This is a sad story, but one I thought should be told.  My favorite video game series is Samurai Spirits (Shodown in the US).   I can remember when it first came out, I was so excited about it!  The beautiful characters, the setting (Tokugawa Era Japan) the intricate storyline, I loved it.  The first Samurai Spirits game I ever owned was for my Sega CD.  Of course, my Neo Geo owning friends, not understanding that I could not afford a Neo Geo will mock the Sega CD conversion of Samurai Spirits.  But I loved it, my favorite characters were Hanzo, Gen-An and Ukyo... but unlike most fighting games, I loved _all_ the characters.  Of course, I never was able to beat the Sega CD game, it tended to crash before I could manage it.  But I had a lot of fun with it.

Well, after a while I got a Playstation, and I got Samurai Spirits III for it.  I loved this game, but after I got it I noticed all the video game magazines making a mockery of it.  "It's too slow!" said some, "It isn't as good as the Neo Geo version," said others.  Some Neo Geo fans bashed the game, thinking it shouldn't be for the Playstation at all, but only for the Neo Geo.  Well, all this negativity didn't make me dislike the game, but the people did take some of the joy out of owning it for me.  After all, I knew it wasn't perfect... but I still couldn't afford a Neo Geo CD.

Well, of course, I heard about all the other Samurai Spirits games which were coming out for the Playstation, Samurai Spirits 1&2 on one disk!  A Samurai Spirits role playing game! And, of course, Samurai Spirits 4, in which the noble Amakusa Shiro Tokisada once again takes his rightful place as ruler of darkness.  Well, I waited for a US release of all of these games... and waited some more... and waited some more.  I didn't read any news about them in game magazines, and thought, "Wow, these games are taking a long time to develop!"  Then a friend of mine told me a rumor, that SNK had decided to give up the US market.  I hoped it wasn't true... but it sure seemed like it.

During the summer of 1998, I had been staying with my cousin in Virginia, I went into a store called Starland.  Now, where I come from (Englewood, Florida) import games can only be bought by mail order, you can’t just walk into a store to buy them. (Well, I don't know of any.)  But this store was different, it had many Japanese games.  I saw Samurai Spirits 1&2! I saw Samurai Spirits 4! Both games were out  for Playstation, but they were imports and I realized that I would have to modify my Playstation (or buy a Japanese one) if I wanted to play them.  Well, I bought Samurai Spirits 1&2 (for $80.00) and I intend to go back to buy Samurai Spirits 4.  But what of the RPG, which I had anticipated so highly?  Well, I guess I’ll have to skip it, since I can’t read kanji.

Well, it is a shame, because only these games would ever push me into buying imports, up until now, I had always been willing to put up with the imperfect US game market, but no more!  I will not be denyed my favorite game series just because they don’t seem to be popular in the US!

But it is a shame about the RPG, which looked so wonderful to me, and which I now think I’ll never be able to play.  I get the gleam of the true fanatic in my eyes and think, "I wonder if they offer courses in Japanese at my local college... then I’d be able to play the Samurai Spirits import RPG... HaHaHaHaHa..."

(Well, I really am thinking about it... for lots of reasons, but you could say that the Samurai Spirits RPG is the final straw.)

The End.