Fans of EA skateboarding sim series Skate have begged and pleaded with the publisher to make Skate 4. It's been a long nine years since the last Skate game was released and fans would very much like its brand of analogue-stick-flipping skate gameplay to comeback.
EA has denied rumors that it is developing Skate 4, dashing fan hopes. However, that hasn't stopped fans from hoping Skate 4 will happen and it hasn't stopped us from putting together a wishlist of things we'd like to see from the game.
7 Skills and XP Progression
In the Skate series, all skaters are built equal. That is, they can all access the same tricks from the offset. For Skate 4 though, it would be good to see EA mix things up a little by adding skills and XP progression. When skateboarding in real life, there's a learning curve and learning how to do perform a Christ air could take months if not years of practice.
Skate 4 doesn't have to go that far, but adding skills and XP progression would help to give players a greater sense of accomplishment as they play more of the game. It would also help to keep Skate 4's community alive for longer, potentially longer than Skate 3, which still has content creators making videos about it today.
6 Real Story
After the player character stuck it to "The Man" in Skate 2, defying authorities who didn't want skateboarding in their city, players headed to Port Carverton where the whole story was about selling skateboards. While it was great fun becoming a global, merch selling superstar, there are countless other skateboarding sims that offer that fantasy.
Skate 4 could really shine by giving players a new skate narrative, one where they go on an adventure looking for a mythical skating artifact or an alternate universe where only a small group know about skateboarding and the player must educate the world. It doesn't have to be a hard hitting drama but having faced the monotony of a board sales graph, any sort of narrative would do.
5 Custom Merch Designing
For a time, Skate 3 did offer custom merch designing. Players could use EA Nucleus, EA's social gaming effort, to create custom t-shirts. However, EA Nucleus no longer exists meaning that a well-liked gameplay feature isn't available.
EA could bring it back for Skate 4, though. A bit of moderation would have to be added, so that EA can keep the series' Teen rating from the ESRB, but it would be a super simple way to let players get creative with their characters.
4 Bail Challenges
One reason to love the Skate series is its bail gameplay. Bailing in Skate doesn't just mean a botched trick, it means a gnarly and macabre X-ray that shows the player character's innards. It's gruesome but it's also wildly entertaining and Skate 3 bail compilations are partly why the series has stayed popular for so long.
In Skate 4, EA could easily turn the game into a viral sensation by creating bail challenges where players must pull off the sickest, grossest, most freakish calamities by bailing off of their boards. As well as being brilliant fodder for streamers and YouTubers, it would give one of the series most-loved features a chance to really shine.
3 Streamer Features
If EA wants Skate 4 to be popular with the content creation crowd then it could take things further than bails. Skate 4 streamer features could provide viewers with a way to affect how the streamer is playing. This would help streamers get new fans and give them another reason to play the game for longer.
Some suggestions for streamer features are viewer challenges which can then be upvoted by chat before going into the game, a bit like Twitch Plays Pokemon but for Skate 4. Viewers could also make changes to a course, adding new obstacles as the streamer tries to get more points in a playthrough.
2 Iconic Skate Locations
While Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series was geared to a more casual audience, Skate fans are very much into the real-life skate scene. EA could lean into this by putting legendary skate locations into Skate 4, allowing players to skate at some of the world's most famous skate spots without hopping on a bus, a plane, or a train to really get there.
The ramps under the bridge in Burnside, Portland would be a good place to start, followed by the graffiti tagged ledges and ramps of the Southbank Skate Space in London, and the flip tricker's paradise of MACBA in Barcelona. EA may have to pay for licensing, though, which is the biggest challenge to getting these skate spots in the game.
1 Famous Skate Fans
Those asking EA to make Skate 4 have had some very famous supporters. Rapper Tyler, The Creator has supported calls for EA to make Skate 4 and would be a great choice if EA was going to add famous characters to the game. Other celebrity skaters are Zac Efron, Justin Bieber, and Miley Cyrus.
Maybe EA could get Tony Hawk to make a cameo too. In 2018, Hawk revealed that he's no longer working with the Pro Skater series meaning that EA could swoop in and sign him up to be the Skate brand ambassador, or just to star in Skate 4 as a playable character.