You did it wrong. Make sure your 0.9.4 folder is empty and delete your entire XVM folder, then install a fresh copy of 5.5.1.3. I just tried myself - when using only the new application.swf with an old version, the carousel breaks. When using the entire new version, the carousel is fine.
For the XVM team, in the future I really recommend making it clearer that not just application.swf (or whatever the file happens to be) has been changed in the patchnotes.
(for clarity, http://dev.modxvm.com/xvm/commits/39556737ccc2f10bb09cdedb63fd91e08307cac7#chg-src/xvm/src/xvm/tcarousel/UI_TankCarousel.as is the commit that changes the carousel. You can clearly see why it'd be broken. It looks like simply updating your xvm-tcarousel.swf file will fix this specific issue.)