappearance of Doctor Zero after he escaped the asylum. With Blaze and friends busy with the Y twins, Zan had no one else to turn to and why Zan sent Floyd to assist Blaze rather than showing up himself.

Zan also gets into contact with Shiva who had reportedly reformed yet still had old contacts within the Syndicate and Shiva reveals that it’s likely Doctor Zero and the Y twins are working together in some capacity but suspects the two are just using each other and both plan to take Wood Oak’s underworld for themselves. Eventually they would be joined by Max, Estel and the other cast members once they were done with the Y twins. Roo I would have no problems with having an SoR4 character for either if so desired but at this point, it's almost a full game. It's easy to bloat ideas and I got no idea of the type of resources at their disposal.

I personally ended up preferring the second option, but the first came to me more easily simply because it was a good explanation as to why Skate was the relative that ‘we don’t talk about’. The second doesn’t feel as ‘right’ in that regard, but at least if Skate was out of the country, it’d be more of a reason that he doesn’t come up in conversation. Everyone present already knows what became of him and why he isn’t helping even if the audience doesn’t.

Moveset changes

Obviously being a 24 year old man, some moves of Skate’s are going to need to be changed. On the most part because he’s able to keep the skates, the changes are minimal. It’s possible he should be referred to in game as ‘Eddie’ or ‘Sammy’ depending on which version they go with but for now that’s neither here or there.

The major moves I think that would need changing are the ‘backdrop/migraine’ (behind grab and attack), the offensive special (he can keep corkscrew kick as his aerial special) and possibly the mid vault throws but the latter is one of Skate’s biggest gameplay identifiers and I wouldn’t want to remove it unless I had to.

Let’s start with the new backdrop. Rather than climbing on the back and punching, he would gain height (think like Cherry’s jump grab), then push off on the opponent using them as a platform to gain height. The opponent would fall back and anyone in a short distance would be also knocked backwards. From this height Skate can choose a direction to either land in a stomping motion which can hit the target he just knocked down or someone else. Alternatively he can also do the aerial special corkscrew kick in either direction. Pressing nothing at all will result in him simply landing on the ground but if this option is chosen Skate has more flexibility in where he lands.

For the offensive special, I had to think a little on this and there may be better ideas but this is what I got for now. Skate rolls around onto his back and uses his legs to launch his target into the air and then bounces up like a spring following his target up then pummels them back downwards hitting anyone below for significant damage. Attacking from this aerial position results in the stomp from the previous backdrop move, or alternatively again, a second special in corkscrew kick can be used or no input can be used for greater aerial mobility.

That’s all I got for now. Lemme know your own thoughts/theories, things you want/could change.