Hhhhhmmmmm...... More than four years of Samurai Shodown drought. Ohh, Garapagos Design Team, where art thou??? With the advent restructure or even demise of SNK, the Garapagos Team (main designers/development team of Samurai Shodown) seems nowhere in sight. Have they moved on??? Dispersed??? Or are they just in deep DEV hibernation and biding their time in Samurai Shodown next generation development deep within SNK/Aruze??? I personally wished of the latter, don't you all fans agree???

Hope is about to die, me including, as the drought had been too long. the next generation system are in full spring mainly XBox and PS2. A next generation Samurai Shodown would really be awesome on these newer consoles and fans/gamers alike are itching to play Haohmaru with aesthetically upgraded looking Hangetsuzan move, Ikuze!!!! Yes fans, that'll be a sight to see. Imagine a Samurai Shodown Online RPG kinda like SEGA's Phantasy Star Online except with Haohmaru, Genjuro, Tachibana Ukyo, Hanzo, Nakoruru, Charlotte, Tam-Tam, Wan-Fu, Genan and of course, my perennial fave, Jubei Yagyu. Aaahhhh..... would love to see that particular sight and would be a recent dream come true, but for now, I'll just keep waiting for that glorious day (I still hope that it comes). Imagine an upgradeable, editable polygonal models of these warriors will be truly awesome and will be beyond compare. IMPO, would settle for an online next gen RPG version of Samurai Shodown game.

The one thing that's kinda kewl about the drought is, it makes you imagine some truly imaginative ways to somehow make a next game in motion. SEGA would probably come out with affordable DEV kits for amateur designers (like yours truly!) sitting under Window cE environment that will enable possible Windows developed Samurai Shodown version that could spring out of. I myself play around with polygonal models of Haohmaru and Genjuro (using LightWave 3D) which only needs an environment to place the models to interact with. Some are just content with writing fictional stories (myself included) to keep the spirit alive. If in the case that the team had branched out on their own, I hope they bought licensing rights to develop Samurai Shodown. Hell, Eolith/Brezza did with KOF. However, I do recognize it won't be easy, BUT SOMEBODY NEEDS TO DEVELOP SAMURAI SHODOWN!!! SNK and Aruze, don't let the series die, and die alone with sadness. Hear us gamers out, either develop a new one or sell the license rights for some up-and-coming DEV group to develop the game. A new Samurai Shodown needs to rise to the top of the gaming world again. Hell, us gamers sure have been deprived of the game too darn long. Even I want to develop it myself however long it takes just for me to play Samurai Shodown again (sure makes me wish I had the license to make the game along with a SEGA DC dev kit, Wavefront Maya, Kylix environment, Delphi 5 and DirectX 7).

So to finalize this piece, a shout-out to the Garapagos Team, or whatever the group is dubbed nowadays, wherever you awesome developers are at now (either still within SNK/Aruze or branched out on their own), PLZ!!!!! Develop a next gen Samurai Shodown game, RPG or Katana Battle Action. We don't necessarily care, just pump out some more of Samurai Shodown. Us fans really can't get enough of them and this drought has been way too long. If you guys are just in DEV hibernation and trying to develop a ground-breaking Samurai Shodown, I assure you, this drought will be forgiven, you guys are gonna be hailed as DEV gods, and us fans will be very, very, very happy indeed. Wherever Garapagos are at now, salute to all of you still, if I'm alone on earth that still hope for your return to Samurai Shodown development, so be it, I will keep hoping. Thank you for listening.

And last, but certainly not least, SAMURAI SHODOWN FOREVER!!!! SAMURAI SHODOWN IS IMMORTAL!!!