Skate (formerly known as Skate 4) marks the return of the franchise and promises to be one of the biggest skateboarding games. Full Circle recently released a trailer for the Skate gameplay update, showing the game in a “pre-pre-pre-alpha” state. One of the highlights of the trailer is the attention to multiplayer. At some point, sixteen players can be seen on the screen, and there is a chance that even more players may be added. But what does this mean for multiplayer game modes?
The Skate franchise is not used to multiplayer gameplay. One of the most famous game modes is Hall of Meat, which will undoubtedly return to Skate in some way. In this mode, the goal is to fall off the board and break the bones of the player character to score points. This has been a favorite mode since Skate 2, and it was popular among YouTube creators, which led EA to print more copies of Skate 3 back in 2014. The new landscape of multiplayer games is likely to affect how EA will approach the game.
Skate developers can draw inspiration from games like Fall Guys and the recently announced Kirby’s Dream Buffet. There are many possibilities for a version of the Hall of Meat mode in the fun and playful style of these games. Previous Skate games featured a single-player approach to competitive modes, where each player could view each other’s attempts, gaining a high score. Maybe the mode could go into a crazy mode like Fall Guys, which could be a refreshing take on Hall of Meat.
Skate can evolve in Hall Of Meat and other modes
Some of the footage in the trailer shows the players doing parkour. This gives the impression that Full Circle is laying the groundwork for some game modes like Fall Guys, which pass by Hall of Meat and other established modes in Skate. The trailer also says that one of their goals is to give the player “more freedom, more ways to express themselves.” Considering that Full Circle is building a huge multiplayer playground for skateboarding, this may mean that modes such as Freeskate can take the form of a sandbox with the ability to create customizable “home” skate parks, similar to the cots in Los Santos in GTA Online. CallaboZones, which the development team showed at their latest Board Room demo, are already demonstrating how such a feature can evolve, allowing multiplayer players to create a park together.
There is also potential for a battle royale type mode in which the player stays on their board. Traditional Skate competitions require you to score as many points as possible in the allotted time, and when players do not score enough points, they are eliminated. You can use a mode in which the playing area narrows during the match, like a storm in Fortnite. It can even be counted as the evolution of the Meat Hall.
There are no current estimates of when Skate will be released. The trailer confirms that the studio is working on it, and admittedly it’s at a very early stage of development, so it’s best to expect a long wait. Meanwhile, Full Circle has created a program where players can register to test the game before its release.
