Weapon-Flipping Technique

The ***Weapon Flipping Technique*** (sometimes abbreviate WFT) is a type of Super Special movement in the Samurai Shodown series that only can be used when certain requirements are meet during a match. Also known with names like Knocking-on-the-Sword, Weapon-Flying Technique, Weapon Skip Deathblow, and best known in Japan as **Weapon Flying Deadly Technique** (武器飛ばし必殺技, *Buki Tobashi Hissatsu Waza*?), this super move was originally found in the 1995 video game *Samurai Shodown III: Blades of Blood*, replacing the Weapon-Breaking Techniques from *Samurai Shodown II* and becoming the staple of the Super Special moves, appearing in each new release of the franchise onwards.

## Concept

The Weapong-Flipping Techniques are movements performed by the characters that are more colorful and powerful than any other of their special moveset, showing a huge display of power through flickering lights, automatic combos, or fast routines made by the character. Also, the stage background darkens a little or change to grey-scales to emphasize the moment. Although sometimes the amount of damage inflicted by this super special technique could be ironically less compared to a Strong Slash the game rewards the player that hit successfully, and penalizes the affected opponent. Like any regular or special move, the Weapon-Flipping Technique can be blocked by the player simply holding back the joystick/directional pad, but they should take chip damage. Most of these techniques can hit multiple times, so if the player removes the blocking can receive damage and be knocked down.

## Use

To perform the Weapon-Flipping Technique first the player must have the Rage Gauge at MAX or Rage Explosion active (from *Samurai Shodown IV* onwards). Then the player is able input the command (when character is facing right):

* *Samurai Shodown III* – character-specific command. It appears on-screen above the Rage Gauge (directions of the joystick/directional pad are inverted on Player 2 side).
* *Samurai Shodown IV* –    **+**   Applies for all characters.
* *Samurai Shodown V* / *Special* / *Perfect* -  **+**   Applies for all characters.
* *Samurai Shodown VI* -  **+**   Enable when using Spirits III, IV, V, VI, and VII. Applies for all characters.
* *Samurai Shodown (2019)* -  **+**   Applies for all characters.

When a player is successfully hitting opponent the Rage Gauge returns to its initial state, and after the Weapon-Flipping Technique animation finish the affected character fall knocked-down and losses his/her weapon, which is dropped to the ground. As expected the character with bare hands will be unable to do most of his/her Special and Super Special moves, but then can perform the classic, defensive command called Barehanded Sword Snag. After stand-up the opponent is able to retrieve the weapon just to moving to the weapon's location and press Light Slash (A button in NeoGeo layout).

If the player is unable to hit the opponent with the Weapon-Flipping Technique (whether the player fail all the hits or if the opponent was able to block all the way) the Rage Gauge will continue at MAX (except in *Samurai Shodown VI* using Spirit VI), so the player can adopt the classic strategy of spam this super special move to keep pression or catch the opponent off guard.